An institution that recently added to the roster of training programmes in financial services is , which in April this year launched its Executive Hedge Fund Program in Hong Kong, a concept developed with Steve Bernstein, chief executive of SinoPac Solutions and Services, and a veteran of the hedge fund business. The programme is established by the International Capital Markets Association (ICMA) Centre at Henley Business School. The programme runs from September this year to February 2016.

It isn’t just the hedge fund sector where Henley might be involved in future, however. This publication has been told on numerous occasions that there is a need to keep pace with demand for private bankers and other wealth managers. , for example, said earlier this year that there are an estimated 7 million millionaires in the Asia region. (See here for its comments on technology.) On the assumption that a banker can on average handle 35 clients, that would translate into a need to have 200,000 private bankers. But at the moment there are only around 10,000 such people. Maybe the team at Henley could see an opening into wealth management more broadly?

Neil Logan, director of Asia-Pacific at the Henley Business School and who runs executive MBA programmes and other executive programmes for firms in the region, explained his thinking about hedge funds and financial sector training in general.

“If this works for hedge funds we will look at other opportunities in financial services,” Logan said.

“I think the industry is very much focused on the here and now. It is a very fast-moving industry with markets fluctuating suddenly on a daily if not hourly basis. It is clear that any training for the industry needs to be practical, relevant and current. Teaching models created five, 10, 20 years ago however relevant may not capture the attention or imagination of the industry participants. What this ,” he said.

Course participants have a significant amount of time with key industry professionals based in Asia, who will deliver the latest industry thinking, and share new information and practices. Logan said the business school will take the programme to mainland China, Singapore, and then London and New York, possibly.

Logan argues that the calibre of the course speakers serves as its own recommendation. Advisors and industry speakers include Steve Bernstein; Anna Stephenson, Chief Operating Officer of SinoPac Solutions and Services; Phil Tye, Director, HFL Advisors; George Saffayeh, Partner, Financial Services, Ernst & Young; Rex Chan, ex-Fidelity Investments and a Hong Kong based portfolio manager; Stuart Somer, Director of Complyport (HK) and; Alan Leigh, Managing Director, Asia Pacific Business Controls Executives, Global Banking & Markets, Merrill Lynch (Asia Pacific). These are, in short, heavy-hitters.

Bernstein, one of the main figures in the programme, is certainly an impressive-sounding figure. Something of a Renaissance Man, Bernstein has a passion for music, starting a music media company, Zenbu Media, in 1998. Bernstein published magazines including Relix Magazine, Global Rhythm Magazine, Metal Edge Magazine and Metal Maniacs Magazine, among others. He has also produced large music events in the US, Hong Kong and Japan including The Jammy Awards (Madison Square Garden theatre) and The Green Apple Music & Arts Festival. He discovered and now manages Japanese teen guitar sensation, Yuto Miyazawa and has managed Chris Baron (The Spin Doctors) and Ivan Rutherford (Les Miserables). On top of all that, Bernstein co-founded “Wear Your Music” The Guitar String Charity Project and is involved with other charities including FoodLink Hong Kong, The Rex Foundation and Rock and Wrap It Up.

In Logan’s case, there is not quite so much music but he has held his present role at Henley Business School since 2013 following a period from March 2007 to February 2013 where he was that organisation’s director of international business ad prior to that, from 2000 to 2006, where he was a senior consultant at the management consultancy firm VIA International.

The Henley venture is part of a slowly growing, but now significant, amount of financial sector training and development in Asia and worldwide, with institutions such as the National University of Singapore, for example, prominent in Asia, and a number of banks, such as , also running courses. This publication recently interviewed the CFA Institute chief executive Paul Smith about training issues (examination results have been issued for the summer season by that organisation). (To view that interview, see here.)

Changing attitudes
One of the mindsets that the course tries to dislodge is, Logan says, the “acceptance that no one individual, company or even country is ever really in `control’ of events”.

“What we can do in this programme is arm on the Executive Hedge Fund Program, to ensure what is taught is current and has genuine impact on individuals and organisations,” he said.

The programme stemmed from an approach Bernstein made to the business school about co-creating a programme; school mainly deals with investment banking, real estate finance, risk management and related fields.

What hedge funds are
There is a need to educate a variety of people – including those in private banking and wealth management – about what hedge funds are the issues in the industry, he said.
 
“A lot of people have or had a narrow perspective on hedge funds,” Logan said. By the nature of their jobs, auditors, lawyers, accountants and tax specialists have to know what hedge funds are but their level of knowledge tends to be restricted; there is a market to broaden and deepen their knowledge, he said.

“The programme has been well-received in the industry, starting in Hong Kong,” he said. He said the business school will take the programme to mainland China, Singapore, and then London and New York, possibly.

“The financial sector has been quite poorly served by education,” he said, explaining that one of the problems was in persuading highly paid executives to give up their pay for life in academe; also, firms tended to do in-house training that was geared for specific results.

The programme is designed to be more “practitioner-friendly” rather than be a very academic, high-end course.

The hedge fund industry “is growing in Asia very rapidly and is drawing a lot of people, some have experience in financial services but not in hedge funds”, he added.