Alison Aldrich, Controller
Alison Aldrich is the Controller for Rotella Capital Management. She manages all aspects of fund accounting and financial reporting. Ms. Aldrich is also responsible for the day-to-day operation of the firm’s back office. She oversees the accounting and back office systems designed to monitor and confirm accurate and timely financial reporting. Ms. Aldrich manages the implementation of the firm’s accounting and back office procedures and internal controls.
Ms. Aldrich joined the firm in 2005 as a member of the Accounting department.
She graduated from Spring Hill College with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Business Administration and a double concentration in Accounting and Computer Information Systems and received a Master of Business Administration from Seattle University.
Dean Crowder III, Managing Director | Global Head of Strategic Business Development
Dean W. Crowder III is the Managing Director | Global Head of Strategic Business Development for the firm. He leads Rotella’s overall sales and marketing efforts, manages investor relationships, and assists in strategic business planning initiatives as the firm leverages its deep experience in systematic investing. Mr. Crowder has represented hedge funds to global institutions in the Americas, Europe and Asia for over 21 years.
Prior to rejoining Rotella in August 2018, Mr. Crowder was Global Head of Business Development for Schultze Asset Management LP. Prior to joining Rotella, he founded Alpha Alternative Investments, LLC, a Texas-based RIA and represented select hedge funds and alternative investments to global institutions via an affiliation with Strait LLC. He held various senior marketing positions with leading hedge fund firms: Marketing Director at Vicis Capital, LLC, a multi-strategy volatility fund; Director of Marketing at Cotton Hall Asset Management, LP, a L/S European equity fund; Managing Director | Institutional Sales for Asia & Europe at Kenmar Global Investment Management LLC; and Director of Global Marketing at Alpha Investment Management, LLC, a hedge fund of funds founded by Nicolas Berggruen that was acquired by Safra Asset Management. While at Alpha Investment Management, LLC, he helped establish the hedge fund industry’s first managed account platform of hedge fund of funds and single hedging strategies for global institutions.
Mr. Crowder holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from Michigan State University.
Kenneth S. Koh, Chief Financial Officer & Chief Compliance Officer
Kenneth Koh is the Chief Financial and Compliance Officer of Rotella Capital and is a member of the firm’s Board of Directors. Mr. Koh oversees the firm’s overall finances and provides strategic management of the accounting, treasury and tax functions. He is also responsible for overseeing the firm’s compliance program and ensuring compliance with applicable laws, regulatory requirements, policies and procedures. In addition, he oversees the firm’s back office and human resources areas. Mr. Koh joined Rotella in 2006 as its Accounting Manager and has over 20 years of experience in the alternative investment management industry.
Prior to joining the firm, he spent 7 years working for real estate alternative asset management firms including Bentall Kennedy (formerly Kennedy Associates), Kennedy Wilson and KLS Real Estate in the accounting and finance areas.
He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Accounting from University of Oregon.
Brad Ostercamp, Chief Technology Officer
Brad Ostercamp is the Chief Technology Officer for the firm. He joined Rotella in 2001 and has been part of its core technology team for over 14 years. He oversees the trading execution, technology, database and network groups. While at Rotella Mr. Ostercamp has been part of the team responsible for rapidly evolving the technology the firm uses in trading and research, and he was a proponent of and key team member who took Rotella to the straight through processing ecosystem long before our competitors.
Mr. Ostercamp also was responsible for the team that built the firm’s state-of-the-art proprietary order management system that is capable of handling the wide variety of custom order types required by the research team. Additionally, he oversaw the team that built a sophisticated research and trading platform capable of handling high frequency data. He was heavily involved in providing an efficient and scalable grid computing environment.
Jagdeesh Prakasam, Chief Executive Officer
Jagdeesh Prakasam is the Chief Executive Officer of Rotella Capital and is a member of the firm’s Board of Directors. Mr. Prakasam oversees all aspects of the firm, including its investment, FinTech solution offerings and operations. He joined RCM in 2003 as a Researcher primarily focused on supporting the research efforts in portfolio construction, risk management, and overlay strategies for the firm’s core trading strategies. Mr. Prakasam was appointed as the firm’s Chief Executive Officer in 2019. Prior to that he was the Co-Chief Investment Officer alongside Mr. Rotella since 2014. Mr. Prakasam has been managing various portfolios ranging from intraday to intermediate-term holding periods across both futures and equities spaces.
Mr. Prakasam graduated from Dharmsinh Desai Institute of Technology, Gujarat, India with a Bachelors Degree in Chemical Engineering and received a Master of Science degree in Finance from the Stuart School of Business, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago. His undergraduate thesis was on the application of Artificial Neural Networks on Heat Exchanger Network Synthesis using C programming. He also has been a Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst designee since November 2007.
Robert Rotella, Founder & Chairman
Robert Rotella is the Founder of Rotella Capital and is the Chairman of the firm’s Board of Directors. He was one of the early pioneers in the systematic trading arena. Mr. Rotella began his trading career in 1982 and started writing computer programs and trading independently in 1985. He began trading the Polaris program in 1990 with Commodities Corporation, arguably one of the most successful incubators of traders including Louis Bacon, Paul Tudor Jones, Bruce Kovner and others.
In 1994 he moved to Singapore and worked as a senior trader for Commodities Corp. and Orix Corp. He launched Rotella Capital in 1995, moving to Chicago in 1997. Mr. Rotella’s 1992 book The Elements of Successful Trading was the first trading book to identify three critical elements to trading – Method, Money Management, and Psychology.
Mr. Rotella graduated from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Chemical Engineering in 1978 and received a Masters of Business Administration Degree at Temple University in 1980.