Patrice Courty – Moneta Asset Management
Patrice is a graduate of HEC business school, class of 1986. He started his career in equity sales for Société Générale in Paris, from 1986 to 1988. He moved to Cholet Dupont, in equity sales, from 1988 until 1998. Between 1997 and 1999, he was European Equity Sales Director of Crédit Lyonnais Securities in London. From 1999 until 2000, he managed the Athos Fund at Athos Fund Management in London. From 2001 until 2003, he managed the Totem Fund at Malo Fund Management in London. Since 2003, he is co-director of Moneta Asset Management where he manages the Totem and Moneta Long Short funds.
Matthias Desmarais - Oddo & Cie Group
Matthias Desmarais joined the Oddo & Cie Group in March 2014 as Head of Equity Research. Oddo Securities has offices in Paris, Lyon, Frankfurt and Tunis and is the largest independent research company in France. Matthias Desmarais oversees a team of financial analysts covering close to 400 listed companies, of which 180 are French and 130 are German.
Before joining Oddo Securities, Matthias Desmarais was at Exane BNP Paribas where he headed Research in Paris, whilst leading the Leisure & Services team
Matthias Desmarais started his career in 1999 as Investment Banking Analyst at BNP Paribas Corporate Finance, first in Hong Kong, then in Tokyo. From 2001 until 2004, he specialised in the Hotels and Leisure sectors, first at JP Morgan Securities in London, then at CDC Ixis Securities in Paris. From 2004 until 2007, he oversaw the Hotels and Leisure teams at SG Securities in Paris.
Matthias Desmarais is a graduate of Panthéon-Assas Paris 2 University in Bank and Finance and has a master in audit & consulting of ESCP Paris.
Didier Le Menestrel – La Financière de l'Echiquier
Didier Le Menestrel is a graduate from the Institut Supérieur de Gestion and the Centre de formation à l'analyse financière. In 1991, he co-founded La Financière de l'Echiquier (LFDE), which has become in 25 years one of the foremost independent asset management companies in France, with €8bn of AUM. The firm is wholly owned by its employees. After a succesful career as fund manager and head of investment team, Didier Le Menestrel is today the Chairman of LFDE. He is also a member of the Société française des analystes financiers (SFAF) and a member of the Association française de gestion (AFG) Strategic Committee.
Vincent Strauss - Comgest
Vincent Strauss has over 35 years' investment experience, 20 of which were gained with Comgest. He graduated from the HEC business school (Lausanne) and holds a DEA in Economics. He started his career at Crédit Commercial de France and was responsible for the firm's institutional operations. In 1982, he joined Banque Indosuez (Paris) as a portfolio manager supervising the Pacific Basin markets. He was a Director at Batif before moving on to Multifinance International. Vincent joined Comgest in 1994 and is today Chairman of Comgest Global Investors (the Comgest Group's holding entity) and CEO of the Comgest Group. Vincent is one of the lead portfolio managers of Comgest's Global Emerging Markets and Global Equity strategies.