Michael Stone
Chairman
Michael Stone was the former CEO and then Chairman
of E D & F Man Ltd., a 230 year old global sugar and
commodities trading company, which, under Michael's chairmanship,
added fund management to its portfolio in 1982 and went Public in
1994.
In 2000 Michael led a buy-out of the commodities division from
Man Group (now a FTSE 100 Company). He became non-executive
chairman of the commodities business, E D & F Man (Holdings)
Ltd., which continues as a private company today, majority owned by
its employees.
Michael Stone and his family are no longer shareholders in Man
Group or E D & F Man (Holdings) Ltd., and has retired from any
role in either company after 46 years with them. He now lives in
Gloucestershire and has interests in several local businesses and
has been High Sheriff of the County and remains a Deputy
Lieutenant.
Ean Kuok
Ean Kuok represents the interests of The Kerry Group
a multi-billion pound conglomerate controlled by Malaysian Chinese
businessman Robert Kuok, with interests in hotels, property, media,
and food stuffs across Asia. The Kerry Group is the controlling
shareholder of three listed companies in Hong Kong: Shangri-La, the
Asian luxury hotel chain; Kerry Properties; and South China Morning
Post, Hong Kong's leading English newspaper. In addition to
holdings in listed companies, the Kerry Group also has substantial
unlisted businesses, including an edible oils business in China; a
regional logistics and warehousing business; and palm oil and sugar
plantations and refineries in Southeast Asia. Kerry is Coca-Cola's
bottling partner in several territories in China.
Ean has been with the Kuok Group since 1978 and is a Director of
Kerry Group Limited and Kerry Holdings Limited, the major
investment holding companies of the Kuok Group based in Hong
Kong.
Ean is a graduate of Nottingham University with a Bachelor's
degree in Economics.
Michael Sofaer
Michael founded Sofaer Capital, the first hedge fund
management company in Asia, in 1986. He launched the Sofaer Capital
Global Hedge Fund in 1987 and the Sofaer Capital Asian Hedge Fund
in 1989. He has been managing the Global Fund, latterly in
conjunction with his brother Philip, ever since. At the same time
he has been the prime driver behind the expansion of the business.
Before his career in the hedge fund industry, Michael was a
securities analyst with Schroders in London and then headed up the
research department in Hong Kong.
Michael has a BA Economics and Political Science from McGill
University, Montreal.
Bob Falconer
Group CEO
Bob joined Gamma as COO in early 2003, taking up the
position of CEO in June 2004.
From 1987 to 1994 Bob was the global telecoms manager for ICI
(prior to the de-merger of Zeneca), developing a global internal
business unit providing consistent network services to ICI's
businesses, JV's and trading partners worldwide.
From 1994 to 2002 Bob was a Director of Racal Telecom, with
responsibility for all operational and technical aspects of the
business, including the successful integration of BR-Telecom (the
privatised telecoms arm of the UK Railway) and other major public
and private outsourcing contracts. Following the sale of the
business to Global Crossing in 2000, Bob was the VP responsible for
business development and UK operations.
Bob's early career was at BT's Research Laboratories where he
took a lead role in the development of multi-service networks,
fault-tolerant systems, and patents for high reliability
synchronisation systems.
Bob is a graduate of Heriot-Watt University and a Fellow of the
IEE.
Gerard Sreeves
Group CFO
Gerard has worked for over 22 years in
the telecoms industry in various finance and commercial roles,
having held positions with Vodafone and Nortel Networks. Gerard
joined Gamma in 2002 as CFO and is responsible for all elements of
financial management throughout the group including legal,
commercial and billing operations.
Gerard is a graduate of Birmingham University and qualified as
an ACMA.