The new effort will be focused initially on advising institutional investors on the sale on the secondary market of hedge fund interests and hedge fund illiquid assets, as well as advising managers on hedge fund restructurings. It will gradually expand to other corporate finance advisory services for hedge funds and their institutional investors.

"This is an exciting strategic development for Cogent', says Brenlen Jinkens, managing director at Cogent Partners. "There are significant synergies between the private equity and hedge fund institutional investor base. Pascale's expertise and knowledge of the hedge fund industry will allow Cogent to consolidate its position as the global leader in secondary market investment banking across the alternative asset management industry."

Alvanitakis-Guély has 20 years of advisory experience as a banker and a strategy consultant focusing on banks, insurers, asset managers, hedge funds and private equity groups. She recently set up Audentis Partners, a hedge fund-focused advisory company, and was formerly a managing director of Lehman Brothers in London responsible for advising hedge funds on private equity transactions and on their corporate finance activity including selling stakes, raising permanent capital or taking their businesses public. 

Prior to joining Lehman Brothers in 2000, Alvanitakis-Guély worked at Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, UBS and Arthur Andersen.

'Hedge fund investors face unprecedented challenges' says Alvanitakis-Guely.'The secondary market for hedge funds is an important part of the solution, but the market is still under-developed and relatively unstructured. There is a compelling need for specialist, independent advice to help structure larger and more complex transactions.'