John Kelly: Taking managed futures to the masses

摘要

Man Investments was at the forefront of taking managed futures from a small niche investment strategy to a larger audience and John Kelly, president and CEO of Man Investment Products, played a pivotal roll in the process. Kelly worked with Man in the early 1980s as a consultant in the Middle East before joining Man full time in 1987. He helped Man develop from a distributor of niche managed futures programs into the largest hedge fund company in the world. In 1983 Man formed a distribution relationship with New York-based Mint Investment Management, which was the first managed futures program to surpass $1 billion under management. Despite Mint's strong performance, Man had a difficult time selling investors on the idea of managed futures as an investment. "When we came out with these products and you pick up the phone and say we have a managed futures program, it was bang — you [hope you] didn't have your fingers near the phone," Kelly says.