Investment Team

Our foundation is our people.  ARIS Capital offers investors an experienced, focused and collaborative team.  Each member brings a unique background to the firm, with extensive hands-on experience in portfolio construction, risk management, operations, legal and intellectual integrity which strengthens the quality and depth of our process and enables the team to evaluate investment opportunities from a variety of different critical perspectives.

Jason Papastavrou , Ph.D. — Founder and Chief Investment Officer

Prior to forming ARIS, Dr. Papastavrou founded and was managing director of the Fund of Hedge Funds Strategies Group at Banc of America Capital Management (“BACAP”) and president of BACAP Alternative Advisors.  From 1999 through 2001, Dr. Papastavrou was a senior portfolio manager for Deutsche Asset Management (“DeAM”).  Following the merger with Bankers Trust in 1999, DeAM elected to build its internal fund of hedge fund capabilities and made Dr. Papastavrou their first hire.  His tenure saw a period of unprecedented growth, as assets under management grew from $700 million to $4.5 billion.  From 1997 to 1999, Dr. Papastavrou was the portfolio manager for a Swiss family office with hedge fund investments exceeding $1 billion.  Dr. Papastavrou began his professional career as a professor of industrial engineering at Purdue University from 1990 to 1999.  He received tenure as well as numerous teaching and research awards, including the Research Initiation Award by the National Science Foundation and the highest Purdue teaching honor, the Charles B. Murphy Award.  His main research and teaching focus was on decision making under uncertainty.  He has published over twenty reviewed papers in academic journals.  Dr. Papastavrou earned his Ph.D. and Masters Degree in electrical engineering and a Bachelor’s degree in mathematics, all from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.  His research focused on decision making under uncertainty.

Apostolos Peristeris , Esq. — Chief Operating Officer/CCO and General Counsel

Mr. Peristeris is Chief Operating Officer, CCO and General Counsel of ARIS Capital Management, LLC.  His responsibilities include heading operations, compliance and legal, performing qualitative due diligence on investments and sitting on ARIS’ investment committee, where he provides direct input in all investment decisions.  Prior to joining ARIS, from 2000 to 2003, Mr. Peristeris was an Attorney-Manager with Compuware Corporation, a multi-billion dollar firm where he was responsible for strategic business development, structuring and negotiating transactions and leading deal execution.  From 1998 through 2000, Mr. Peristeris was an Associate with Gourwitz and Barr, PLLC where he practiced in the areas of general corporate and financial transactions.  Mr. Peristeris began his professional career with Gourwitz and Barr while he was still completing his juris doctorate and was responsible for research and diligence.  Mr. Peristeris received an M.B.A. and a B.A. from the University of Michigan and was the starting punter for the University of Michigan football team.  He also received a J.D. from Wayne State University School of Law.  He is a member in good standing of the New York and Michigan State bars.

Jeff Baehr  — Director of Research

Prior to joining ARIS, Mr. Baehr was a consultant at The World Bank, where he worked in the Pensions division with the fund of hedge funds group.  In that capacity, Mr. Baehr performed qualitative and quantitative due diligence on hedge funds, and assisted in the development of internal proprietary models while also conducting research on a variety of projects focusing on risk management of fund of hedge fund portfolios.  Prior to the World Bank, Mr. Baehr served as an intern at both Deutsche Bank Advisors and Carlyle Asset Management, where he was directly responsible for the development of internal infrastructure and a variety of analytical tasks.  Mr. Baehr began his professional career as a member of the development team for Strategic Financial Solutions, the firm responsible for the creation of Pertrac, the hedge fund industry’s leading source for hedge fund analytics.  Mr. Baehr graduated from The George Washington University, Cum Laude in philosophy with general honors.

Evangelos Arvanitis — Risk Manager (Marfin)

Mr. Arvanitis is responsible for monitoring portfolio positions and exposures.  Mr. Arvanitis is head of the risk department at Marfin Egnatia Bank (global successor of Marfin Bank SA) and a board member of the bank’s portfolio management subsidiary.  Prior to that, Mr. Arvanitis headed the quantitative credit, insurance and risk research team at Paribas worldwide, which he founded in 1997.  His responsibilities included the development of pricing, hedging and risk management models for credit derivatives, convertible bonds and insurance derivatives.  He was also responsible for optimizing the economic capital of the fixed income division, covering market, credit and operational risks.  Previously, Mr. Arvanitis was a vice president in the derivatives modeling and the emerging markets departments at Lehman Brothers in New York .  He has also spent time in structured products at BZW in London , specializing in tax efficient transactions.  He has had various papers published in both professional and academic journals, his main subject being the pricing and management of credit risk.  He is the co-author of the: “Credit: The Complete Guide to Pricing, Hedging and Risk Management”, (London: Risk Books, May 2001), which has become a bestseller.  Mr. Arvanitis graduated from The University of Athens in physics with honors.  He continued his studies at the University of California , where he received an MA in Economics and the doctoral programme in finance at the University of Chicago .

Marietta Bakopoulou — Senior Analyst (Marfin)

Ms. Bakopoulou is responsible for manager sourcing and due diligence.  Ms. Bakopoulou is head of Alternative Investments in Marfin Egnatia Bank (global successor of Marfin Bank SA) and is responsible in developing the bank's portfolio in alternative investments specializing in the hedge fund industry. Prior to Marfin Egnatia Bank she was an Assistant Vice President of Dubai Financial, member of Dubai Investment Group based in Dubai , UAE.  Ms. Bakopoulou was responsible for developing the company's hedge fund portfolio and focused on manager research and due diligence.  Prior to that, Marietta was a senior hedge fund analyst and member of the fund management team of Fix Financial Advisors, the Greek office of Fix Asset Management.  She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics and Finance, with a major in Money Markets and Capital Markets, from the National University of Athens.

Giancarlo Camerana — ARIS Capital (Suisse) SA

Mr. Camerana joined ARIS as a strategic partner responsible for business development and is heading the establishment of ARIS Capital Suisse, SA in Geneva .  Prior to this, Mr. Camerana was Chairman and CEO of Fincam Invest AG, a provider of wealth and investment management services to high net-worth individuals and institutions.  Prior to this, he was President of Banque Bipop in Paris and Co-founder of Bucephale Asset Management (BAM) in Dublin, a leading provider of investment advisory services for the Alternative Investment sector, and Director of Bucephale Investment Management in Geneva, an independent asset management company which was the investment advisor of CreInvest AG, the first listed company on the Zurich Stock Exchange investing in hedge funds.  Prior to this, Mr. Camerana was a Director of EIM, a leading provider of investment management and advisory services in the hedge funds industry where his responsibilities included the management of multi-manager portfolios and institutional marketing.  Mr. Camerana has held other senior positions during his distinguished career at Swiss Bank Corp, and E.F. Hutton.  Mr. Camerana studied economics at Université Libre de Bruxelles in Brussels and the Université Catholique de Louvain and completed the credit training program with Chase Manhattan Bank in New York .

David Nanidzhanyan — Analyst

Mr. Nanidzhanyan is responsible for manager sourcing, due diligence, internal reporting and database management.  Prior to joining ARIS, Mr. Nanidzhanyan worked as a business analyst at Automatic Systems Design Corp, where his responsibilities included analyzing project profitability, business expansion and development ideas, and researching competitors.  He also served as an intern at Merrill Lynch, where he assisted a stock broker in investment ideas and generating client leads.  Mr. Nanidzhanyan graduated from New York University Magna Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and a minor in Russian.