After BNP Paribas acquired Cooper Neff in 1995, Mr. D’Elia was asked to develop Cooper Neff’s program trading business in Sydney, Australia. That business quickly became the most profitable business for BNP Paribas’ Australian branch. In 2000, Mr. D’Elia became global co-head of Cooper Neff’s program trading, relocating to Paris where he spent the next two years managing and evolving the business.

During this time the global group was responsible for managing over $20 billion for BNP Paribas; Mr. D’Elia led his European team to become the most profitable trading desk in the group. Mr. D’Elia returned to the United States in July 2001, where he spent the next three years working on the continued development of Cooper Neff’s program trading operations, finally integrating the group into BNP Paribas’ Equity Derivatives platform in New York in 2004.

Robert Jarrow
Director of Research

Robert Jarrow joined AJ Sterge Investment Strategies, LLC as director of research. He will be employed in a part time capacity in order to maintain his Professorship at Cornell University, where he has been teaching since 1979. At Cornell University, Professor Jarrow is the Ronald P. and Susan E. Lynch Professor of Investment Management at the Johnson Graduate School of Management. He graduated from Duke University in 1974 with a degree in mathematics, received an MBA from Dartmouth College in 1976, and a PhD in finance from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1979.

Anqi Liu
Assistant Portfolio Manager

Mr. Liu joined AJ Sterge Investment Strategies with 12 years experience in catastrophe risk analysis, reinsurance and finance. Prior to joining AJ Sterge, Mr. Liu was employed in the underwriting department of Endurance Reinsurance Corporation of America, where he was Senior Vice President of Underwriting. Mr. Liu’s responsibilities included underwriting, portfolio management, and developing new businesses and insurance products. Prior to joining Endurance, Mr. Liu had analyzed and rated various special reinsurance companies and insurance-related structured finance products for the Structured Finance Group of A.M. Best Company.

Prior to A.M. Best, Mr. Liu managed catastrophe risk portfolios in the Insurance Strategy Group of Lehman Brothers and was a research and catastrophe modeling consultant with Applied Insurance Research.

Mr. Liu is a Charted Financial Analyst and holds a Ph.D. with a focus on earthquake risk from the School of Engineering of The Johns Hopkins University. He also has a Master of Engineering from Tsinghua University of Beijing and a B.S. from Tongji University of Shanghai.

Kathleen Rode
Director of Client Relations

Kathleen Rode is in charge of client development and relations at AJ Sterge Investment Strategies, joining the firm after spending four years with the Cooper Neff Group. As Vice President of Marketing she handled the firm’s client relations and assisted in new client development. Ms. Rode also managed Cooper Neff’s public relations and branding campaigns. Prior to joining Cooper Neff, Ms. Rode spent six years as Manager of Client Relations, Sales and Service at Genesis Health Ventures. She is a graduate of Rosemont College with a B.A. in communications.

Andrew J. Sterge
Chief Executive Officer

Andrew Sterge founded AJ Sterge Investment Strategies after 15 years at the Cooper Neff Group, the last four of which serving as the firm’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Sterge’s new company will manage pioneering investment strategies in insurance risk and various segments of the equity and fixed income markets.

Mr. Sterge joined Cooper Neff & Associates in 1989 as Director of Options Research. In this position he developed options pricing models which captured the effects of fat-tailed and skewed distributions, as well as investors’ relative risk aversion for the downside versus upside insurance aspect of options. Mr. Sterge was promoted to Partner in 1993.

Peter H. Vloedman
Portfolio Manager

Peter H. Vloedman joined AJ Sterge Investment Strategies after spending three years at Cooper Neff managing that firm’s Risk Linked Asset funds, strategies dedicated to catastrophe bonds and other insurance-linked securities. Mr. Vloedman specializes in catastrophic insurance risk with a focus on natural catastrophes. He has over thirteen years of experience in structuring and analyzing securitized and traditional insurance risk transfer products. From October 1997 to January 2002 Mr. Vloedman was a senior underwriter with LaSalle Re Limited, a Bermuda-based property catastrophe reinsurer. He was responsible for analysis and management of LaSalle’s global catastrophe reinsurance portfolio, implementing new analysis techniques and underwriting standards. Mr. Vloedman also led LaSalle’s portfolio optimization and hedging efforts, using a combination of traditional reinsurance products and innovative securitized risk financing techniques.