Ari Bergmann PhD

Managing Principal, Chief Investment Officer

Ari Bergmann is Penso’s Founder and Managing Principal/CIO. He leads the firm’s investment committee and manages various Penso funds and clients’ mandates.

Dr. Bergmann founded Penso Advisors, LLC in early 2010 to offer systemic risk management and implement hedging strategies for asset managers and institutional investors through managed accounts. Since its founding, Penso has expanded its services to include management of discretionary global macro and risk mitigation strategies through private funds and bespoke funds of one.

Between 1997 and 2010, Dr. Bergmann was CEO of Sentinel Advisors, LLC, manager of the Citadel Master Fund (derivatives arbitrage); Sentinel Symphony, LLC, manager of the Symphony FOHF (multi-manager fund of hedge funds) and Penso Capital Markets, LLC, manager of risk overlays.

Prior to his role in overseeing these firms, Dr. Bergmann was employed at Bankers Trust from 1989 to 1997. In 1989, he joined Bankers Trust’s U.S. Interest Rate Derivatives trading desk and managed this unit during 1992 and 1993. During this period, he was active in the development of structured notes, index-amortizing swaps, time swaps, binary options and other derivative products. From late 1993 until his departure in 1997, he headed the Risk Merchant Bank and the Transaction Development Group at the bank. He founded the latter to integrate Bankers Trust’s finance and derivative capabilities to offer enhanced corporate finance products to corporate clients. In this capacity, he led a team that created a derivatives structure that was widely used in the privatization of many large European companies. He also developed derivatives and trading strategies used by several corporations in the implementation of strategic acquisitions. During his tenure at Bankers Trust, Dr. Bergmann was a Senior Managing Director and a pioneer in the field who helped create and implement the initial swaps on hedge funds.

From 1987 through 1989, Dr. Bergmann was an Assistant Vice President at Drexel Burnham Lambert Trading Corp., working in precious metals and commodity trading. From 1986 through 1987, Dr. Bergmann was a staff accountant at Price Waterhouse in New York.

Dr. Bergmann holds a Master’s in Liberal Studies and a Ph.D. in Comparative Religion, both from Columbia University.