Hedge Funds Care

The Founder

Rob Davis, Partner at Merlin Securities

Rob is a Partner at Merlin Securities, a broker dealer that offers prime brokerage services to the hedge fund community. The Firm has been recognized in surveys conducted by Global Custodian Magazine and Alpha Magazine for its outstanding proprietary portfolio reporting technology and is also the recent recipient of an investment by the private equity firm, Sequoia Capital.  Rob began his prime brokerage career as part of the senior management team that built the highly successful prime brokerage business at Montgomery Securities, which through acquisition became Banc of America Prime Brokerage Services. While there he served as Managing Director and National Sales Manager. Between Banc of America and Merlin, Rob was the Chief Operating Officer of the hedge fund company, SDS Capital Group. Prior to prime brokerage, Rob enjoyed a successful institutional equity sales career calling on investors in New York and Boston for firms including Morgan Stanley, Dillon Read and Oppenheimer.

It was while at Montgomery in 1998 that Rob conceived of and founded Hedge Funds Care (HFC), the industry charity dedicated to the prevention and treatment of child abuse which has become a global movement in more than twelve cities and four countries.  At the time, there was much negative press about hedge funds due to the collapse of Long Term Capital. Rob felt that someone should try to pull people in the industry together to do something to counteract all the bad press and accomplish something great for children at the same time. The idea was to both cast the industry in a more favorable light and do something good in the process. He determined that rather than just talk a good game as usual, that he should try to make it happen himself and he set about doing so. Rob chose saving children from the trauma of abuse as the cause that would be served. He had witnessed the terrible effects of child abuse in his first job as an elementary school teacher, and felt it was the issue he could be passionate about in asking industry colleagues to join together for a common cause.

Putting that first evening together was a great example of all the stars aligning and the universe providing. It was a great success that led to a second then a third and so on. On February 13, 2008, HFC sponsored its 10^th annual, “Open Your Heart to the Children Benefit”, in NYC. In addition, events are now held in Chicago, Minneapolis, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Denver, Boston, Toronto, Grand Cayman and London with several more potential branches on the drawing board. The funds raised in each branch are donated through a rigorous grant selection and evaluation process to organizations in that area focused on preventing child abuse and providing treatment to those who have been victimized. More information about how it works can be found on the website at www.HedgeFundsCare.Org.

One of the many beauties of HFC is the way it dovetails perfectly with business, which in this case (the Hedge Fund industry) is after all the ultimate networking and referral business. What better way to network and develop relationships than in the consciousness of protecting children. As a result, every moment spent involved with HFC also serves a fundamental business goal.

That was one of the many unanticipated and serendipitous surprises that have allowed Rob and so many others to focus time and attention on what has become an amazing organization. From the nearly 50 person Global Board to the 7,000 plus hedge fund industry people who participated in some way last year, HFC now serves as a way to bring together philanthropy and business in a wonderful symphony of harmony that has saved many children and families. The journey has just begun.

To contact Rob, please e-mail him at robdavis@optonline.net.