Elementum Advisors' DeCaro and Cebula Visited Dr. Krause's Classes on December 3rd

John DeCaro and Chris Cebula (AIM '09) of Elementum Advisors visited Dr. Krause's Fixed Income class and the AIM program on Friday, December 3. Elementum is an independent, SEC-registered alternative investment manager specializing in collateralized natural event reinsurance investments ("Risk-Linked Investments" or "RLI"). The firm is located in Chicago and focuses on natural event exposed investment - from liquid catastrophe bonds to high-alpha collateralized reinsurance investments.

Hurricanes

Elementum was launched in December 2009 by John DeCaro, Tony Rettino, and Mike France. The principals have worked together in the Risk-Linked Investment arena since 1995. Prior to founding Elementum, they worked together in the Reinsurance and Risk-Linked Investments group at Stark Investments, a leading multi-strategy hedge fund in Milwaukee. Elementum’s team includes all of the former members of the group at Stark, as well as a former member of Stark’s Business Development team.

Severe storm

Dr. David Krause, AIM program director said, "John DeCaro and Chris Cebula did an excellent job in the classroom today. They talked about catastrophe bonds - a very challenging topic. Catastrophe bonds are fixed income instruments where the principal and coupon interest are exposed to severe but infrequent catastrophes (e.g., hurricanes and earthquakes). They discussed risk linked investments and the practical application of how cat bonds trade and are valued."

John DeCaro

John C. DeCaro, CFA is a Founding Principal and Portfolio Manager at Elementum. He is responsible for the firm’s portfolio construction, investment selection, tactical trading and hedging. Prior to launching Elementum, he co-managed Stark Investments’ Reinsurance and Risk-Linked Investments team from September 2005 through November 2009. John has 12 years investment experience managing a variety of reinsurance and risk-linked investment strategies. John earned a B.S. in Finance from the University of South Carolina and an M.S. in Financial Markets and Trading from the Illinois Institute of Technology, and received the Chartered Financial Analyst designation in 1997.

Chris Cebula

Christopher J. Cebula joined Elementum as an Analyst in June 2010.  Prior to Elementum  he worked in an Operations/Trading Assistant role at Phalanx Capital Management, an asset management company based in Chicago.  Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Marquette University''s Applied Investment Management Program in June 2009.  He is a member of the Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst Association and has passed Level II of the CFA examination. Chris has also passed both Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst exams.


Dr. Krause commented, "The students were fascinated by the material presented by John and Chris today. It was clear that John DeCaro is one of the top cat bond specialists in the business today. While these are complex instruments, John and Chris did an excellent job explaining them and giving real examples. We are pleased that they were able to join us."