The R-Squared Team

Jason MacQueen

Managing Director

In 1980 Jason MacQueen founded QUANTEC, which was the first firm to develop risk models for equity markets outside the USA, and which ultimately built risk models covering all of the developed and most of the emerging markets.

In 1984 QUANTEC launched the first global asset allocation model, which included currency hedging overlays and the first use of reverse optimisation for efficient portfolio rebalancing. Jason also pioneered the development and use of multi-factor stock selection models in both the U.S.A. and Japan.

In the late 1990s he helped to develop the first truly global risk model and a global stock selection model, both incorporating global common factors.

In 1997 Alpha Strategies was set up to offer bespoke quantitative investment consulting services, which included the development of a statistical risk model-based technique for the American Stock Exchange to enable them to offer Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) on Actively-managed Mutual Funds without knowing the underlying holdings.

QUANTEC was sold to Thomson Financial in February 2001, and after consulting to them for two years, he co-founded R-Squared Risk Management in 2003 to develop Customised Hybrid Risk Models and a Portfolio Risk Management system for institutional investors to enable them to manage their portfolio risk more efficiently. He has also developed a Risk Management Overlay system which can be used to manage and eliminate the unwanted risks in actively-managed funds in order to optimise the portfolio return-risk trade-off.

Since founding QUANTEC in 1980 Jason has developed the theoretical framework of Markowitz and his successors into a practical set of tools for institutional fund managers.

He was educated at Oxford and London Universities, where he read Mathematics and Theoretical Physics. He was a Visiting Professor at Tokyo University’s Center for Advanced Research in Finance in 2006, and is an Honorary Lecturer in Accounting and Finance at Lancaster University. He is also Chairman of the London Quant Group, a not-for-profit organisation established in 2007 to arrange Seminars on the practical application of quantitative investment technology.
 

Gillian Sinkinson

Finance Director

Gillian Sinkinson joined R-Squared in 2007. She is a Chartered Accountant with a talent for identifying a business’ strengths and weaknesses.

Having qualified with Grant Thornton nearly 30 years ago, Gillian later set up her own highly successful practice where she acquired a diverse portfolio including companies, regulated clients, owner-managed businesses as well as professional practices.

Subsequently merging her firm with top 10 UK accountancy and advisory firm RSM Tenon (previously Bentley Jennison), an independent member firm of RSM International, the 6th largest global accounting network.

What makes Gillian so sought after is her ability to translate raw figures into real and achievable business success. Gillian now brings that talent to R-Squared as Finance Director.

Gillian also serves as a Non-Executive Director and Chair on the board of South Gloucestershire NHS Primary Care Trust.
 

Richard J. Young

Technology Director

Richard Young was the head of Research and Product Development at QUANTEC Ltd.

He was additionally a consultant to Thomson Financial Ltd in practical uses of Monte Carlo simulation and applications of quantitative methodologies.

Richard was also a consulting advisor to the American Stock Exchange on systems to price ETFs on undisclosed Active funds.

Developed meta model generation software to build a wide variety of Equity Risk Models

He is also Chief Technology Officer for Alpha Strategies LLC, a quantitative consultancy group.

Richard was a founder and is currently a Director of  the London Quant Group.

As Chairman of Metacraft Ltd, a venture software firm that specializes in creating solutions for non-software start-ups, he has a number of computer-modelling interests outside finance.

He graduated in Electrical Engineering from University of Sheffield with a Masters in Software Engineering.
 

Frances Cowell

Director of Risk Consulting

Frances' direct investment management experience began in 1983, when she established an investment research function at Aetna Life & Casualty in Australia.  She was a leader in the use of derivatives to realise arbitrage profits as well as to control risk and enhance performance of conventional investment portfolios.

In 1994 she became Head of Enhanced Passive Investments at NatWest Investment Management in Australia and subsequently headed the Quant team.

Additionally, from 1998 Frances worked with Quantec, consulting to investment management clients on the application of portfolio risk analyses and risk management.

In the UK she specialised in risk management, from 2003 joining Morley Fund Management (now Aviva Investors) as Head of Portfolio Risk, a role that included membership of a range of governance bodies, including the Aviva Derivatives Committee. Established and managed risk management for in-house hedge funds and derivatives thoughout the business.

She then served as Chief Risk Officer for CCLA Fund Management. She is now Director of Risk Consulting at R-Squared Risk Management.

Frances serves on the board and is Company Secretary and Treasurer of London Quant, an organisation that provides a forum for discussion of practical issues in quantitative investment techniques.

She is member of the Institute of Directors, an Associate Member of the Chartered  Institute for Securities and Investment and a member of CFA UK.
 

Richard Dawson

Lead Software Engineer

Richard Dawson joined R-Squared in 2003 and is currently Lead Software Engineer, responsible for designing and developing our applications software. This includes the PRISM Risk Analysis system in it's various forms.

Before this he worked for Quantec for several years, developing the core algorithms for their PGS Monte Carlo portfolio generator. 

Paul J. Dixon

Business Analyst

Prior to working for R-Squared, Paul worked as a fund manager and analyst-trader for an absolute return Collins Stewart hedge fund.

Since 2003 he has specialised in trading and analysing ADR arbitrage and long-short relative momentum sector based strategies.

He has also traded proprietary mergers and acquisitions arbitrage. Developed equity analysis and modelling systems and trade optimisation and trader assistant programs with Spear, Leeds & Kellogg in New York.

In 2000 Paul was a derivatives market-maker in STIR, EURIBOR, SMI and DAX with ING Barings, where he also developed multivariate risk and hedging models.

From 1994 he spent five years with QinetiQ, including research into coherent optical computing for target recognition and passive-sonar data processing and data-fusion.

Paul was educated at Imperial College, London, where he read Physics and went on to research Optical Computing methods as a post-graduate.

In addition, he is also a consulting business analyst for strategy consultancy Board Intelligence, London and is a qualified PRINCE2 Practitioner level project manager.

He is currently a  Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Ambassador– inspiring the next generation into STEM subjects and careers via projects, challenges and presentations.