Navigant Consulting, Inc. (NYSE: NCI), a global consulting firm providing dispute, investigative, operational, risk management and financial advisory solutions, today announced that Robert A. Picard has been appointed Senior Advisor. He will provide services for the firm's Financial Institutions Restructuring Solutions Team ("FIRSTTM"), part of Navigant Capital Advisors (NCA), the dedicated corporate finance business unit of Navigant Consulting. The team provides a full suite of services to stressed and distressed financial institutions.
"Robert Picard has over 20 years of proven track record building successful businesses in alternative investments with competitive returns," stated Edward Casas, Senior Managing Director and Head of Navigant Capital Advisors Restructuring and Investment Banking. "Given the volume of hedge fund closures and parties impacted by this trend, Mr. Picard's unique background will be invaluable to clients in providing real life hedge fund solutions to deal with the major challenges facing hedge fund and financial institutions during this economic crisis."
Mr. Picard most recently served as Chief Investment Officer at Optima Fund Management, overseeing $6.5 billion in hedge fund of fund investments. Prior to joining Optima, Mr. Picard was a Managing Director at The Carlyle Group, where he built and managed the process and portfolio of an innovative hedge fund business that provided an institutional platform for institutions investing in alternative investments. Previously, Mr. Picard also served as Managing Director at RBC Capital Risk Advisors, working with the Global Equity Derivatives Group of Royal Bank of Canada, as European Manager, Structured Equity Products for RBC Dominion Securities Inc., as European Product Manager, Global Equity Derivatives for Kidder, Peabody in Europe and earlier worked for Bank Nomura (Suisse) S.A. trading and selling multicurrency, Japanese and South-East Asian convertible and warrant products. Mr. Picard graduated from College de Geneve and attended the University of Geneva School of Law.
The team has represented financial institutions and hedge funds, with tens of billions in assets under management or creditor claims, in restructuring and/or conducting orderly dispositions over the course of the last 24 months.