Brian D’Costa

Founding Partner

Algonquin Capital

Brian D’Costa is a founding partner of Algonquin Capital; a boutique specializing in alternative fixed income.

Prior to starting Algonquin Capital, Brian was the Global Head of Fixed Income and Rates for CIBC where he was responsible for the bank’s entire bond and rate trading business, overseeing 40 traders globally.  Before that, Brian spent 11 years with TD Securities, where he was the Global Head of Vanilla Interest Rate Derivatives, managing trading teams in Toronto, London, Tokyo and Sydney.

Before building a career in trading, Brian spent seven years in the Canadian Armed Forces where he served as a Captain in the Airborne Regiment and participated in a peacekeeping tour in Iraq.

When not in the office, Brian can usually be found in the gym, at a hockey rink or undertaking an ambitious gardening project.

Keith Black

Managing Director & Content Strategy

CAIA Association

Keith Black has over thirty years of financial market experience, serving approximately half of that time as an academic and half as a trader and consultant to institutional investors. He currently serves as Managing Director of Content Strategy for the CAIA Association. During his most recent role at Ennis Knupp + Associates, Keith advised foundations, endowments and pension funds on their asset allocation and manager selection strategies in hedge funds, commodities, and managed futures. Prior experience includes commodities derivatives trading, stock options research and CBOE floor trading, and building quantitative stock selection models for mutual funds and hedge funds. Dr. Black previously served as an assistant professor and senior lecturer at the Illinois Institute of Technology.
He contributes regularly to The CFA Digest, and has published in The Journal of Wealth Management, The Journal of Trading, The Journal of Investing, and The Journal of Alternatives Investments, among others. He is the author of the book “Managing a Hedge Fund,” as well as co-author of the second, third, and fourth editions of the CAIA Level I and Level II curriculum. Dr. Black was named to the Institutional Investor magazine’s list of “Rising Stars of Hedge Funds” in 2010.

Dr. Black earned a BA from Whittier College, an MBA from Carnegie Mellon University, and a PhD from the Illinois Institute of Technology. He has earned the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation and was a member of the inaugural class of both CAIA and FDP members.

John Duncanson

Executive Vice-President, Timber Analyst

Corton Capital

John Duncanson is a shareholder of Corton Capital and acts as the firm’s Timber Analyst for the Corton Global Timber Fund. Mr. Duncanson is a Registered Professional Forester (RPF), Ontario. He has served as an expert witness on several international trade issues involving wood products, most recently as the Expert Analyst for the Government of Ontario in the U.S. trade case against Canadian uncoated groundwood paper imports.

Mr. Duncanson has a unique blend of experience having worked for over 40 years in both the forest industry and the investment industry. He has traveled the world touring forest plantations, sawmills, panel plants, and pulp and paper mills in Canada, USA, Finland, Sweden, England, Scotland, Portugal, Russia, China, Vietnam, Venezuela, Chile, Brazil, Ecuador, Argentina, Fiji, and New Zealand. From 2011-2014, he was the Timber Analyst for the former Exemplar Timber Fund and in 1988 established Duncanson Investment Research Inc., providing independent research advice to clients including the Chase Manhattan Bank from 1988-1998 and Jennings Capital from 2003-2007.