In a press release on Monday, January 23, 2006 entitled Swiss Re Capital Management and Advisory Names Key Executive to Environment & Commodity Markets Team, Swiss Re announced that a former colleague of TCM, Brian O’Hearne, has been named to lead Swiss Re’s North American activities in the Environment and Commodity Markets. Brian will be focusing on weather and commodity trading, business and product development and risk management. In his new role, Mr. O'Hearne will report to Juerg Trueb, Swiss Re Global Head of Environmental & Commodity Markets, and Dan Ozizmir, CMA Group Head of Asset-Backed Securities/Insurance Linked Securities and Environmental and Commodity Markets. The news release continues:

Professor Anna Nagurney gave a really interesting talk on the topic of Supernetworks entitled “NETWORKS: The Science That Spans Disciplines” on May1, 2005 at MeshForum 2005. (One can listen to an audio tape of the actual presentation here.) This talk is well worth listening to if one is at all interested in the subject of social networks, particularly as they might interact with financial networks.

As described on the ITConverstaions website, this talk focused on answering, What is common between web traffic and transportation? If a path always has heavy traffic will building a bypass or an alternative path really help the cause? Or will it worsen it? How do you use network theory to solve transportation and water supply problems? How is the study of networks helpful in solving complex problems in finance and economics?

In this MeshForum 2005 presentation, Professor Nagurney talks about the scientific underpinnings of networks and explains about classical networks. She talks about interesting applications of networks to different disciplines. Supernetworks is a new branch of study which helps in solving problems associated with constructing and improving networks. Many of the solutions to these network problems can be applied to different disciplines with minor modifications. One of the more exciting applications currently being explored is to social networks.

Today's Wall Street Journal reports that an old friend, Bart McDade of Lehman Brothers, has been promoted from running the fixed-income division to now heading all of Lehamn's stock business. In his place as head of the bond department will be another former colleauge, Mike Gelband, who traded fifteen-year mortgages back in the late 1980s. Aldon Hynes and Lars Toomre know both Bart and Mike from their days at the head of the Lehman Brothers' Collateralized Mortgage Obligation business, and wish them both well with their new endeavors.

A relatively current resume (in Microsoft Word format) for Lars Toomre can be accessed by downloading the attached file.

Lars Toomre (resume) is a Managing Director at Toomre Capital Markets. Lars has more than two decades of experience assessing, modeling, analyzing, pricing, underwriting, transacting in and managing risk. His specific areas of expertise are in mortgage and asset-backed securities, financial engineering, risk securitization and other highly complex structured finance transactions. Lars has engineered and underwritten billions of dollars worth of transactions and launched many significant structured finance innovations. A leader in financial innovation, Lars priced the first residual class, the first floating-rate CMO class, the first inverse-floating rate CMO class, the first federal asset-backed security and the first public sale of a subordinated class from an ABS securitization, all precursors to what is generically referred to as “toxic waste” component of special purpose entities (SPE’s). This illiquid and volatile area of capital markets is critically important for the successful origination and placement of the more popular senior classes.

Aldon Hynes is Director of Technology at Toomre Capital Markets. Aldon has over 20 years technology experience in many areas of capital markets in both equity and fixed income trading, mortgage and asset-backed securities, risk management, statistical and risk arbitrage trading strategies, hedge funds and currency and commodity trading strategies. His current focus is on investment management technology issues, cash flow modeling, individual security, sub-sector and portfolio characterization, valuation and support of risk management, trading, accounting and litigation.