Mr. Press founded Press Management LLC in July 2010 to provide succession planning, compensation, business strategy, operational guidance and start-up coordination services to financial service entrepreneurs creating hedge funds, private equity and venture funds, as well as broker dealers, banks and asset management firms.
Prior to forming Press Management LLC, Mr. Press was a Managing Director in the Prime Brokerage division of Morgan Stanley from January 2007 to June 2010, where he focused on clients and the continuing complexities of the hedge fund asset class and assisted in identifying strategic opportunities for Morgan Stanley.
In 2006, Mr. Press co-founded hedge fund Festina Lente Capital Management. During the fund’s inception, Mr. Press served as the COO responsible for the operational side of the business and worked on the creation of a long term seeding relationship.
Previously, Mr. Press was a senior partner and served as Head of the Global Hedge Fund Practice at Ernst & Young from 1989 – 2006. Mr. Press created a team to provide audit, tax and business advisory services to the entrepreneurial financial services sector. At the time of his departure, Ernst & Young’s Global Hedge Fund Practice had a global market share of 45 percent with over 1,100 on staff and 100 partners.
In 1989 Mr. Press created a business strategy consulting group for a select group of hedge funds and NYSE specialist firms prior to his joining Ernst & Young.
Mr. Press spent twenty one years early in his career as an accountant with Spicer & Oppenheim, formerly Oppenheim, Appel & Dixon, a firm specializing in all aspects of brokerage clients including operations, trading and business strategy. He joined the firm in 1968, was admitted to their partnership in 1977, and in 1981 was named to the National Management Committee, where he served until his departure in early 1989.
A frequent lecturer and speaker at conferences around the world on securities, investment partnerships and issues pertaining to the financial services industry, Mr. Press also wrote a quarterly column on current topics affecting the hedge fund industry for HFMWeek through 2014. He was also a contributing author to Security Markets Around the World, 1988; Hedge Funds – A Guide for Institutional Investors, 1995; Evaluating and Implementing Hedge Fund Strategies, 1999; Private Equity and Venture Capital, 2000; Hedge Funds Law & Regulation, 2000; the first comprehensive survey of the legal issues that affect the hedge fund industry in many jurisdictions worldwide; Liz Gray Euro Money, 2002 and Funds of Hedge Funds: For Professional Investors and Managers, Euromoney, 2003.
Mr. Press currently serves on the boards of two technology organizations serving the financial services sector. He also serves on the National Board of Hedge Fund Cares, the executive board of RBaby Foundation, and the executive board of the Citizens Committee for New York City. In addition, Mr. Press is a former trustee of Long Island University where he also served as Chancellor of the Brooklyn Campus through September 2014 and a former trustee of the Park Avenue Armory. A CPA, Mr. Press earned his BS in accounting from Long Island University, Brooklyn campus. He also completed graduate courses in tax and finance at Pace University.