Natasha Kassian has over 30 years of buy-side experience providing legal and compliance guidance to registered investment advisers across a broad range of products, asset classes, investment strategies, and jurisdictions. She has served in roles including General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer for firms that manage hedge funds, private equity funds, venture funds, retail and institutional separately managed accounts, mutual funds, and exchange-traded funds.
Ms. Kassian has extensive experience responding to examinations and inquiries by regulators in the US, EU, EMEA, and APAC, and is a recognized investment management compliance expert.
In her consulting practice, Ms. Kassian provides legal and compliance services to a variety of investment adviser clients. Prior to beginning her consulting practice, Ms. Kassian worked in-house for leading hedge funds including Citadel and Millennium in Chief Compliance Officer roles amongst others. Prior to that she worked in the asset management divisions of major investment banks including UBS and Morgan Stanley.
Ms. Kassian also clerked for the Honorable Fred I. Parker of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Her dual-major undergraduate degree is in Accounting and Economics. After clerking she began her career in the investment management department of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison.
In 2004, when the SEC first adopted compliance rules under the Investment Advisers Act and Investment Company Act, Ms. Kassian shifted her legal practice to focus on buy-side compliance and prepared an array of clients for the implementation of the new rules. In subsequent roles, Ms. Kassian created new or enhanced compliance programs for over a dozen registered investment advisers. She has drafted and implemented over a hundred compliance policies and procedures and developed numerous surveillance and reporting systems for internal monitoring and to comply with regulatory and exchange requirements in multiple jurisdictions. In 2012, when the Dodd-Frank Act eliminated the private adviser exemption, Ms. Kassian again refocused her practice to include hedge funds, private equity funds, and venture funds, and expanded her practice outside the US.
Ms. Kassian has extensive experience performing mock exams and audits, preparing compliance program assessment reports, and conducting internal investigations and interviews.
EXPERTISE
Buy-Side Legal and Compliance
Regulatory Examinations
Inquiries and Investigations
EDUCATION
St. John’s University School of Law
Juris Doctor, Law
Queens College
BA, Accounting and Economics
WORK HISTORY
SEDA Experts
Managing Director
2024-Current
Consultant and Expert Witness
2020-Current
Harbor Group International, LLC
HGI Capital Management, LLC
CCO
2023
Athanor Capital, LP
GC and CCO
2020
RA Capital Management LLC
GC and CCO
2018-2020
Citadel Americas LLC - Aptigon
CCO
2017-2018
Millennium Management LLC
Global Head of Corporate and Regulatory Compliance and Head of Compliance, Europe
2011-2016
Rothschild Inc.
Counsel and CCO
2009-2011
Dwight Asset Management Company LLC
Assistant GC, Deputy CCO and Risk Management Officer
2005-2008
Schulte Roth & Zabel
Senior Associate
2004-2005
UBS Global Asset Management
Associate GC
2003-2004
Morgan Stanley Investment Management
Assistant GC
1999-2003
Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison
Associate
1997-1999
Investment Adviser Expert Witness
Contact
Natasha Kassian
1185 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10036
+1 646-626-4555