A California quant shop's founder is passing the reins to a former mutual fund firm CEO.

Ryan Faulk Willson Creighton AI CEO

Today, Jim Creighton confirms that Ryan Willson is taking over as CEO of San Francisco-based Creighton AI (CAI, i.e. Creighton Capital Management). Creighton, founder and managing director of his eponymous firm, is staying on as chief investment officer. Watch for CAI to enter the retail asset management business.

"The business has grown to a point where I need to be able to focus the majority of my time on the investment side of the business, while Ryan will oversee the management and growth of the rest of the organization," Creighton states. "We have seven Managing Directors across the globe from some of the best investment firms in the industry and are positioned for exceptional growth."

Wilson joined CAI a year ago as a partner and head of North America. Since then, the institutional quantitative asset management firm, has launched a global equity market neutral hedge fund (at the beginning of 2021). The firm also does separate account work and subadvises some long-only strategies in Australia.

"Most likely the next fund we will subadvise or launch is a global long-only fund," Willson tells MFWire. "Potentially that would be available in the form of a retail product."

The firm has nine senior leaders (six of whom are on the research and portfolio management side), and it has $150 million in AUM. In addition to California, they have offices in London, Porto, Sydney, and Toronto.

Willson previously led Lateef Investment Management until 2017, when the firm sold. Prior to that, he worked with Willson Investment Management, Merrill Lynch, and Morgan Stanley. He is an alumnus of USC.

Creighton founded CAI in 2005, and he also worked at Manifold Partners from 2013 to 2018. Earlier on, he held CIO roles at Northern Trust Asset Management, Deustche Asset Management, and BGI. He also worked at Maritime Life. Creighton is an alumnus of Northeastern University and Dalhousie University. 

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