Industry veteran Santiago Braje has joined PGGM as senior investment manager, focusing on emerging markets debt.
In a statement the firm said, “He brings a wealth of experience in fixed income markets and the application of advanced data analytics in investment and trading. Prior to joining PGGM, Mr Braje founded Katana Labs, a fintech company using machine learning to provide relative value insights to bond investors. Before this, he was the global head of credit trading at ING Bank in London.”
Braje developed the Katana Labs product in-house at ING, initially as a way of finding better pricing for clients, but later broke the firm out on its own. Its product, which helped to spot bonds that offered more value than a bond which had been identified as an investment target, was well regarded amongst users and enjoyed moderate success, but not enough adopters to make the business commercially viable over the longer term.
Nevertheless his experience and technical knowledge could make him a relatively unique talent, potentially adding value to the portfolio management role in non-traditional ways, on top of his long heritage in fixed income trading and investing.
Braje has also been working as an investment strategy advisor for Valerian Funds since May 2022.