Ibagus Advisory — London

Capital markets platform builder. Executive leader. Available for Front Office COO and Business Manager roles across capital markets, hedge funds, and asset management.

Eighteen years on the Natixis CIB trading floor — as equity derivatives trader, TRS portfolio manager, and platform lead for front-office pricing and valuation. Two years restructuring a EUR 300m pension system under direct ministerial mandate in the Republic of Congo. Now principal of Ibagus Advisory, while actively targeting Front Office COO and Business Manager roles across capital markets, hedge funds, and asset management in London and Paris.

Primary focus: Front Office COO and Business Manager opportunities across capital markets, hedge funds, asset management, valuation, front-office transformation, and platform governance.

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EUR 1.4bn book

Ran a Total Return Swaps portfolio linked to the CAC 40, scaling the book from EUR 750m to EUR 1.4bn through the 2008 financial crisis and Lehman restructuring. Full Greeks ownership and consistent delivery against annual P&L targets.

Platform built from scratch

Led a cross-functional squad across Quants, IT, Sales, and Business Analysis to architect and deploy a proprietary front-office pricing and trading platform. Sales deal hit rate doubled from 11% to 22%, while desk profitability expanded by 30%.

€300m pension restructured

Led a two-year direct ministerial mandate in the Republic of Congo, directing a seven-person task force through the restructuring of a distressed national pension fund. Four investment strategies formally approved at ministerial level.

Every mandate is delivered personally by Steve Ekandzi — eighteen years on the Natixis CIB trading floor, two years of sovereign turnaround work under direct ministerial mandate, and senior training from LBS Sloan and Oxford. When you engage Ibagus, you engage the founder.

About

Steve Ekandzi

Eighteen years on the Natixis CIB trading floor — as equity derivatives trader, TRS portfolio manager, and platform lead for front‑office pricing and valuation — gave me a blend most capital markets operators do not have: front‑office risk ownership combined with cross‑functional platform governance at scale.

I have run books worth EUR 1.4bn, delivered through the Greek sovereign debt crisis and post‑Brexit volatility, and led the onboarding of Lehman credit exposure after default. The work I am most proud of sits at the intersection of trading and operations: building a proprietary front‑office pricing platform that doubled sales deal hit rates from 11% to 22% and expanded desk profitability by 30%, and governing a EUR 900m cross‑asset valuation platform covering 650 complex financial products with independent third‑party review.

In 2022, I stepped off the trading floor to take on a direct mandate from the State Minister in Charge of Pension, Employment and Public Service in the Republic of Congo — spending two years leading the restructuring of a distressed EUR 300m national pension fund, reporting directly to 1 ExCo member and the Minister. That work sharpened institutional governance, operating‑model redesign, and cross‑functional delivery under real pressure.

Today, as principal of Ibagus Advisory, I continue to work on selected cross‑border institutional mandates and platform projects while actively targeting Front Office COO and Business Manager roles across capital markets, hedge funds, and asset management in London and Paris. My objective is to bring platform‑build capability, risk governance, and front‑to‑back operating leadership back into a permanent institutional seat.

LBS Sloan (2022) · Oxford Postgrad (2016) · French native, English fluent · London / Paris

What I bring

Selected mandates and builds

Platform Build & Governance

I built and deployed a proprietary front-office pricing and trading platform at Natixis CIB, coordinating Quants, IT, Sales, and Business Analysis from design to production. Sales deal hit rate doubled from 11% to 22%; desk profitability expanded by 30%.

I governed a EUR 900m cross-asset valuation platform covering 650 complex financial products, with front-to-back oversight, independent third-party valuation review, and MiFID II-aligned control discipline.

Risk & P&L Ownership

I oversaw a EUR 1.1bn light exotic equity derivatives portfolio serving asset and wealth management clients, managing all related risks (delta, gamma, vega, and dividend exposure) through the Greek sovereign debt crisis and post-Brexit volatility, with annual P&L delivery consistently above EUR 2m.

I also ran a EUR 1.4bn Total Return Swaps portfolio linked to the CAC 40 — from initial scale-up through the 2008–2009 crisis and Lehman restructuring.

Institutional Turnaround & Sovereign Advisory

Asset Allocation & Liquidity Strategy: I formulated and executed four distinct asset-allocation and portfolio diversification strategies approved by the State Minister, and engineered an institutional onboarding framework that optimised contribution capture and unlocked liquidity under macroeconomic stress.

Target Operating Model Design: I architected and deployed the front-to-back operational infrastructure, data systems, and institutional KPIs for a distressed EUR 300m institutional fund.

Cross-functional Institutional Governance: I led a seven-person cross-functional task force spanning risk, operations, and legal — reporting directly to 1 ExCo member and the State Minister to align fund governance with international institutional standards.

Cross-Border Institutional Mandates

I was selected for a restricted EUR 15m tender (FIGA, Rep. of Congo / Okoumé Capital, Gabon) to deliver investment structure due diligence, governance review and compliance assessment, and model stress testing.

I originated capital-raising and CFA 9bn (EUR 13.5m equivalent) debt restructuring proposals for pension funds in Gabon and regional commercial banking partners (Afriland First Bank).

I produced analytical work on African capital‑market pricing inefficiencies in support of cross‑border advisory discussions.

Capital markets platform builder. Executive leader. Available for Front Office COO and Business Manager roles across capital markets, hedge funds, and asset management.

Steve Ekandzi

Selected mandates and builds

Advisory vehicle

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