Mr Coleman, together with his partner Doug King, founded Aisling Analytics in 2004, a Singapore-based commodity focused hedge fund manager. Aisling's flagship product is The Merchant Commodity Fund which launched in June 2004. A proprietary commodity trader since starting work in 1982, Mr Coleman worked for Cargill for 19 years in a variety of commodity trading and trading management positions. In 2001, Mr Coleman in conjunction with Marubeni founded U Derivatives where he was Chief Operating Officer until April 2004. Mr Coleman has been based in Singapore since 1984. A UK citizen, Mr Coleman was born in St. Helens Lancashire and is a Director of St. Helens Rugby League Football Club. He studied at Exeter College Oxford where he attained a BA in Natural Science (Geology).
Eurekahedge: Commodities form a very small percentage of the asset allocation in most CTA/Managed futures funds, however in your case that is the principal investment sector. What is unique about the commodities sector that leads you to invest in it?
Michael Coleman: We did not decide on commodities, commodities decided on us. My partner Doug King and I spent many years as physical commodity traders with major trade houses prior to moving into the fund management business. It was a case of taking our expertise into the fund space.
