(Pictured: Damien Hatfield)

Damien Hatfield, one of the most influential hedge fund managers in Australia, and his partner David Louie, have joined multi-affiliate manager Ascalon Capital in a sales and marketing capacity.

Hatfield, sometimes referred to as the godfather of the Australian hedge fund industry, and Louie, will retain their consulting business, Triple A Partners, in working with Ascalon. One of Triple A’s client managers, Morphic Asset Managers, earlier this month came under the Ascalon umbrella through the sale of a minority interest to the BT Financial Group-owned firm. Ascalon has interests in six managers in Australia and Asia, with funds totaling A$3.5 billion.

Hatfield got into the alternatives space in the 1980s through the broking arm of ANZ bank and then made a name for himself at Deutsche Bank where he set up the first mainstream-owned hedge fund group in Australia. He later set up a hedge funds-of-funds operation at Colonial First State and then became managing director of the incubator arm of Pengana Capital. He was the founding chairman of the Australian chapter of AIMA.

Rob Lance, the Australian chief executive of Ascalon, said last week that the appointment was a boost to Ascalon’s business. “Having one of Australia’s most experienced alternative asset specialists join the Ascalon family leverages our support capability significantly,” he said. “Damien brings with him a deep understanding of product across the capital structure and very strong investor relationships, both here and abroad, to service our growing portfolio of Partner Managers.”

Ascalon’s group chief executive, Chuak Chan, is based in Hong Kong. He said the appointment would not only help the company’s distribution, it would also help it explore and develop strategic options with new external parties. The group had a mandate to expand its partnerships with several more managers over the next few years.