Hedge Fund Managers Busson, Platt Step Down as Directors of Ark

Hedge Fund Managers Busson, Platt Step Down as Directors of Ark

Will Wainewright

willwainewright

December 14, 2015 — 5:32 PM CET

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Busson co-founded Absolute Return for Kids charity in 2002

Chief executive Lucy Heller said pair had been `pivotal'

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Arpad Busson, the financier who co-founded Absolute Return for Kids, and money manager Mike Platt stepped down as directors of the children’s charity last month.

Busson, 52, was Ark’s first chairman and "an early driving force in our work for many years," the charity’s Chief Executive Officer Lucy Heller, said in an e-mailed statement on Monday. The pair stopped being directors on Nov. 16, according to U.K. company filings.

Ark aims to improve children’s lives through better education and runs 34 schools with 21,000 students, according to a spokesman. Attendees at one of its events in 2012 included Prince William and his wife Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge, and former U.S. President Bill Clinton.

Busson is executive chairman of Gottex Fund Management Holdings Ltd., a Swiss firm which invests in hedge funds. Platt, 47, runs BlueCrest Asset Management, a Jersey-based hedge fund, which recently said it would return external money to investors.

The pair’s support "has been and will continue to be pivotal to our programs, which are transforming children’s lives across the world," Heller said. Busson didn’t answer a request for comment and officials for Gottex and BlueCrest, declined to comment.

Financial News reported the departures earlier.

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