Meet the Founders
The Invstr Foundation’s mission is to empower individuals with the knowledge and confidence needed to make informed financial decisions.
Kerim Derhalli
Founder, Invstr Foundation
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Career History
Kerim started his banking career at JP Morgan in New York, where he came #1 in his training program. He was the first graduate ever assigned to a securities trading role at JP Morgan in London, where he managed the Floating Rate Note, Eurobond and French Government bond businesses. He was promoted to be the Head of Fixed Income Trading in Asia managing the bank’s operations in Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong & Australia. He was then recruited by the then President of Bankers Trust (Gene Shanks) to manage US Government bond trading in New York.
He was subsequently recruited to Merrill Lynch by a former boss at JP Morgan (Conrad Voldstad) to build an emerging markets foreign exchange, fixed income and derivatives business. He pioneered the development of the East European emerging markets, advised several Russian Prime Ministers and Finance Ministers, played a leading role in the Russian debt restructuring of 1998 and generated close to $1bn in proprietary trading revenues at Merrill Lynch and then Lehman Brothers.
He was then hired by the future CEO of Deutsche Bank (Anshu Jain) to join the Global Markets (Fixed Income) Management Committee.
As Global Head of Commodities, he transformed the business by adding structured credit, second order derivative and index capabilities as well as launching US and European power, emissions, coal and shipping businesses. As Global Head of Emerging Markets, he built a $20bn structured credit book and took annual revenues from $40mm to $1bn in the space of only two years, three times the closest competitor.
He was then promoted to run the Global Equity Trading, Index Arbitrage and Proprietary Trading businesses, a $5bn portfolio.
Kerim was also responsible for the largest IPO in history at the time - the $21bn IPO of Agricultural Bank of China in 2010 - and the Entrepreneur of the Year, Fintech Founder of the Year and Innovator of the Year.
Kerim is currently working on an AI startup, AI Portfolio Solutions, which has trained a proprietary AI model to generate and manage portfolios that outperform the major market indices with great success.
Personal
Kerim has lived and worked in Europe, the USA, the Middle East, Japan and Singapore and has travelled extensively in emerging countries. He holds a B.A. and M.A. in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from Oxford University. He was an Exhibitioner of Magdalen College, Oxford, an English-Speaking Union Scholar, a St. Paul’s School Senior Foundation Scholar, and a Trotman Junior Exhibitioner.
Ilse Sidles
Founder, Invstr Foundation
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After three years, Ilse went to the Kellogg School of Business at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. Ilse gained admission to and secured her Masters in Business Administration (MBA) and graduated with distinction.
Ilse went to work for global management consulting firm McKinsey and Company at their New York City Headquarters for three years. Ilse then went to work for Lehman Brothers in New York City to work on the bond trading desk and then was moved to London, England. While at Lehman in London, Ilse helped build the emerging market bond and derivative distribution system as Central Europe and Russia were coming out of their communist regimes. It was during this time at Lehman Brothers in London that Ilse worked with Kerim Derhalli.
After the birth of her son Charlie, Ilse moved to Chicago, Illinois and returned to the family trucking business, L.C.L. Transit. Ilse became the CEO's right-hand woman through all business cycles and business decisions. The company celebrated its 100 annivesay last year, and her family is still owners and operators of the company. Ilse has started, led and sold a number of successful businesses.