Daniel Ezra - Founder/CEO
Founding Story
Having spent over 25 years at Credit Suisse trading Securitized Products (SP) including heading the business, Daniel understands the challenges industry leaders face with SP trading desks in today's regulatory environment. Entegra was thus conceived as an alternative to an in-house trading operation that more closely aligns incentives to complement the financing and origination businesses, in a fully integrated and ‘capital-light’ platform.
Integrity, Credibility, and Trust are the pillars of Entegra’s service proposition. We recognize the responsibility of managing a crucial component of a full-service business and offer trading expertise and strong institutional relationships to facilitate market-making. This enables our partners to leverage our capabilities to secure more mandates and close more deals. The Entegra shared-success business model prioritizes new-issue deal count as the primary metric of our impact, ensuring that our success is intertwined with that of our partners.
Credentials
Daniel graduated from Harvard University in 1998 and joined Credit Suisse’s Non-Agency RMBS trading desk, which he helped grow into one of the premier franchises on the street. His expertise and foresight resulted in department profitability during the 2008 Global Financial Crisis (GFC), when most of the industry saw record losses and exits from the SP sector. Following the GFC, Daniel contributed to record trading profits for the firm, generating over $1.5 billion in PNL across various sectors. This included trading the Maiden Lane portfolios as well as significantly enhancing the franchise through unparalleled client service and thought leadership. More recently, Daniel pioneered the MASCOT structure in CLOs and expanded his department’s data science and technology capabilities to significantly increase trading volume and connectivity. His data-driven initiatives were a key factor behind Credit Suisse's invitation to join Octaura as a founding partner and board member, a dealer-led consortium establishing an electronic marketplace for Leveraged Loans, CLOs, and ABS.
Daniel has built an outstanding reputation by treating his clients as partners. He excels as a franchise builder, producer, risk manager, and talent developer. His market expertise, deep institutional relationships and trading experience across various business cycles positions him for success, where sourcing opportunities are as valuable as identifying them.
Prior to his career at Credit Suisse, Daniel received a BA in Economics from Harvard University in 1998. He was also an Individual Intercollegiate Squash Champion and Captain of the Varsity team, which won 4 National Team titles. His performance led to his induction into the Harvard Varsity Hall of Fame in 2013 and the College Squash Hall of Fame in 2019
Ben Elias - CFO/COO
Ben Elias joins Entegra after a 23 year career in global equities. Ben started his career at UBS to work on their nascent fund-of-funds offerings in 2001, where he helped grow AUM from $1B to $3B. In 2004 he joined Prudential’s Institutional Equity Sales team to work more closely with some of the funds for whom he successfully raised AUM, and grew the team's annual revenues from $3M to $8M over 3 years. In 2007, Ben pivoted to becoming an Equity Research Analyst, covering the Multi Industrial, Capital Goods and Nuclear Sectors at Sterne Agee where he was an Institutional Investor ranked analyst between 2008 and 2012. He was also ranked as the #2 ranked stock picker in his sector in the The Wall Street Journal survey for 2010. After transitioning to the buy-side in 2013 at Point Frederick Capital Management, an event-driven fund, Ben left for a fresh challenge as he took on the Investor Relations role at neuroscience start-up with a SaaS offering which he made cash flow positive. Given his experience in volatile markets, Ben was lured by Karya Capital in 2019 to manage the fund’s US and European equity exposure.
Ben graduated from the University of Rochester with an MS in Public Policy Analysis in 2000, and a BA in Philosophy and Political Science in 1998. Ben was a top ranked intercollegiate squash player and was named to the All American Team three times.
Ben has been a CFA Charter holder since 2008.
Vlad Muste - Head of Capital Markets and Quantitative Initiatives
Vlad Muste joins Entegra with 20 years of experience in structured products trading and investing. He began his career at Bear Stearns in 2004 before joining Tricadia Capital in 2005, where he played a significant role in the firm’s rapid growth. Initially focused on risk systems and CLO management, Vlad transitioned in 2008 to become Head CMBS Trader. He later co-managed the firm’s most consistent-performing strategy, which delivered a 1.7 Sharpe ratio and over 20% average annual returns between 2012 and 2018.
After a long tenure at Tricadia, Vlad pivoted to a quantitatively focused investment approach at Squarepoint Capital. In this role, he served as lead Portfolio Manager and Quantitative Researcher for Non-Agency CMBS investments. He managed several strategies, including a multi-billion-dollar investment portfolio that also achieved a robust Sharpe Ratio over a trailing two-year period.
Vlad holds a dual BA in Computer Science and Economics from Cornell University, where he was honored with the prestigious Cornell University Presidential Research Scholarship, awarded to only 50 members of the graduating class. He was also a member of Cornell’s Heavyweight Rowing Team and is an avid player of racquet sports. In 2022, Vlad completed a post-graduate certificate degree from the Harvard Business Analytics Program.
Evan Ignall - Chief Compliance Officer
Evan has served as CCO for numerous boutique investment banks and broker-dealers and maintains over 30 years of industry experience. Previously, he was the founding Partner of SDDCO Regulatory Services, served as an SVP and Head of Compliance Training at Citigroup’s Investment Bank, as a Director at Buchanan Associates, and as a Manager at Securities Training Corporation. Evan holds a BA from Rutgers College, an MS from Stevens Institute of Technology, and is a FINRA Industry Arbitrator. He maintains the Series 7, 24, 27 and 99 licenses.
© 2024 Entegra Securities LLC. All rights reserved.