Our Team

Jeremy O’Friel is the Founder & Managing Director of Belmont Investments. Prior to founding Belmont, Jeremy was a Director & Principal of Appleton Capital Management, a Commodity Trading Advisor with a particular focus on the foreign exchange markets. He joined Appleton in 1996, initially on the trading desk, before moving into a business development role for the firm. After establishing the New York office in 2000, he was appointed Director of Sales & Marketing in 2001 and from that point onward was entirely responsible for Appleton’s global business development and client management strategy and execution. In this role, he won mandates from a clientele that included Citigroup, Merrill Lynch, Deutsche Bank, Societe Generale, TD Securities and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA). In 2002, Jeremy was part of the management team that conducted a buyout of the firm from the Appleton Group of South Africa. Having grown Appleton to over $350m in assets under management, he left in June 2009 in order to found Belmont Investment and to provide a broader range of alternative investment opportunities. At this time, he also sold back his equity stake in the company.

Jeremy is an active participant in the alternative investment community and has served on both the Communications and International Committees of the Managed Funds Association. The MFA is an industry group based in Washington that seeks to promote understanding of managed futures and hedge fund strategies. He has also spoken at conferences organised by the MFA, MAR and many other forums for discussion of alternative investments generally, as well as having been quoted in a wide range of financial media. Further, Jeremy is a regular guest on CNBC Asia, appearing on the Capital Connection segment.

Jeremy holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from University College Dublin, as well as a Masters in Business (Financial Mathematics) from the same university, which he completed in 1993. He also holds the Chartered Financial Analyst designation, having completed the syllabus between 1999 and 2001, as well as the Series 3, 7, 24 and 30.

James O’Friel has been involved in the administration of alternative investment funds since 2003. Since 2006, he has been employed as a Fund Accountant with Citco Fund Services in Dublin where he has responsibility for the pricing and reporting on a wide range of investment funds, both alternative and traditional. In this role, he has become deeply knowledgeable on a range of international standards, including GAAP and IFRS. His work involves liaison with external auditors, internal compliance, legal and accounting to ensure the effective valuation and communication of such with clients.

Prior to joining Citco, James was employed by SEI Investments, also in Dublin, where he supervised a hedge fund accounting team. As well as being a qualified ACCA accountant, he also was awarded a Diploma in Mutual Funds from the Institute of Commercial Management in 2003.

James graduated from De Montfort University in the United Kingdom in 2002 with a Bachelors Degree in Mechanical Engineering.

Daniel Beaton has more than 20 years of experience as a professional in the U.S. securities industry in the fields of financial management, compliance and operations. He is the owner and operator of FINOP Consulting, a financial and operations principal outsourcing firm. In this capacity, Dan consults to over 35 Broker-Dealers specialising in municipal security underwriting, institutional equity trading, mergers and acquisitions and private placements. The firm assists its clients in meeting the regulatory demands of FINRA and the SEC.

Prior to founding FINOP Consulting, Dan was a partner and Chief Financial Officer of Alpha Equity Research, an institutional equity research Broker-Dealer. During this time, he was also Chief Operating Officer with their affiliated Registered Investment Advisor.

Dan graduated Magna Cum Laude from the University of New Hampshire’s Whittemore School of Business with a Degree in Accounting & Finance, and holds his Series 27, 28, 7, 63, 24 and 99.

Thomas Ryan joined the firm in January 2020 and is responsible for Investment Research and Operations. He started his career as an Actuarial Analyst with MetLife in their European headquarters in Dublin, Ireland, where he modeled liability calculations for the capital solvency team, as well as developing a VBA model for data merging.

Tom graduated from University College Dublin with a Bachelor’s Degree in Actuarial & Financial Studies. Whilst studying, he was awarded with a University Scholar Award for academic excellence and was also a McKinsey Leadership Academy Graduate.

Tom is currently studying for both his Series 3 and Series 7 examinations.

Jack Manning joined the firm in January 2023 and is currently employed as an Investment Analyst. In that role, he is responsible for preliminary manager research, as well as portfolio modeling and risk management scenario analysis.

He comes to us straight from Trinity College Dublin, where he completed a First Class Honours Degree in Management Science & Information Systems Studies. He also received a Gold Medal, the highest undergraduate award granted by the College. During his academic years, Jack was also able to spend time interning for Beacon Hill Capital as an Analyst, as well as launching an online academic revision service for second-level students.

David joined the firm in September 2023 and is currently employed as an Investment Analyst.
In that role, he assists the CIO and Head of Research in sourcing new investment opportunities, including running qualitative and quantitative screens on possible candidates. He also works on the integration of risk management strategies within our multi-manager portfolios.

David earned his Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Dublin City University and a Master of Science in Finance from Trinity College Dublin, where his thesis examined the impact of macroeconomic announcements on European equity market volatility.

Haydn joined the firm in December 2023 and is responsible for the distribution of all Belmont funds in Southern Africa. He joined the firm after spending seven years with Tradition Securities in Johannesburg, where he focused on the trading and execution of South African government bonds in local and UK markets. In this role, he liaised with the many global institutions that transacted through the firm, and advised on market movements and data. Prior to that, Haydn spent three years with Acumen Capital, a hedge fund, where he worked in both the foreign exchange and repo markets.

Haydn graduated from the University of Pretoria in 2013 with a Bachelor of Commerce, his Major being Investment Management. He also holds the ACI, RPE and RE5 designations.