Opera Solutions Adds Joseph Henbest and Bill Hunt as Vice Presidents in Global Market Analytics

JERSEY CITY, N.J., Aug. 10, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Opera Solutions, LLC (www.operasolutions.com), a global firm that applies advanced analytics to address the Big Data challenges of many of the world's leading organizations, today announced the hiring of Joseph Henbest and Bill Hunt as Vice Presidents in the company's Global Markets Analytics group. In their new positions, Mr. Henbest will lead the sales and business development activities for Opera's analytics in the financial portfolio solutions arena, while Mr. Hunt will assist in the strategy, deployment, and research related to the company's capital markets and structured finance products.

Opera combines advanced science, machine learning expertise, business acumen, and technology to create and provide ongoing delivery of powerful solutions that turn Big Data flows into profit growth and strategic advantage. The Global Markets Analytics group brings these advanced predictive analytics and experienced insights to the Quantitative Trading Strategies, Valuation, Risk Management, and Portfolio Construction/Optimization areas across Equities, Fixed Income, Commodities and FX.  One of Opera's latest offerings in Global Markets Analytics is Mobiuss™/RMBS, a fully-integrated valuation, surveillance, and risk management platform for RMBS securities.

"Joe and Bill have an impressive understanding of the securities industry and credit markets from decades of experience in the industry," said Laks Srinivasan, Co-Head of Opera's Global Markets Analytics group. "By adding their expertise, we are expanding our leadership team in this area and enhancing our core capabilities to meet a high level of demand for our offerings from a variety of capital markets participants."

Mr. Henbest has worked for almost 20 years in the capital markets industry assessing value, risk, regulatory capital and strategy.  Mr. Hunt is a seasoned quantitative finance executive with 15+ years in capital markets in fixed income quantitative analysis and portfolio risk management, including consumer and commercial lending, structured finance, municipal bonds, and insurance sectors.  Prior to joining Opera, Mr. Henbest and Mr. Hunt were Managing Directors at Algorithmics / Fitch Solutions, divisions of the Fitch Group, where they were global co-heads of the Advisory Services and Structured Finance Valuation practice.

Mr. Henbest also was previously the head of Algorithmics' credit risk and collateral management consulting area and the co-head of the global credit business of Fitch Risk Management, comprising credit advisory, model, and data offerings.  Prior to his tenure in the Fitch Group, he was an analyst in the Risk Management Advisory and Insurance Risk areas at Bankers Trust.

Mr. Hunt was also a managing director in Fitch's Quantitative Financial Research Group, creating and managing structured finance risk models for Fitch Ratings.  While at Fitch, Hunt developed ResiLogic, a mortgage risk model used by Fitch and other financial institutions to analyze residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS).  Previously, Mr. Hunt served as Managing Director for Portfolio Risk Management and Modeling at Financial Guaranty Insurance Company (FGIC) and as Manager of Commercial Risk at GE Capital Card Services.

"Financial firms continue to search for enhanced tools to identify and manage the value and risk in their capital markets portfolios," said Mr. Henbest. "As the market volatility continues, Opera's advanced capabilities provide the insights to turn the uncertainties and challenges of this environment into competitive advantages."

Mr. Hunt added, "Opera has developed a superior platform and truly innovative solutions for the marketplace, bringing more accuracy and transparency into the assessment of the risk, value and opportunities.  I look forward to adding my experiences to Opera's products and research to help our existing and prospective clients gain better insights into the complex nature of these asset classes."

Mr. Henbest holds a BBA in Finance from St. John's University.  Mr. Hunt holds a BA in Mathematics from Vanderbilt University and a MS degree in Mathematical Sciences from Clemson University.

About Opera Solutions

In a Big Data world, Opera Solutions (www.operasolutions.com) delivers "Analytics As An Ongoing Service," developing and deploying superior analytic solutions that drive sustained profit growth for its customers. Opera is one of the leading predictive analytics firms in the world, with almost 600 professionals – including more than 160 advance-degree scientists – and offices in New York, Jersey City, Boston, San Diego, London, Paris, New Delhi, and Shanghai. Opera serves many of the world's leading organizations in financial services, healthcare, government, and other selected industries.

To learn more about Opera Solutions, follow it on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Media Contact:
Katie Smith-Adair
The Morris + King Company for Opera Solutions
212-561-7475
[email protected]

SOURCE Opera Solutions, LLC