Financial Manager to Speak at Weston-Westport YMCA on Investing in Catastrophe Bonds

By Roy Fuchs

for Westport Y’s Men

Dr. John SEO, Ph.D. and Managing Principal of Westport’s Fermat Capital Management, LLC (“FCM”), will be the Y’s Men of Westport/Weston’s featured speaker at its Oct. 2 meeting at the Unitarian Church in Westport at 10 Lyons Plain Rd.

He will speak on FCM’s business of investing in “insurance-linked securities,” primarily catastrophe bonds, where the investor takes on the insured risk of great loss associated with such catastrophes as earthquakes in exchange for a significant rate of interest. Coffee and donuts start at 9:45 AM; Dr. Seo’s talk at 10:30 a.m.

After completing his Harvard Ph.D. in biophysics, Dr. Seo took what he thought would be a temporary job pricing esoteric financial options in order to earn the costs of childbirth for his second child.

The pay was good and the challenge of analyzing and pricing esoteric financial risk interesting. He spent several years at a variety of investment house jobs learning more about financial risk, with a focus on the problem of determining the proper price to charge to insure against potential losses from unlikely financial events. Dr. Seo and his brother established FCM in 2001 and since built a $4 billion portfolio.

The Y’s Men of Westport/Weston is an organization of semi-retired and retired men with a continued interest in activity, fellowship, learning and community service. Those interested in attending Dr. Seo’s talk and learning more about the Y’s Men should contact Tom Douglas at tdoug92048@optonline.net or 203-291-9975. You can also access our website at ysmenwestportweston.org.

Photo: John Seo (contributed)