Established provider of alternative investment solutions
Absolute Return Partners is a London based investment advisory business. Founded by Niels Jensen in 2002, we focus on providing bespoke alternative investment solutions to institutional investors. In total we manage over $600m of assets across our group.
ARP is owned by its management team. We are protective of our independence and equally protective of our clients’ investments. There are no external vested interests in our organisation.
The partners
Niels Clemen Jensen
Niels Clemen Jensen has over 30 years of investment banking and investment management experience. He began his career in Copenhagen in 1984 before moving to Sherson Lehman in London in 1986. In 1989 he joined Goldman Sachs and became co-head of its U.S. equity business in Europe in 1992, a post he held until 1996, when he joined Oppenheimer to manage its European business. In 1999 he re-joined Lehman Brothers, now in charge of European Wealth Management. In 2006 he was appointed Director of Trafalgar House Trustees Limited, advising one of the UK’s leading corporate pension funds on its investment strategy.
Niels founded Absolute Return Partners in 2002 and is Chief Investment Officer. He is a graduate of University of Copenhagen with a Masters Degree in economics.
Niels Clemen Jensen
Nick Rees
Nick Rees has over 17 years of investment banking and investment management experience.
He started his career in 1998 at Goldman Sachs, beginning in Equity Operations before moving to the Equity Capital Markets division of Goldman in 2001 where his primary responsibilities included the management of financial and operational risk in connection with IPOs. In February 2004 Nick joined Absolute Return Partners as its first employee and Business Manager. In October 2005 Nick became a Partner with primary responsibility for business development.
Today Nick is the Managing Partner of the business and manages some of the Firms’ key client and strategic relationships. Nick graduated from the University of Manchester in 1998 with BA (Hons) in Geography and holds the UK SIP's Investment Management Certificate (IMC). He sits on the Firm’s Investment and Management Committees.
Nick Rees
Alison Major Lépine
Alison Major Lépine joined Absolute Return Partners in 2015 after almost 10 years at the UK Railways pension scheme, where she was responsible for over £1bn in various absolute return strategies. Previously, she was an Investment Manager at IKANO across a number of asset classes. Prior to joining IKANO, she worked as an Associate at Russell and as a Senior Consultant at FactSet.
Alison started her career as a trainee at the European Commission. She holds an MA (Hons) First Class in Economics from the University of Edinburgh and a Masters (PhD programme) from the European University Institute in Florence. She has completed the Executive Management Programme at the London Business School, holds the IMC and is a CFA charter holder.
Alison Major Lépine
Steven Bartel
Steven Bartel has over 16 years experience in hedge funds and investment banking.
He began his career at KPMG in South Africa where he managed audit teams primarily in the financial services sector. In 1998 he moved to London to join Schroders as Group Risk Manager before moving to Lehman Brothers in 2000 as CFO for the European Private Wealth Management business. In March 2005 Steven joined GSA Capital as their Finance Officer before making the move to Absolute Return Partners in October 2007 as Chief Operating Officer.
Steven is primarily responsible for the risk management, client services, operations and operational due diligence. He became a Partner in 2009, is a Chartered Accountant and holds a Bachelor of Commerce and a Postgraduate in Accounting from the University of Natal (Durban) as well as the UK SIP’s Investment Management Certificate. He is a member of the Firm’s Investment and Management Committees.