Eighteen was the number. Not of attendees at this year's Hedgeweek US Fund Awards event in New York, but rather the number of basis points that the average global hedge fund had generated for the year (through August). 

The Ruddy Law Office, PLLC (`Ruddy Law') is a Washington, DC-based boutique law firm founded by Mark Ruddy in 2001. The firm is primarily comprised of former regulators with the SEC, NFA, and FINRA.  

State Street's liquid alternatives financing and servicing capability is well positioned to support asset managers, both traditional and alternative, who are looking to diversify their product range. It has built a state-of-the-art global platform that provides fully integrated reporting, compliance, accounting, custody, settlements and investment analytics. 

Agecroft Partners was founded by Don Steinbrugge (pictured), who has 30 years of experience in the institutional investment management industry. Agecroft specialises in consulting and third party marketing for hedge funds. 

With over 1,300 employees in international locations, over 250 employees and 40 partners dedicated to the financial services practice, EisnerAmper LLP has the breadth to handle global enga

The Portfolio Amalfi™ platform by Nedelma Inc offers multi-asset, multi-language and multi-currency dynamic reporting and data visualisation and analysis capabilities to the asset management industry. The platform also offers data aggregation tools as well as portfolio management solutions and a calculation engine. 

By Marianne Scordel – For the third year running, Bougeville Consulting has been asked by Hedgeweek to look at the US hedge fund landscape, particularly as it relates to its European counterpart.

The Lyxor MAP has north of USD8 billion in assets under management and has approximately 80 funds available in a hedge fund managed account format. 

DMS Offshore Group's core business is providing offshore independent directors. Whilst the firm offers the largest independent directorship service in the Cayman Islands, in recent times it has started to provide New York-based independent directors. 

New York-based Protégé Partners, LLC was founded in 2002 to focus exclusively on investing in small and emerging managers with an opportunistic approach to seeding. 

Multi-award-winning hedge fund administrator Opus Fund Services was established in Bermuda in 2006, subsequently expanding its footprint into the US with offices in Chicago (2008), San Francisco (2009), New York (2013), Portland (2014) and most recently Dublin. It serves over 250 fund managers and 325+ funds with a combined AUM exceeding USD10.5 billion.

2015 has been a big year for Concept Capital Markets, LLC. Earlier this year, the firm entered into an agreement to be acquired by Cowen Group, a leading growth investment bank and alternative investment manager with a heritage dating back to 1918. 

New York-based Pulteney Street Capital was established in 2013 by Sean McCooey. Launched in May of 2013, the PSP Multi-Manager Fund (`PSP') is a multi-manager, multi-strategy liquid alternative fund. By using an SMA structure, Pulteney Street is able to monitor portfolios in real time, allowing it to tactically re-allocate capital among managers. Typical investment strategies include: long/short equity, event-driven and liquid credit.

At New York-headquartered Prosek Partners, the tag line is to "unbox communications" and deliver unique, unconventional strategies for financial firms. At the helm is Managing Partner and CEO Jennifer Prosek, who built Prosek from a small Connecticut PR company to an international communications consultancy with offices in London and a number of key partnerships with agencies in Asia and South America. 

Preqin was established 13 years ago, over which time it has evolved to become the pre-eminent data and research provider for the alternative asset management industry. Since day one, Preqin's objective has always been to shine a light on what has, historically, been an opaque industry. 

This June saw Hedge Fund Research broaden its suite of indices with the introduction of the HFRL® family of indices, representing the performance of liquid areas of the hedge fund industry. This adds to the existing set of HFRI, HFRX and HFRU indices that are used by global investors and allocators to benchmark their hedge fund performance.

Although Peregrine only established a US office in New York 14 months ago, the firm has been recognised by readers of Hedgeweek as the runner up Best North American Public Relations Firm for Hedge Funds. Peregrine CEO Anthony Payne said: "We have been engaged with US media since 2002 but it was important for us to be on the ground in New York, the World's hedge fund capital! We are delighted that Hedgeweek readers have shown their support by voting for us and we hope we will deserve to be voted winner next year!"