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Hennessee Group LLC is an investment management firm founded in 1997 by Charles Gradante, former President and CEO of U.S. National Bank the Chelsea Bank and E. Lee Hennessee, formerly the director of hedge fund investments at Republic National Bank. The firm began as a investment division of E.F. Hutton, and was acquired by Weiss, Peck & Greer. The hedge fund investment advisor operated independently and provided a variety of quantitatively driven hedge fund investment research as well as hedge fund performance indexes institutional clients, high net worth and financial advisors. The company is based in New York, New York. In January 2013, The Hennessee Group LLC sold its hedge fund advisory business to Terrapin Asset Management, retaining ownership of the Hennessee Hedge Fund Indexes and related research services.

Investment style
The firm invests in hedge funds directly, and was a pioneer in direct investments, versus the more common fund of fund services. As of January 2013, Hennessee Group agreed to sell its Hedge Fund Advisory business to Terrapin Asset Management LLC for an undisclosed amount. .

The firm now focuses on its quarterly and monthly reports and index services, which have been widely cited by the likes of Bloomberg LP, Thomson Reuters Corporation, Barrons and Factset Research among other major investment media services. The research and indexes are based on the performance and investment forecasts of alternative asset managers. The Hennessee Group breaks its index business down into four categories:

This is the benchmark Hennessee index which tracks monthly hedge fund performance relative to peer markets and investment strategies. The index has been in operation since 1993, tracking industry leader performance and changing the peer basket due to improvement of members in the community.
 * Hennessee Hedge Fund Index.

The Hennessee Long/Short Equity Index includes funds that invest primarily in U.S. domestic stocks that the portfolio manager believes will appreciate in value and will short stocks that the portfolio manager believes will depreciate in value. Volatility and return expectations are generally higher than arbitrage/event driven funds because of the managers' utilization of market risk. The Hennessee Long/Short Equity Index includes funds from the following sub-sectors: financial equities, growth, healthcare and biotech, opportunistic, market neutral, media and telecom, short biased, technology and value.
 * Hennessee Long/Short Equity Index.

The Hennessee Arbitrage/Event Driven Index includes funds that invest in arbitrage opportunities or event driven situations. Volatility and return expectations are generally lower than long/short equity funds because of the managers' desire to minimize market risk. The Hennessee Arbitrage/Event Driven Index includes funds from the following sub-sector indices: convertible arbitrage, distressed, event driven, merger arbitrage, multiple arbitrage, PIPES/private financing, high yield and fixed income.
 * Hennessee Arbitrage/Event Driven Index.

The Hennessee Global/Macro Index includes funds that invest in securities (equity, fixed income, currencies, or commodities) with an international scope. Strategies range from long/short equity to macro hedge funds. Volatility and return expectations are generally equivalent to long/short equity funds because of the utilization of market risk. The Hennessee Global/Macro Index includes funds from the following sub-sectors: emerging markets, latin america, macro, asia-pacific, europe and international.
 * Hennessee Global/Macro Index.

Description and history
After eleven years as a business division in partnership with several major financial institutions, E. Lee Hennessee and Charles Gradante took the firm private and formed an independent entity, Hennessee Group LLC in 1997. Since the beginning of the group's existence in 1987 as the Hennessee Hedge Fund Advisory Group, the firm's focus has been direct hedge fund investments by high net worth and institutional investors. At its peak the Hennessee Group managed over $1.6 billion in assets under management.

The Hennessee Hedge Fund Indices have been cited by hedge fund managers and investors to benchmark hedge fund performance since 1993. The Hennessee Group has additionally published the Hennessee Hedge Fund Review since 1993, providing monthly outlooks into hedge fund activity.

The principals remain today, E. Lee Hennessee and Charles Gradante, who have frequently appeared on Bloomberg Television and Comcast's CNBC, to provide context and performance reviews of the hedge fund industry. The Group's research and economic commentary has been quoted in publications, including the Wall Street Journal, Barron's, Forbes, The Financal Times. Selected TV appearances are on YouTube. http://www.hennesseegroup.com/company/interviews.html

Charles Gradate has testified before the House of Representatives as an industry expert discussing the systemic risk in the wake of Long Term Capital Management. In addition, he also participated in a SEC Roundtable on hedge funds and in a CFTC Roundtable on CPO and Commodity Pool Industry issues. The Senate Banking Committee also sought Charles Gradante's opinion on the issue of hedge fund regulation, the role of hedge funds in providing liquidity to markets and potential systemic risks associated with hedge funds.

http://www.canadianhedgewatch.com/content/news/general/?id=4578

http://democrats.financialservices.house.gov/banking/10198gra.shtml

http://www.banking.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Files.View&FileStore_id=81cb6324-f697-42f1-a851-9829cdda229a

http://www.hennesseegroup.com/information/info/TESTIMONY%20OF%20CHARLES%20GRADANTE%20OCTOBER%201998.pdf

In the May 13, 2007 issue of the New York Post, Lee Hennessee was listed as one of the New York's 50 Most Powerful Women.

http://nypost.com/2007/05/13/new-yorks-50-most-powerful-women/

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