About Us
Alembic /a-‘lem-bik/
1. An apparatus used for distillation consisting of a rounded, necked flask and a cap with a long beak for condensing and conveying distilled product to a receiver;
2. (metaph.) something that refines or transmutes as if by distillation. [Middle English alambic, from Old French, from Medieval Latin alembicus, from Arabic]
The word alembic comes, like much alchemical terminology, from Arabic. The early pioneer of distillation, Persian scientist Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi (854 CE – 925 CE), used alembics widely in his work. The word is used metaphorically to describe the process of taking one material, idea or datapoint, applying reasoned analysis (the catalyst) and coming up with something entirely new (“the alembic of creative thought”).
Alembic thus captures the essence of our firm in multiple ways: literally, as the company began with coverage of the chemical industry, metaphorically, in that we seek to “distill” a global array of data into actionable research points, and lastly, because of our firm’s connection to both the historical tradition of, and modern industries in, the Middle East.
Hassan Ahmed
Prior to founding Alembic Global Advisors Hassan was a Managing Director and Global Sector Head for Chemicals Research at HSBC. Previously, Hassan has worked as a senior buy-side research analyst covering the materials space at Brown Brothers Harriman, a senior sell-side research analyst covering the chemical space at Sanford Bernstein, a strategy consultant at the Mitchell Madison Group and a process engineer at Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI). Hassan has won several accolades in research having been ranked #1 Middle East and North Africa analyst by Extel in 2009 -2012; #1 US stock picker by FT/Starmine in 2008 and Best Up and Comer in the US chemical sector by Institutional Investor in 2006 and 2008. He received a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from London University and an MS degree in operations research from Columbia University. He holds NASD Series 63, 7, 86, and 87 licenses.
Stephen Matthews
Prior to founding Alembic Global Advisors Stephen was a Managing Director and Head of the US based Emerging Markets sales desk at HSBC. Stephen was responsible for the distribution of HSBC’s Asian, EEMEA, and Latin American research product within the US. Prior to working at HSBC Stephen worked on the Institutional Sales desk at Banc of America Securities, selling US equities, in both San Francisco and New York. Stephen began his career in the Institutional Sales and Trading training program at Dean Witter Reynolds in New York. In addition to his sales experience Stephen worked on the Equity Capital Markets desk at Hambrecht & Quist in San Francisco. He holds NASD Series 24, 7, and 63 licenses.
Pete Skibitski
Pete Skibitski has joined Alembic Global Advisors as a Senior Analyst covering the commercial aerospace and large-cap defense sector from Drexel Hamilton. Pete has 20 years of experience following the defense industry in various capacities, beginning at trade newsletter Inside the Navy in 1998. He also worked for the Washington, DC, consulting firm DFI International (now Avascent) in the early 2000s, conducting budgetary, strategic and price-to-win analysis for leading defense firms. Skibitski joined Wachovia in 2003 as an equity analyst before moving to Credit Suisse in 2005 where he helped launch coverage of the federal IT sector. He also served as the lead aerospace and defense analyst at SunTrust Robinson Humphrey from 2010-2012 before joining Drexel Hamilton in March 2012. Skibitski finished first in the 2015 Thomson Reuters/Starmine aerospace and defense stock picker rating and was rated third for earnings accuracy in 2017. He graduated Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute with a B.S. in Computer Science and holds the FINRA Series 7, 63, 86 and 87 licenses.
