Leap District brings deep expertise across equity/long-short, managed futures, private equity, real estate, and other alternative strategies, with a focus on helping managers institutionalize and align with industry best practices. 

Before starting Leap District, Mr. Barnes was the Chief Financial Officer and Chief Compliance Officer at Washington Harbour Partners, a Washington DC based asset management firm employing a fundamentally driven private and public long/short equity strategy with a focus on the TMT space.  In his role, he put in place all non-investment processes, helping the firm institutionalize and grow AUM from $50 million to over $600 million in under two years.  Prior to that, he was the CFO of FORT, LP a $7 billion hedge fund with a focus on systematic trading strategies in both the futures and equity markets.  From 2013 – 2020 he oversaw the accounting and operations functions during a period of dramatic growth, with assets under management increasing from $700 million to over $6 billion.  During that time, Mr. Barnes sat on the firm’s operating and risk committees and held board seats on its Cayman and UCITS fund vehicles.  From 2012 – 2013 he served as Chief Operating Officer of Monsoon Capital, an alternative asset manager with a focus on various trading strategies in the Asia-Pacific markets.  Prior to Monsoon Capital and from 2003 – 2012, he was Controller of Declaration Management & Research LLC, a registered investment advisor and wholly owned subsidiary of Manulife Financial, with a focus on fixed incomes trading strategies and over $10 billion in assets under management.  Mr. Barnes graduated from the University of Wisconsin’s School of Business with a BBA in Accounting.  He currently resides in the Washington, DC metro area.