Steve Hays
Founder & Managing Member, 120dB Films
About Speaker
Stephen Hays is foremost an asset manager and a fiduciary. He has spent his entire career, over 35 years, deploying capital in a range of asset classes in both the public and private marketplaces. Stephen founded 120dB Films in 2004 after 18 years in the securities industry. Since inception, the company has acted as a senior secured lender to almost 100 films and TV series, and has achieved superior risk-adjusted returns with minimal losses. The company has deployed capital on behalf of a large New York-based hedge fund, a Fortune 500 insurer, an iconic family office, and a consortium of high net worth investors. Prior, Stephen was co-founder and General Partner of Seneca Capital, a New York-based hedge fund (1996-2003) with a focus upon event driven investments including risk arbitrage, capital structure arbitrage, spin-offs, recapitalization and distressed securities. Before Seneca, he was a Managing Director at Furman Selz, a NY-based investment bank with a similar investment strategy (1987-1995). Stephen's first position on Wall Street was at Laterman and Co., a risk arbitrage-oriented hedge fund (1985-1987). He received a BA in History from Kenyon College in 1983 and gained a Masters of Science in Accounting and Finance at the London School of Economics in 1985. Stephen is a founding sponsor and former Board member of the Woodstock Film Festival and serves on the Board of Directors of Green Chimneys School for disadvantaged youth where he chaired for many years the non-profit’s Investment Committee. He is an active supporter of numerous other charitable and non-profit organizations, and is a passionate advocate for organizations focused upon social justice and human rights. Stephen is an extreme sports fan and partakes in wake, kite and snowboarding (when his body is cooperating), enjoys creating electronic music and drumming. His personal film projects have taken him from the jungles of Gabon, and the townships of Capetown, South Africa, to the stock car dirt tracks of upstate New York, where he currently resides.