Team - Empureon

Team

The team has a long-standing shared history.

Daniel Lucke joined FERI Trust GmbH in 2011, focusing on volatility strategies. Florian Astheimer joined in 2014, initially as Risk Manager and from 2016 as Portfolio Manager. Ahmet Peker joined in 2018 in institutional client coverage, and Erik Wille completed the team in 2019. Within portfolio management and client servicing at FERI Trust GmbH, the team was responsible for approximately EUR 3.5 billion in assets across three funds and for a broad range of institutional clients. They successfully navigated multiple market regimes and periods of financial stress. In 2023, they decided to establish Empureon Capital Management GmbH together.

Daniel Lucke
Managing Partner
daniel.lucke@empureon.de

Daniel Lucke is a Managing Partner at Empureon Capital Management GmbH. Prior to co-founding the firm, he spent more than a decade at FERI Trust GmbH, where he was Senior Portfolio Manager for volatility strategies from 2011 to 2023 and headed the division from 2020 until his departure. He was instrumental in the development and management of the OptoFlex, US EquityFlex and EuroEquityFlex funds, which reached a combined volume of approximately EUR 3.5 billion and became established market-leading strategies in the volatility space. His work on these funds was recognised with multiple prestigious awards from leading national and international research and analysis firms. He graduated with distinction in Finance from the Frankfurt School of Finance & Management in 2011, completed alongside his professional responsibilities. From 2006 to 2011, he worked at BHF Bank as a Portfolio Manager, where he was responsible for managing bespoke fund-of-funds mandates, including the selection of absolute return and fixed income strategies, and contributed to the development of the bank’s multi-asset platform. Daniel is a regular speaker at industry conferences and a frequent contributor to financial media commentary.

Ahmet Peker
Managing Partner
ahmet.peker@empureon.de

Ahmet Peker is a Managing Partner at Empureon Capital Management GmbH. Prior to co-founding the firm, he worked at FERI Trust GmbH from 2018 to 2023 in Institutional Clients Germany, which he also led from early 2020 until his departure, with overall responsibility for the coverage of institutional investors. He has been active in asset management since completing his degree in Business Administration in 2005. He began his career as a Consultant at Ernst & Young AG before joining Deka Investment GmbH in 2007 as Senior Portfolio Manager, where he was responsible for the design and management of various strategies, including fund-of-hedge-funds and premium strategies.

Ahmet has been a Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA) since 2009 and has led the Germany Chapter of the CAIA Association on a voluntary basis since 2015. He is also the author and editor of several publications, including books and articles, has contributed to working groups within national and international industry associations, and is a regular speaker at conferences and universities.

Florian Astheimer
Managing Partner
florian.astheimer@empureon.de

Florian Astheimer is a Managing Partner at Empureon Capital Management GmbH. Prior to co-founding the firm, he worked at FERI Trust GmbH from 2014 to 2023, initially for two years in risk management and derivative overlay strategies before transitioning into portfolio management in 2016. As a Director, he was co-responsible for the OptoFlex, US EquityFlex and EuroEquityFlex funds, which reached a combined volume of more than EUR 3.5 billion. In this role, his focus lay on portfolio construction, trading, and fund structuring. He also played a key role in shaping the funds’ IT architecture and significantly advanced the underlying models, helping to migrate them onto a more scalable and higher-performance technological platform. He studied Business Administration at the University of Mannheim with a focus on investment and risk management as well as derivatives, earning a B.Sc. in 2011 and an M.Sc. in 2013, and spent a semester abroad in 2010 at Drexel University in Philadelphia. He has been a CFA Charterholder since 2017 and is a member of the CFA Society Germany.

Erik Wille
Director
erik.wille@empureon.de

Erik Wille is a Director in Investment Management at Empureon Capital Management GmbH. Prior to co-founding the firm, he worked at FERI Trust GmbH from 2019 to 2023 in volatility strategies. As Portfolio Manager, he was jointly responsible for the implementation of fund models, trading, and research, and was also involved in client acquisition and relationship management. He holds a Master of Finance (M.Sc.) with a focus on capital markets from the Frankfurt School of Finance & Management, during which he also gained professional experience alongside his studies in a family office, investment consulting, and manager selection. Prior to his career in finance, Erik was a professional football player for Eintracht Frankfurt and MSV Duisburg.

Luis Severien Marcilla
Associate Director
luis.severien@empureon.de

Luis Severien Marcilla is an Associate Director in Investment Management at Empureon Capital Management GmbH. Prior to joining, he worked at FIRST PRIVATE Investment Management until September 2024, where he focused on research in long-short equity strategies. In addition to developing factor and code infrastructure, he was responsible for the design and implementation of forecasting models. Before that, he was part of the Multi-Asset team at Quoniam Asset Management from 2019 to 2023, working on global macro strategies. He holds a B.Sc. in Economics and an M.Sc. in Information Systems from Goethe University Frankfurt, completed in 2016 and 2019, with a focus on finance & accounting as well as machine learning. In 2018, he spent a semester at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge and was part of the neuroscience research group at the Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies from 2021 to 2022. He is an alumnus of the student consultancy GREEN finance consulting and remains actively involved as a mentor and member of its alumni network.