Jan. 19, 2016
Huntington Beach, CA - January 19 – A total of three water polo veterans from across the nation have been nominated to the USA Water Polo Board of Directors. Houston Hall, a current Masters player from Dallas, Texas, Steve Rodosky, a water polo parent from Newport Beach, and William (Bill) Smith, a club leader from Greenwich, Connecticut, will begin their service at the next meeting of the Board, which will be held in Dallas this February. Hall and Rodosky are both newcomers to the Board while Smith returns after a hiatus.
Houston Hall is the co-founder and manager of Falcon Fund, Ltd., a Dallas, TX-based long-short equity hedge fund launched in 1990. Hall played his collegiate water polo at Harvard University, and is a strong advocate for expansion of water polo in Texas.
Steve Rodosky is a managing director at PIMCO, in charge of US Interest Rate Trading and a portfolio manager for corporate pension plans. Presiding over a water polo family, four of his six children compete in the sport from club to college.
Bill Smith is the Founder and CEO of Renaissance Capital, the global leader in helping Institutional Investment Managers and Hedge Funds profit from IPOs with its Pre-IPO research. An enthusiastic booster for water polo growth nationally, Smith has founded a number of programs on the East Coast that continue today. Smith played water polo at Villanova and over the years has also served as a coach and club director.
“We are delighted that Houston, Bill and Steve are willing to commit their talents and enthusiasm to our federation by serving in a governance capacity,” said Mike Graff, Board Chairman. “Their leadership brings us new skills and perspectives, as well as further geographical diversity consistent with our desire to expand water polo across the nation. I am grateful to them for accepting this responsibility.”
Houston Hall Houston Hall is the co-founder and manager of Falcon Fund, Ltd., a Dallas, TX-based long-short equity hedge fund launched in 1990. Falcon Fund invests in a wide range of securities and businesses, with a strong focus on U.S. publicly-traded equities. Since 2007, Falcon Fund has operated exclusively as a family-office investment partnership.
Mr. Hall is also a co-founder of BioMatrix Partners, Ltd., a family-owned investment partnership focused on public and private biotechnology companies, with an emphasis on early-stage opportunities. In addition, Mr. Hall is co-founder and Chairman of Agilis Biotherapeutics, LLC, a Cambridge, MA-based biotech company focused on the development of gene therapies for rare diseases of the central nervous system.
Mr. Hall earned an A.B. in Economics from Harvard College in 1982, where he played on the school's first varsity water polo teams. He continues to be involved in water polo at the local level with the Dallas Water Polo Club, and has been instrumental in the successful development and growth of the sport at the junior level in North Texas the past five years.
Steve Rodosky Steve Rodosky is a managing director at PIMCO, in charge of US Interest Rate Trading and a portfolio manager for corporate pension plans. He serves on the Treasury Borrowing Advisory Committee in Washington DC, consulting senior government officials quarterly.
Steve holds a BA in English from Villanova University and MS in Financial Markets and Trading from the Stuart School of Business in Chicago.
Steve and his family have volunteered with Operation Smile, a charity which performs surgeries on children with facial deformities in the third world. They have also been deeply involved with the Samueli Academy, a charter school in Orange County serving students in the foster care system. Steve is on the board of directors for the Boys and Girls Club of the Harbor Area and is an active supporter of US Olympics.
Steve and his wife Kim have lived in Newport Beach for 14 years. They have six children--4 boys and 2 girls. Their sons Charlie and Jack play for the UCSB Gauchos. William plays for Corona Del Mar high school and Matthew is an 8th grader in the CDM Club program. Their daughters, Annie and Emily, prefer horseback riding but acknowledge the sport will find them soon enough.
Bill Smith Bill Smith has been involved with the sport of water polo for more than 25 years, as an athlete, coach and club director. In addition to age-group athletes, he also coached at three universities and was the assistant coach for the USAWP Cadet National Team at the World Championships in Serbia.
He is a prolific club organizer having founded several age group water polo clubs and high school teams that have trained over 1,000 athletes in the Greenwich, CT area.
Past USA Water Polo Board positions include Board Secretary, Chairman of the Finance Committee, and member of the Nominating, Development and Compensation Committees.
He is the Founder and CEO of Renaissance Capital (Established 1991), the global leader in helping Institutional Investment Managers and Hedge Funds profit from IPOs with its Pre-IPO research. Renaissance Capital also helps individuals invest directly in the IPO market with its NYSE-listed Renaissance IPO ETFs (USA and International).
Mr. Smith has an MBA in Finance from the Wharton School (Univ. of Pennsylvania) and a BS in Electrical Engineering from Villanova University. He has two children that played D-1 water polo at Harvard and Stanford.
