

Jeffrey W. Maillet, a specialist in high-yield bank loans, opened his hedge fund to new investors today. His firm, Noble Asset Management, has been managing a multistrategy fund since February 2002 that incorporates long-short special situations, long-short high yield and long-short distressed securities. Mr. Maillet was a partner and portfolio manager on the distressed debt team at FrontPoint Partners before quitting to form his own firm, said Armel Leslie, a Noble spokesman.
Kneeland Youngblood was elected independent chairman of the board of trustees of the American AAdvantage Funds, said William F. Quinn, president of the fund family and board chairman since 1987. Mr. Youngblood, a co-founder and managing partner of Pharos Capital Group, has been on the fund's board for more than seven years. Mr. Youngblood was chosen roughly a year before the regulatory deadline for naming an independent chairman, in line with the desire of officials for the fund family - which had $12.3 billion in assets as of December 2004 - to be an early adopter of best practices, said Mr. Quinn. Six of the board's eight trustees are independent.