Richard Ruffer

Richard is a co-founding partner of Pontis Global. Based in the New York City area, Richard serves as an independent director on hedge funds, private equity funds, special purpose vehicles and holding companies. He also serves as Partnership Representative or Designated Individual for various funds in connection with US tax filings and audits.

Prior to co-founding Pontis Global in 2023, Richard was a Director with Intertrust where he provided independent director services for 15 years. Before joining Intertrust in 2008, he co-founded an opportunity fund focused on commercial real estate debt investments, both cash and synthetic, and asset-based lending.  Until 2007, Richard was a Senior Managing Director at Bear, Stearns & Co. Inc. in New York City where he was Head of Commercial Mortgage Securitization and Co-Head of Commercial Real Estate CDO Banking.  He also sat on the Bear Stearns commercial mortgage loan credit committee. 

After graduating from law school in 1990, Richard practiced as a tax attorney at Brown & Wood (which has since merged with Sidley Austin) and at Rogers & Wells (which has since merged with Clifford Chance), where he specialized in investment funds and structured finance. He also worked on tax controversy matters, including audit settlements and court appeals. In 1994, he joined Moody’s Investors Service as a Senior Analyst in their mortgage finance group. 

Richard received a BA, magna cum laude, from Hamilton College, a JD, cum laude, from Cornell Law School and an LLM in Taxation from New York University School of Law.  He is licensed as a Director with the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority (CIMA) pursuant to the Directors Registration and Licensing Act, 2014.