Troubled hedge fund shop Absolute Capital Management has made its first major hires since the firm went into a tailspin following the abrupt resignation of its founder in September.

Daniel Bieri will head AbCap’s risk management, while Athanasios Ladopoulos joins the firm as a portfolio adviser. Bieri most recently worked at Swiss Life Asset Management, while Ladapoulos worked at London hedge fund Kinetic Special.

AbCap shares plummeted and investors raced for the doors after co-founder Florian Homm, who had invested much of the firm’s assets in illiquid pink sheets, resigned last year. The firm blocked redemptions and pushed through a fund reorganization to keep itself afloat, and bid farewell to the managers of its German fund.

Last month, it proposed a plan to demerge from Argo Capital Management, the emerging markets credit shop it acquired in January 2007.