Bermuda’s Meridian Fund Services has been named the best hedge fund administrator in North America by Hedgeweek.Meridian’s Bermuda-based CEO Tom Davis, in a special report in the magazine’s July issue, attributes the company’s success and high level fo service to its reasonable cost to start-ups, advanced and flexible IT platforms and its recent opening of a New York office to better serve US clients. Mr Davis is a former chairman of the Bermuda International Business Association and served as president of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Bermuda.Meridian, whose head office is in Bermuda, won the title of “Best North American Hedge Fund Administrator” at the Hedgeweek USA Awards 2012. The winners are decided by the votes of Hedgeweek’s nearly 20,000 US-based subscribers, who include institutional and high net worth investors, hedge fund managers, and other industry professionals at firms including prime brokers, custodians, advisers, and administrators.“We’re thrilled to win this award, especially as this is voted for by Hedgeweek’s readership,” Davis said.“We feel this vindicates our decision to open a New York office back in 2004 in order to be close to our clients.”He said the company gained 30 new clients in 2011 and has plans to expand in Europe and Asia, though its focus is on serving US managers right now.Mr Davis discussed Meridian’s approach to the post-2008 era in the Hedgeweek article, saying: “In my opinion, the US is going to be the driver that gets everyone out of today’s economic doldrums. [Meridian wants] to support a lot of the managers that are spinning out of prop desks to start their own funds. The entry barrier in terms of cost is getting higher so what we’re trying to do is lower that barrier for these new managers.”Meridian also has offices in the Cayman Islands, Cambridge Massachusetts, and Halifax, Canada, where, like other fund administrators, it opened a lower-cost servicing centre.