Salt Lake City, Utah, United States
Finance & Technology Executive & Advisor with experience in Startups, Technology, Product Management & Development, Sales & Sales Engineering, and Innovation & Solutions Prototyping.
Helped Legg Mason and later Franklin Templeton build the latest in digital advice platforms. Led FinancialGuard, a wholly-owned digital (robo) investment advisor. Oversaw several other digital wealth management initiatives.
Founded a financial technology (FinTech) startup driven by the mission to help people make better economic decisions. Created LifeBlox, a decision support engine that brings together powerful financial calculators, real-world data sets, and what-if analysis to help the ordinary person make more informed economic decisions. LifeBlox is now owned by Legg Mason.
Mentored 10 FinTech startups focused on a variety of topics including blockchain, payments, financial data APIs, wealth management, counter-party risk, and creating markets in alternative assets.
Lead a global sales engineering & education team responsible for pre- and post-sales support of nearly $200 million in new sales annually on a $1.2+ billion book of business. Serve as member of global commercial leadership team with management responsibility for more than 120 professionals located around the globe including a significant off-shore team in India. Created a sales professional development program that advances skill levels through rigorous certification across four dimensions: selling, communication, product, and market. Co-founded IQ Lab, an internal research and development “skunk works” team responsible for rapidly prototyping and proving commercial viability of potential new solutions. Develop new solutions with innovative external partners. Responsible for discovery, prototyping potential joint solutions, and negotiating commercial arrangements with such partners. Represent the company, as needed, in senior-level negotiations with clients – particularly where complex solutions and delivery requirements exist. Manage a solutions & delivery team that architects complex/custom solutions, provides systems assurance, and project manages delivery of solutions through to acceptance with large global clients.
Provided expertise and support to sales and product development efforts for a variety of credit and fixed income solutions on a $600+ million book of business. Led a team of MBA/CFA-level, analytical professionals responsible for solutions architecting, thought leadership, and driving mind-share for the firm’s solutions. The group served as a development program, preparing members for senior roles in sales, product, or general management. Drove product innovation by conceiving and incubating new concepts through iterations of prototype development and market outreach.
Transitioned the company (IMAKE) through acquisition by S&P. Integrated systems with S&P, and built out a team of over 20 additional analysts to create structured finance models. Managed a global structured finance application platform with two major products and an analytical services component driving around $10 million in annual revenue. Led product, technology, and sales engineering teams behind the platform along with a team of financial analysts creating complex models. Combined team size of 50+ professionals. Developed and implemented agile prioritization and other product management practices. Provided structured finance subject matter expertise, solution customization and sales engineering services as part of the pre-/post-sales process and solutions delivery.