Senior Management Biographies
Walter Raquet, CPA
Chairman
Mr. Raquet has over 41 years of experience in the securities industry. Prior to launching WR Group, Mr. Raquet co-founded Knight Trading Group in 1995 where he held various positions including Chairman, Executive Vice President, and Director until his departure in 2002. In just five years, Mr. Raquet helped grow the company into the NASDAQ’s top market maker, expanding the firm from $17 million in market cap and 70 employees, to an $8 billion market cap company with 1400 employees. From 1992 to 1994, he was Senior Vice President with Spear, Leeds & Kellogg/Troster Singer, managing their technology and marketing branches. From 1982 to 1992, Mr. Raquet was employed by Herzog Heine & Geduld, Inc., a trading firm, where he directed the firm’s technology and marketing efforts. Mr. Raquet was also Corporate Controller for Paine Webber, Inc. between 1980 and 1982. Prior to joining Paine Webber, Mr. Raquet served as Executive Vice President of Cantor Fitzgerald from 1977 to 1980, and Controller for Weeden & Co. from 1968 to 1976. He is a CPA and practiced at the accounting firm of PricewaterhouseCoopers. Mr. Raquet received a BS in Accounting from New York University in 1966.
Andrew Weisman
Chief Executive Officer
Mr. Weisman has over 20 years of experience in the securities industry. Prior to joining WR, he was a Managing Director and Chief Portfolio Manager for Merrill Lynch’s Hedge Fund Development & Management Group, where he was responsible for strategy, risk management, portfolio construction, and portfolio analytics. In 2002, he co-founded (in association with JPMorgan) Strativarius Capital Management and served as Director of Research. From 1998 to 2002, he was the Chief Investment Officer and a member of the Board of Directors for Nikko Securities International. From 1997 to 1998, Mr. Weisman was Head of Structured Products at Yamaichi America. From 1991 to 1996, Mr. Weisman was a Senior Asset Manager with Commodities Corporation. Mr. Weisman has completed all course work and comprehensive exams towards a PhD in money and financial markets at the Graduate School of Business of Columbia University and holds a MA and BA from Columbia University. His awards include the Bernstein Fabozzi/Jacobs Levy Award (2002) and the GAIM Research Paper of the Year (2003). He is currently a member on the Board of Directors of the International Association of Financial Engineers (IAFE) and a member of the Editorial Advisory Board for the Journal of Portfolio Management.
John Cunningham, CPA
President
Mr. Cunningham has over 15 years of experience in the securities industry. Mr. Cunningham co-founded the WR managed account platform in 2004. From 2000 to 2003, Mr. Cunningham served as Senior Vice President and the Financial and Operations Principal of Knight Securities, LP. and Knight Capital Markets. From 1996 to 2000, Mr. Cunningham was an officer at Greenwich Capital Markets where he was responsible for issuer risk and counterparty risk management on fixed income, asset backed securities, derivative, and foreign currency products. From 1993 to 1996, Mr. Cunningham practiced at the accounting firm of Deloitte & Touche LLP where he earned his CPA while specializing in the capital markets group. Mr. Cunningham earned his MBA from Cornell University and his BS from the State University New York at Albany.
Sandeep A. Patel, PhD
Executive Vice President, Risk & Analytics
Dr. Patel has over 15 years of experience in capital markets. Dr. Patel was the Director and Head of Portfolio Analytics in Hedge Fund Development & Management Group at Merrill Lynch from November 2005 to March 2008, and Founder and Managing Member of Governance Performance Management from August 2004 to October 2005. Dr. Patel served as Managing Director of the Portfolio Analytics Group at Standard & Poor's from 2000 to 2004, and prior to that was a Modeling Specialist for Currencies and Equities at Tudor Investment Corporation from 1999 to 2000. From 1991 to 1999, Dr. Patel was Vice President of European Equity, Emerging Markets, U.S. Fixed Income and U.S. Equity with JP Morgan Investment Management. He has been a Visiting Professor of Emerging Markets Finance at New York University, and a Visiting Professor of Corporate Finance at Texas Christian University. Dr. Patel received a PhD in Finance from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania in 1991, and a MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad in 1984.
Monique Miller
Executive Vice President, Research
Ms. Miller has over 20 years of experience in the investment industry. Prior to joining WR, she was Division Head of Caxton Associates’ Strategic Quantitative Investment Division where she was responsible for trading oversight, manager evaluation, due diligence and research. While at Caxton, Ms. Miller also managed the development and launch of several new business ventures. Previously, Ms. Miller was employed by Capital Markets Risk Advisors where she performed risk analysis for a variety of institutions. She also spent several years as a Vice President at NationsBanc Capital Markets (formerly Chicago Research and Trading). Ms. Miller received an MBA with distinction from New York University in Finance and Economics and graduated cum laude with a BS from Syracuse University. Ms. Miller is a member of the Board of Directors of the International Association of Financial Engineers and is co-chair of its Operational Risk Committee.
Don Carville
Chief Technology Officer
Mr. Carville has over 25 years of experience in Information Technology and more than 10 years in the financial services industry. From 2000 to 2008, he served as Executive Director at Morgan Stanley, where he headed the Data Services division within the firm’s retail brokerage business. From 1985 to 2000, Mr. Carville ran an independent consultancy providing technology expertise to the financial services and telecommunications industries. From 1998 to 2000, Mr. Carville served at Lucent Technologies providing technology direction for their e-Business function. From 1996 to 1998, Mr. Carville served at the Prime Brokerage Division of Morgan Stanley designing infrastructure for their portfolio accounting operations. From 1984 to 1996, Mr. Carville provided systems architecture and design services to Bell Laboratories, including work on large-scale transaction processing systems and real time operating systems. Mr. Carville received a BS in Electrical Engineering from Newcastle University in the United Kingdom, and a MS in Computer Engineering from Clarkson University in New York.
Larry Kassman
Chief Financial Officer
Mr. Kassman has over 25 years of experience in the securities industry. Previously, he served as Chief Accounting Officer of Sandell Asset Management, responsible for the firm’s information technology and operational/financial re-engineering. Before that, he was CAO of Brandywine Global Investment Management and was responsible for the firm's infrastructure procedures including finance, operations, technology, legal/compliance, performance measurement, human resources and general administration. Prior to joining Brandywine, he served as vice president in the Global Operations Division of Goldman Sachs & Co.; as senior vice president and Chief Operations Officer of financial markets at ING Barings; as vice president and CFO at Kenmar; and as vice president and CFO of Smith Barney International. Mr. Kassman is a Chartered Accountant (South Africa) and has held positions at the public accounting firms of Spicer & Oppenheim and Arthur Young & Co. He earned a Bachelor's degree in Commerce and an Advanced degree in Accounting from the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.
Henrik Neuhaus, PhD
Senior Vice President, Chief Risk Officer
Dr. Neuhaus has over 20 years experience in capital markets, investment management, and risk management. Prior to joining WR, Mr. Neuhaus was a founding partner at Triumvirate Capital Management in Stamford, Connecticut where he was responsible for the development and implementation of quantitative methodology and served as joint Chief Investment Officer. Additionally, he served as Chief Quantitative Officer of a funds-of-funds manager. Dr. Neuhaus co-founded SMN Advisors and managed his own consulting business. Before moving to the US in 1998, Dr. Neuhaus ran the Group Risk Division for Nikko Securities, traded derivatives for S.G. Warburg and J.P. Morgan, and worked as an analyst for Salomon Brothers. Dr. Neuhaus has a doctorate in economics from the University of London and a BS in Economics from the Stockholm School of Economics.
Patrick Lynch
Chief Investment Officer
Mr. Lynch has over 30 years of experience in capital markets trading, investment management and risk management consulting. Prior to joining WR, he was Executive Vice President of Wolf Asset Management and served as a member on its Management and Investment Committees. From 2001 to 2004, Mr. Lynch was a senior member of both the Investment and Marketing teams at Mariner Investment Group. From 1998 until 2001 he was Manager of KPMG’s Capital Markets Consulting Practice. From 1992 until 1998, Mr. Lynch was Executive Vice President in charge of Fixed Income Trading and Sales at Yamaichi International America and a member of its Management Committee. He was Vice President in charge of US Government Bond Trading at UBS from 1987 to 1992. Mr. Lynch attended New York University Graduate School of Business and is a graduate of Columbia University with a BA in Economics.
Jeff Schmidt
Senior Vice President, Director of Business Development
Mr. Schmidt has over 25 of years experience in alternative investments, capital markets trading and sales. Prior to joining WR, he was Director of Merrill Lynch’s Hedge Fund Development & Management Group providing custom hedge fund solutions to institutions and ultra high net worth individuals. From 2004 to 2006, Mr. Schmidt was a Managing Director and Chief Operations Officer of Marathon Capital Growth Partners, LLC, a Connecticut based Commodity Trading Advisor. From 2002 until 2004, he was Senior Hedge Fund/Derivatives Specialist at Bloomberg LP. Previous professional experience includes his position as Managing Member of Windward Investment Advisors, a hedge fund consulting firm based in Connecticut as well as Director of Hedge Fund Sales at Credit Suisse First Boston, Credit Lyonnais and Bear Stearns. Prior to Bear Stearns, Mr. Schmidt spent 11 years as a proprietary global fixed income trader. He holds a BA from Tulane University (1980) and received an MBA from Tulane University (1982).
Chris Bautista, CFA, FRM
Vice President, Senior Research Analyst
Mr. Bautista has over 10 years of experience in asset management, securities analysis and project finance. Prior to joining WR, Mr. Bautista worked for an asset management company based in New York City, where his primary responsibility was conducting due diligence on hedge fund managers. Before that, he was a senior manager and lead investment analyst of a business conglomerate based in the Philippines and was a business analyst for the Philippines’ leading petroleum company. Mr. Bautista received his BS in Civil Engineering from the University of the Philippines, his MBA from the Asian Institute of Management and completed the Financial Risk Management course at New York University. He was awarded the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation and Financial Risk Manager (FRM) certification in 2006. Mr. Bautista is a member of the CFA Institute, New York Society of Security Analysts (NYSSA) and the Global Association of Risk Professionals (GARP).
Clay McDaniel, CFA
Vice President, Senior Research Analyst
Mr. McDaniel has 5 years of experience in the financial industry. Prior to joining WR, Mr. McDaniel was the Founder and President of McDaniel Capital Management where he advised private clients on their alternative asset portfolios. Prior to founding his firm, he served as an investment advisor to a family office in Florida. He has completed PhD coursework (all but dissertation) in Finance, holds an MS in Economics, and a BBA in Finance from the University of Kentucky. He is a CFA Charter Holder.
Philip Tulimieri, CAIA
Vice President, Senior Research Analyst
Mr. Tulimieri has 15 years of experience in the financial services industry including equity trading and research, and hedge fund research and due diligence. Prior to joining WR, Mr. Tulimieri was a founding partner at Triumvirate Capital Management in Stamford, Connecticut where he was responsible for hedge fund manager selection and served as joint Chief Investment Officer. Prior to Triumvirate, Mr. Tulimieri was Director of Manager Research and a member of the Investment Committee at Parker Global Strategies where he was responsible for identifying, evaluating, and monitoring hedge funds for the firm’s funds-of-hedge-funds. Prior to that, Mr. Tulimieri held various positions in trading, operations and research at Newgate LLP and was an investment analyst at AIG International Asset Management (now DKR Capital). Mr. Tulimieri received his BA in Economics from McGill University and is a Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst.
Kevin Duffy, CPA
Vice President, Technology
Mr. Duffy has over 15 years of experience in the financial industry. Prior to joining WR Capital Management, Mr. Duffy worked for the Pepsi Bottling Group where he managed the development of an application security framework based upon Open LDAP. He was at Parker Global Strategies where he was the IT manager and was responsible for developing custom software to support the fund of funds business. Mr. Duffy was a lead developer at SAC Capital Advisors in Stamford, CT. He is a CPA and practiced account at Edward Isaacs & Co., NYC. Mr. Duffy earned his MBA in Accounting from Baruch College and his BBA from Hofstra University.
Juan Castrillon
Vice President, Operation Manager
Mr. Castrillon brings over 15 years of experience in financial markets and alternative investments. Prior to joining WR Capital Management, Mr. Castrillon was Vice President and responsible for Sales and Relationship Management at JP Morgan Hedge Fund Administration Services. Before his time at JP Morgan, Mr. Castrillon was the Co-Head of the Alternative Investments Consulting Practice at Bearingpoint, Inc. He established the Prime Brokerage Consulting Group of Bear Stearns as an Associate Director of Global Prime Brokerage Services. Prior to Bear Stearns, Mr. Castrillon was a Client Service and Relationship Manager within Goldman Sachs Prime Brokerage. Mr. Castrillon has also served as guest speaker at the 4th Annual Alternative Investments Summit to present industry best practices on mitigating hedge fund fraud. In addition, he has also participated as a guest speaker at the 2nd Annual Buy-Side Technology Conference to expound on the impact the transition from traditional to alternative portfolios has had on portfolio management technology. Mr. Castrillon received his BS in Finance from the State University of New York, Old Westbury.