APNG Focused Session Series - Aladdin Research

Anne Keys joined Cutter Associates in 2006 and is a Managing Director in the firm's consulting practice. Her twenty plus years of professional project management experience encompasses a variety of project successes ranging from single system selections and strategies to enterprise-wide initiatives. Her projects have been for a variety of financial firms and cover a broad range of functional areas such as risk management, data management, research management, front to back portfolio management/accounting systems and business continuity/disaster recovery. Anne also has extensive knowledge of the mutual fund business, with a concentration in investment management, the trade life cycle, fund accounting and data management.

Prior to joining Cutter Associates, Anne served as a Project Team Manager at Bank of America, supporting the Columbia Management Group, where she led a variety of enterprise-wide projects such as building a Business Continuity Program and developing a Program Management Office. Previously, Anne held a number of Business Analyst and Project Management roles at Liberty Funds and MFS Investment Management.

Anne holds a B.A. and a Project Management Certification from Northeastern University.

Cole Castelain, a Director at Cutter Associates, has been with the firm since 2018. At Cutter, Cole has been involved with a wide variety of strategy projects including operating model assessments and system search and selections for business capabilities servicing investments, operations, and client servicing. Cole has also completed implementations of OMS and Performance systems with asset managers, insurance companies, and pension funds. Cole began his career at Cutter in our Data management practice assisting with data governance assessments and data framework implementations with a variety of asset managers and owners.

Cole’s experience with fixed income products is robust. Prior to joining Cutter, Cole worked in multiple capacities for Capital Group in support of its fixed income business including as a business analyst on a cross functional team responsible for launching automated optimized fixed income vehicles, implementing systems, and assisting in the development of technology. Cole began his career at Capital Group as trade analyst supporting the fixed income trading team. At Cutter Cole has assisted multiple Fixed income focused asset managers including an active Muni-Bond Manager

An experienced project manager, Cole has ensured the on-time delivery of multiple complex projects. These included two Aladdin implementations, an issue management system, a data governance framework, and an operating model. Cole leverages his familiarity with Agile, Kanban, modern development software, and BI tools to clearly track milestones, execute initiatives, and monitor issues. Cole reports on these metrics utilizing PowerBI to present clear and timely status reports.

David Joyce leads Cutter Associates’ Client Experience, ensuring client satisfaction across all engagement points as the voice of the client within Cutter. A senior technology and operations leader, David brings over 25 years of experience in leading operations, risk, and technology teams to help them devise and implement agile solutions, mitigate risk, increase scale, and build a culture of operational excellence.

Most recently, he served as an independent consultant to asset management, insurance, and fintech firms, providing expertise and guidance in the areas of derivatives, portfolio integration, customer success, project management, regulatory and control environments, and software development and implementation. Prior to consulting, David spent 20 years at American International Group (AIG) in a variety of increasingly senior roles. At AIG, he implemented innovative tactical and strategic solutions for the firm’s global businesses and led over 40 employees in multidisciplinary teams that performed investment and insurance operations, regulatory and control supervision, IT support, and workforce and facilities management.

Gina McCafferty has 30 years of experience in the financial services industry. She served at Cutter from 1999 to 2011 as Principal and Managing Director of CutterResearch, and she was instrumental in growing that business. Gina returned to Cutter in 2017, and established and ran the company’s Wealth Management research division. In 2019, she was appointed to Head of Research, responsible for Asset Management and Wealth Management product development and delivery to over 200 member firms around the globe. Gina was previously at Investit Ltd., where she served for six years as head of the company’s research service. Prior to that, she held senior positions at DST International with product responsibility for their global accounting and performance measurement systems, and at SunGard as Vice President of Client Services for their securities trading products.

Kathy McDermott has more than 20 years of experience in the financial services industry. She joined Cutter Associates in 2011 and has authored a number of Cutter Research reports on a wide range of topics. She spent ten years as a consultant for a variety of asset management firms, with a focus on business analysis for front and middle office projects. Kathy was previously the senior business analyst, equity trading systems, at Wellington Management, specializing in the firm’s proprietary electronic and basket trading applications. Earlier in her career, Kathy worked for Thomson Financial Services (now Thomson Reuters), supporting FirstCall and PORTIA clients in Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, and Thailand, and later went on to manage PORTIA implementations. She also worked at LongView (now Linedata) as an account manager and then product manager of electronic trading. Kathy earned her bachelor of arts in mathematics from Hamilton College.

Recent research assignments and publications include the following:

• Alternative Data and the Expanding Universe of Investment Information
• Behavioral Analysis in Investment Management
• Client Reporting Systems and Practices
• Data Access for Business Users
• Managed Data Services
• Market Data Administration
• Mastering Client, Account, and Product Data
• Order Management Systems
• Outsourced Trading: Has the Time Come?
• Reference Data Management Solutions

Tom Phipps has more than 25 years of experience in the investment management industry, with a background in the automation of the investment process, including portfolio management, risk analytics, trading, compliance, performance, operations, investment accounting, data management, and systems integration. He leads Cutter Associates’ Front Office practice, providing deep expertise in front-office vendors and operating models. His consulting experience includes strategic advisory, systems selection, and change management execution engagements for some of the world’s most prominent investment management firms. He also leads the development of Cutter’s Strategy and Search methodologies.

Tom gained his expertise in technology and operations at software vendors and asset management firms, where he held leadership roles in technology management. His prior experience includes Senior Manager at Deloitte Consulting, Chief Technology Officer at PanAgora Asset Management, Chief Technology Officer at Atlas Venture, Vice President of Operations at DSTi North America, and various management roles in technology and professional services at NCS Financial Systems (now SunGard AMS). Tom holds a bachelor’s degree in operations management and management information systems from Florida State University.