CutterCast: Cutter Benchmarking Alternative Investments Survey Results

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.

Shankar Subramanian has over 25 years of industry experience in investment management and technology solutions. Shankar has a deep understanding of investment data management, portfolio management, risk management, investment accounting, and alternative investments. At Cutter Associates, he heads the Risk and Compliance practice, helping client with investment risk management, and asset allocation, as well as providing support for compliance with consulting on trading forensics, communication surveillance, regulatory reporting, and guideline compliance. He advises on, and designs, operating models, selects systems, and implements business and technology solutions. He also leads development of Cutter’s alternative investments practices and the firm’s efforts to provide thought leadership and strategic and tactical advice to asset owner clients.

Prior to joining Cutter, Shankar held senior roles at IBM Global Services and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), advising clients and leading global delivery teams in large engagements. Shankar holds a Bachelor of Science in engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology and an MBA in finance and information systems from the Indian Institute of Management.

Dale Gillette has more than 25 years of information systems experience in the investment industry managing projects in the areas of data management, portfolio analytics, performance measurement & attribution, data warehouses, and client reporting. At Cutter Associates, Dale works in the firm’s Strategy & Data Management practices.

Dale has extensive experience conducting current state assessments, developing strategic plans, vendor selections, and managing complex implementations with mixed teams. Dale's career has included roles as an internal IT manager for asset managers and custodians, as well as managing client services and professional services teams for software vendors and he brings all of these perspectives to his work at Cutter.

Prior to joining Cutter Associates, Dale was a principal consultant at Eagle Investment Systems, where he was a practice leader focusing on data management, data warehouse, and performance and attribution implementations. In this capacity, he was responsible for defining project scope, statements of work, and project governance standards. While at Eagle, Dale also played a key leadership role in launching the Managed Services team. Dale also spent six years at Wellington Management Company managing a team of systems analysts, project managers, and consultants supporting the information technology needs of Relationship Management, Marketing, and Business Development in three U.S. and five global offices. There, he was responsible for ongoing development and maintenance of the data warehouse, data marts, client reporting, and client extranet.

Earlier in his career, Dale spent time as a consultant for Putnam Investments, where he was responsible for ongoing development and support of a data warehouse and portfolio management application supporting the Global Asset Allocation team.

Dale holds a B.A. in Economics from Boston College and an M.B.A. in Finance from New York University.

Jon Chandler brings more than ten years of experience in the financial services industry to his Director's role at Cutter Associates. Prior to joining Cutter, Jon was a senior business analyst for State Street Global Advisors (SSGA), where he was involved in a number of projects for the front and middle office, including UAT design and execution for an order management system (Fidessa IMS), the implementation of a web-based due diligence platform (FundInsight), and an enterprise solution to support blended benchmarks. Prior to his project roles, Jon was a principal in fixed income trade operations at SSGA. He has extensive experience with post-trade operations and applications, such as OASYS/CTM, PORTIA, MBSExpert, and Failstation. Jon earned a bachelor of arts in history from the University of Florida and an MBA from Northeastern University.

Recent research assignments and publications include the following:

• Alternative Investment Systems
• Collateral Management
• Investment Accounting Solutions
• Order Management Systems
• Performance Measurement and Attribution Systems
• Reconciliation Solutions
• Risk Management Systems