CutterCast: POINT to PORT Migration Project Update

Jamie Blanks is a Senior Project Manager/Team Leader at MFS working primarily on fixed income and other investment strategic projects. He joined the firm in 2012. Prior to MFS, Jamie was a Project Lead in the Client Technology Integration group at State Street Bank where he was responsible for managing all technology and implementation related activities for existing and new middle office clients. He also worked at Investors Bank and Trust Company for many years as a Program Manager responsible for implementing global custody and trade processing project initiatives Jamie graduated with a B.S. degree from the University of Rhode Island and a M.B.A. from Suffolk University.

Brett Doan is a Vice President and Fixed Income Chief Administrative Officer at Jennison Associates. He joined Jennison in September 2014 after 11 years at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, where he most recently served as the Chief Operating Officer for the Interest Rates and Currencies Sales Fixed Income group. Earlier in his career, Brett spent five years at TD Waterhouse Investor Services as a Banking Services Manager. He received a B.S. from the State University of New York and an M.B.A. from Fordham University.

Lakshman Easwaran joined Neuberger Berman in 2004 and is the Head of Fixed Income and Multi Asset Class Risk. He is responsible for investment risk oversight for the firm’s fixed income and multi asset class strategies. Prior to joining the Portfolio Analysis and Risk team, Lakshman was part of Fixed Income Research at Lehman Brothers. He has also worked as a Fixed Income portfolio manager at SBI Mutual Fund and Prudential ICICI Asset Management. He graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay with a B. Tech in Electrical Engineering, received an M.B.A from the Indian Institute of Management in Calcutta, and subsequently received a Ph.D. in Finance from Duke University. He is a certified Financial Risk Manager.

Joe Kerner is an Assistant Vice President in Nuveen’s Front Office Packaged Solutions Group where he is leading the IT effort to migrate from Barclays POINT to Bloomberg PORT. He joined the firm in 1990. Joe is a member of the team responsible for the implementation and support of the firm’s front office vendor applications. During his tenure at TIAA, Joe has led numerous projects and teams providing systems solutions and support for the Global Public Markets front and middle office. Prior to joining TIAA, Joe was a systems consultant at Drexel, Burnham and Lambert from 1987 until the firm’s final days in 1990. At Drexel he developed systems for the options, block trading, and MBS desks. Joe graduated Stony Brook University in 1981 with a double major in Mathematics and Biochemistry. He was awarded his M.S. in Physical Oceanography from Stony Brook in 1985.

Paneesh Rao is a Lead Business Technologist at Neuberger Berman, where he is responsible for managing and delivering technology capabilities to the front office. He joined the firm in 2005. Paneesh and his team are responsible for planning, design, implementation, vendor management and support of a suite of products, so that the Investors have the “fit for purpose” technology solution to function effectively. Prior to joining Neuberger Berman, Paneesh worked at various software firms as an Architect. Paneesh earned his M.S. in Computer Science from Arizona State University.