CutterCast: Using Marketing Automation to Improve Sales and Service

Mary Storrs has more than 35 years of experience in the investment management industry. She has been with Cutter Associates for more than 20 years, first as a consultant focusing on front-office projects and then with Cutter Research since its inception. Mary has authored Cutter Research reports on many topics, including trading, portfolio management, transaction cost analysis, investment research management, and market data systems. She led the Research and Benchmarking division for eight years, overseeing all content development and helping members understand their capabilities compared with industry peers and best practices. Since 2019 she has been responsible for spearheading firm-wide management and delivery programs. Mary holds a BS from Boston College and an MBA from Babson College.

John Refford joined Cutter Associates in 2018 as a consultant in the client-facing practice. John brings deep expertise in digital marketing technology within the financial services industry. Prior to joining Cutter, John spent 20 years at Natixis Investment Managers, most recently as Senior Vice President, Marketing Technology. There, John led the effort to digitize and modernize the firm’s marketing strategy by launching new digital capabilities and marketing channels. He pioneered the firm’s social media and lead generation programs focused on building brand awareness and driving advisor engagement. Prior to joining marketing at Natixis, John spent 12 years in IT, where he was responsible for the firm’s system, network, and security for global offices. John was a member of the Investment Management Education Alliance and served as a Digital Council board member from 2015 to 2017. A recognized leader in digital strategies, John has presented numerous times at industry events on digital marketing topics. He holds a bachelor of science in computer science from Fitchburg State College, a graduate certificate in technology management from Worcester Polytechnic Institute, and an MBA from Babson College.

Cindy Castellano is the CEO of Cutter Associates and has over 30 years of experience in the investment management industry. She formerly led Cutter Associates’ Client-Facing and Wealth practices, advising asset and wealth management firms on their sales and distribution, marketing, product development, consultant relations, client service, and client reporting. Cindy has conducted system searches for CRM, marketing automation, portals, pitchbooks/client presentation, content management, client reporting, client onboarding, and RFP systems. Prior to joining Cutter, Cindy served as Vice President and Head of Operations for a division of Guggenheim Investments, where she led mutual fund accounting and administration; institutional accounting, billing, and client reporting; SMA operations, performance reporting (GIPS); and fixed income performance, attribution, and risk reporting. As Vice President and Head of Equities, Cindy led the firm’s investment team and supervised equity trading activities.

Cindy also spent 10 years as a Senior Portfolio Manager and Research Analyst, managing over USD 500 million in AUM for mutual funds and VITs using social awareness (ESG), large cap growth, and mid-cap growth investment strategies. She developed the investment process, directed research analysts’ day-to-day efforts, and created the firm’s social criteria and proxy voting guidelines. Cindy, a Chartered Financial Analyst, holds a bachelor’s of business administration from Washburn University. 

Lucy Alligan is Director, Sales Enablement - Global Marketing Automation at State Street Global Advisors (“State Street”), where she is responsible for managing the global marketing automation technologies and team at State Street. Since joining the firm in 2014, Lucy has established the first globally consistent marketing automation technology within State Street Global Advisors and, with her team, is responsible for implementing, integrating, developing and monitoring the marketing automation technologies at State Street to ensure that they are capitalized to their fullest. Lucy and her team are also responsible for the training of internal users of the platforms to drive adoption of the technology. She is a key member of State Street’s Sales Enablement Leadership team and Marketing Automation Governance Committee. Prior to joining State Street Global Advisors, Lucy enjoyed 10 years of marketing and client focused roles in asset management, most recently at ECM Asset Management Ltd (a Wells Fargo Company) where she led the Marketing Communications team.