CutterCast: The Role of Machine Learning in Asset 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.

John O’Neill has garnered extensive expertise in IT and Operations for investment management firms over the past 25 years. As a Program Management Director at State Street Global Markets, he was responsible for agile delivery of security reference and pricing data to securities finance analytics platforms. He also worked as an architect on their corporate actions automation and Gold Copy transaction projects. At KLP, John worked with IT leadership to establish future state architecture, including the selection of a new MDM platform. At Acadian Asset Management, he provided guidance during the initial stages of their SS&C middle office platform implementation. At Alexandria Real Estate Investment Trust, he managed components of their digital transformation project

At Bank of New York, John provided project leadership for street facing trade message testing of a hedge fund middle office lift out. He managed key components of reconciliation activities during production parallel testing.

As a product manager for Eze Castle, John introduced a new data management line of business, with the first product moving from concept to client in five months. He also created a Security Master solution that integrated market data from Reuters and Bloomberg. John extended a data management platform to support regulatory reporting workflows, and introduced an ETL system to import and aggregate data from accounting systems, third party administrators, risk systems, and prime brokers. Working directly with top investment managers, John implemented custom performance aggregation and risk reporting solutions.

As Director of IT for Geode Capital Management (2018 AUM $359B), John was responsible for the selection and implementation of technical hardware, software, networking, and communications. John also served Geode as Director of Operations for trading, portfolio management, and cash management. Other roles at Geode included Information Security Officer, where he designed and implemented all procedures, and Manager of market data systems, where responsibilities included contract management, systems design. John also served as a member of the Operating Committee, responsible for the direction, reporting, and management of all major initiatives. Also at Geode, John worked with general counsel to establish master feeder fund structures, implemented FIX connectivity for Inforeach EMS over private broker and TNS circuits. He managed the implementation of all portfolios, ETFs, and pilot funds with custodians, brokers, accountants, and third party administrators. He selected and implemented CRM solutions, and he created regulatory compliance solutions for pre-trade and post-trade analysis and reporting. John also managed the approval and communication of index fund cash flows through all channels, and managed the contract execution of structured notes, CDS, and convertible bonds. John holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from UMass Amherst.

Miquel Noguer i Alonso is a financial markets practitioner with more than 20 years of experience in asset management, he is the Founder of Artificial Intelligence Finance Institute. Head of Development at Global AI and co-Editor of the Journal of Machine Learning in Finance. He serves in the advisory board of Financial Data Professional Institute FDPI and the CFA New York Quant Investing Group.

He worked for UBS AG (Switzerland) as Executive Director. He is member of European Investment Committee for the last 10 years. He worked as a Chief Investment Office and CIO for Andbank from 2000 to 2006. He started his career at KPMG.

He is Visiting Professor at NYU Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences and the CQF institute. He has been Adjunct Professor at Columbia University teaching Asset Allocation, Big Data in Finance and Fintech. He is also Professor at ESADE teaching Hedge Fund, Big Data in Finance and Fintech. He taught the first Fintech and Big Data course at the London Business School in 2017.

He received an MBA and a Degree in business administration and economics in ESADE in 1993. In 2010 he earned a PhD in quantitative finance with a Summa Cum Laude distinction (UNED – Madrid Spain). He completed a Postdoc in Columbia Business School in 2012. He collaborated with the Mathematics department of Fribourg during his PhD. He also holds the Certified European Financial Analyst (CEFA) 2000. He also holds the ARPM certificate.

Jyoti Singh is currently working as a Principal at QMA within Quantitative Equity Research team. In this capacity, she is mainly focused at bringing new research ideas to the table, along with improving the existing models. Prior to this, she worked with the Portfolio Management team where she researched and implemented alpha factors and worked closely with PMs in managing portfolios across International strategies.

Previously, Jyoti has worked with Rothschild in the M&A division handling Telecom sector and as a Field Engineer in Schlumberger.

Jyoti has earned a Bachelors in Technology from IIT Delhi and Masters in Finance from MIT Sloan. She is also a CFA charter holder. She is an avid runner, participates regularly in 5ks and half-marathons. In her free time, she enjoys playing chess and poker.

Kaushik Sudarsan is the Head of Analytics at Polen Capital. In his role Kaushik is responsible for the Business Analytics, Investment Analytics, Risk & Performance, Data Science and Client Reporting functions for the firm. Kaushik also serves on Polen's digital committee and data governance committee.

Prior to joining Polen Kaushik spent 10 years at Northern Trust, a tenure which included serving as the Senior Vice President and head of the Enterprise Data Services & Analytics applications group. Prior to that he worked in technology consulting specializing in investment management, accounting and trading applications. Kaushik received an M.B.A. from the Loyola Institute of Business Administration and a B.Tech degree in Information Technology from the University of Madras.