Vendor View: Turning Data into Action - The Expanded Role of Data Management Services in Investment 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.

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

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

Kristina Blaschek is director of business and technology solutions for William Blair Investment Management. In this role, she provides strategic direction and oversight regarding technology development, oversees data integrity and governance, and is William Blair Investment Management’s chief liaison with the firm’s human resources, information technology, and recruiting groups. Before assuming this role in November 2017, Kristina was a global research manager, working closely with directors of research to oversee research operations and managing the global and U.S. equity research associates. Before joining the global research team, she was a senior associate in William Blair’s sell-side research group, where Kristina focused on the healthcare sector for six years. She joined William Blair in 2007. Previously, Kristina worked in the advisory investment banking industry as an associate at Lazard Middle Market and as an analyst at JPMorgan Chase & Company in Chicago. Before that, she worked in JPMorgan’s equity products division and completed the firm’s capital markets development program, rotating between asset-backed finance, high-yield products, interest-rate-derivative marketing, and equity products. Kristina co-leads the William Blair Women’s Alliance. Kristina is on the Board of Directors for the Auditorium Theatre. She received a B.B.A. in finance with honors from Loyola University Chicago and an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business.

Sam is the Chief Technology Officer at Boston Partners. Sam has worked in the financial services industry for over 17 years spanning both buy side and sell side firms. He has a wealth of experience implementing applications for portfolio management, order management, trading, data management and data warehousing. Prior to joining Boston Partners he was a Lead Systems Analyst at Wellington Management and an Implementation Manager at Charles River Development. Sam holds a Master’s degree in Computer Science from Virginia Tech and the Chartered Financial Analyst® designation.

Rob is Head of Sales for North America at Rimes. Rob has worked in the financial services industry for over 20 years and his experience spans systems, portfolio accounting, data management, performance and risk measurement and trading. Prior to joining Rimes, he founded Levr Technology in 2015 which merged with Matrix in 2018. Prior to this Rob enjoyed a successful career with IHS Markit (formerly Cadis).