Angela Centeno, CPA
Director, Research
Angela Centeno has more than 25 years of experience in financial services. Prior to joining Cutter in 2015, Angela worked for The Northern Trust Company in multiple roles including sourcing and procuring enterprise market data, investment operations outsourcing, and vendor and custodian relationships. She previously held senior positions in operations management, project management, data management, and solutions implementation. Angela earned a bachelor of science in accounting and a bachelor of science in business administration from the University of Kansas, as well as an MBA in finance from DePaul University. She is a registered CPA.
Recent research assignments and publications include the following:
- AI Use Cases in Investment Management: Infinite Possibilities
- Alternative Investments
- Client Reporting Systems
- Cutter Benchmarking: Alternative Investments
- Cutter Benchmarking: Derivatives and Collateral Management
- Cutter Benchmarking: Firmwide ESG Capabilities
- Derivatives and Collateral Management Solutions
- ESG Data Management
- ESG: It’s a Jungle Out There ─ A Look at the Data Provider Landscape
- ESG Investing: One Vision, Many Lenses
- Market Data Administration
- Private Debt
Laura Jesson
Senior Research Analyst
Laura Jesson has more than 25 years of experience in the financial services industry as a project manager, business analyst, and consultant. She joined Cutter Associates in 2013. Prior to Cutter, Laura spent eight years at Wells Capital Management and Evergreen Investments, where she managed investment operations projects, including those focused on outsourcing, client reporting, and trade management. She previously worked at Omgeo as a member of the Central Trade Manager (CTM) product design team. Laura started her career at Andersen Consulting (now Accenture) as a process consultant supporting a variety of projects for clients in the financial services industry. Laura earned her bachelor of arts in economics and psychology from Amherst College. She holds the Project Manager Professional (PMP) certification.
Recent research assignments and publications include the following:
- AI Use Cases in Investment Management: Infinite Possibilities
- Business Intelligence Tools
- Cutter Benchmarking: Client Reporting
- Cutter Benchmarking: Firmwide ESG Capabilities
- Cutter Benchmarking: Managing Vendors and Service Providers
- DataOps: In Theory and Practice
- Enabling Data Analytics
- ESG Data Management
- ESG: It’s a Jungle Out There ─ A Look at the Data Provider Landscape
- ESG Investing: One Vision, Many Lenses
- Execution Management Systems
- Hybrid Work Arrangements and Their Impact on Firm Culture
- Using RPA to Automate Business Processes
- The Role of the CRM for Asset Managers
This Executive Summary highlights the key findings from Cutter's benchmarking study of operations staffing and organizations. Our findings make clear that this is an exciting yet still challenging time for operations staff.
Support has widened in many ways, with new and increasingly complex instruments in portfolios necessitating more sophisticated data. The goal of efficiency remains strong, and operations organizations are using a variety of sourcing models to support the internal management of assets, the front office, and custom client requests.