Stacia Graham
Managing Director and Asset Management Lead
Stacia Graham has more than 25 years of experience in investment management, bringing a deep understanding of end-to-end asset management processing and project management to her role as Managing Director, Asset Management Research Lead at Cutter Associates.
Stacia also serves as a subject matter expert for targeted engagements in Enterprise Risk and Compliance.
Prior to joining Cutter in 2018, Stacia worked at Wellington Management Company LLP in Boston in various senior roles within compliance, investment administration, and operational risk, including leading and managing the global Investment Guideline Compliance team for eight years. She earned a bachelor of science in business administration from Bryant University and an MBA from Bentley University.
Recent research assignments and publications include the following:
- Client Portal Solutions
- Client Reporting Systems
- Cutter Benchmarking: Client Reporting
- Cutter Benchmarking: Modern Compliance in Investment Management
- Electronic Communications Surveillance Systems
- Hybrid Work Arrangements and Their Impact on Firm Culture
- Performance Measurement and Attribution Systems
- Portfolio Analytics Solutions
- Research Management Systems
- Using RPA to Automate Business Processes
Recent Consulting Engagements include:
- Assessment of business processes and systems to support regulatory reporting (shareholder disclosure reporting) for a large asset manager
- Assessment of requirements and vendor solutions for Electronic Communication Surveillance for a small asset manager, to rectify SEC findings
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
Investment management firms continue to cultivate an environment of greater efficiency, as business owners seek innovative solutions using modern technology to transform the workplace. Firms are embracing RPA as a technical solution to improve process efficiency and strive to use RPA in combination with other modern technologies, including AI. The RPA vendor landscape has been rapidly developing, receiving a steady influx of capital, and showing strong future growth trends. Firms, both large and small, use RPA and they all share a similar story ─ that the ROI benefits of RPA are clear.
This report includes frequently asked questions about RPA, why firms use RPA and the benefits, examples of use cases, and an overview of vendors' products such as Automation Anywhere, Blue Prism, Microsoft, and UiPath.
As a Cutter member, the full report and complete suite of related content is available to you. Watch the meeting replays, use the key insights to brief your colleagues, get an overview from the executive summary, or read the full report.