January 10, 2013
Mark Bobseine, founder and head of Cutter Associates for many years, has announced that Tom Seeman has assumed the roles of CEO and majority owner of the company. Over the next few months, Mr. Bobseine will transition his responsibilities to Mr. Seeman. John Clark is assuming the role of President of CutterConsulting, the company’s largest business.
A graduate of Yale University and Harvard Law School, Mr. Seeman brings considerable managerial and financial expertise to Cutter Associates. He has previously been successful operating and investing for the long term in several private businesses. His experience at McKinsey & Company, where he worked mostly in New York and Europe, will be invaluable in growing and enhancing the company’s three businesses: Consulting, Research, and Benchmarking.
Together with the company’s current management team, Mr. Seeman plans to lead Cutter into a new and exciting phase of growth. “Cutter has exceptional potential,” says Seeman. “The asset management industry faces growing cost pressures, increasing regulatory complexity, and a burgeoning array of diverse investment products. I look forward to meeting our customers and listening to their ideas about how we can best support them in this evolving environment.”
Mr. Seeman, who has lived in six countries and worked extensively in Asia, says, “Cutter’s clients are expanding their business around the globe, and we intend to follow them into new regions. We’ll continue our strong execution in existing markets, but we’ll also seek out new opportunities around the world.”
CutterResearch added 30 firms to their memberships in 2012, including firms from Korea, Australia, and Finland. “We want to increase investment in our Research business to support the growing demand for forward-looking ideas and for updates on investment processing trends,” says Seeman. “And we want to provide better customer access to our intelligence by expanding our online capabilities.”
In 2012, the CutterBenchmarking Capability Models became the industry standard, and 140 asset managers participated in benchmarking surveys, including firms in the Nordics, Ireland, the US, Canada, the UK, and France. With CutterBenchmarking reports, clients can see how well they are following leading industry practices, and discover where they need to invest to remain competitive.
Mr. Clark will focus on meeting increasing demand for consulting services across all practice areas: Strategy, System Searches, Implementation Services, and Data Management; and on building momentum in a brand new practice area, Client Facing Processes and Technology. “I’m really looking forward to helping Tom execute on our ideas for growing CutterConsulting and the larger Cutter business,” Mr. Clark says. “This is an exciting time to be at Cutter, and I think our clients will be very pleased with our continued focus on their needs.”
About Cutter Associates, LLC
Cutter Associates, LLC provides truly independent investment process expertise for the investment management community. Through three interrelated services, Cutter Associates provides investment management firms the knowledge and tools to ensure that their business technologies and processes are competitive. CutterResearch offers member firms detailed, actionable research to reduce risk, lower costs and keep up-to-date on systems and operational processes. CutterBenchmarking provides bespoke reports measuring firms’ investment processes by capabilities, risk and effectiveness through comparisons based on tried and tested capability models. CutterConsulting partners with firms to evaluate, select, and implement systems and to develop leading technology and operational strategies. Cutter Associates, headquartered in Rockland, MA, has subsidiaries in Canada and the UK.