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  • Rob Albright, Alternative Strategy Advisers   -   Mr. Albright is a principal of Alternative Strategy Advisers where he is primarily responsible for portfolio and risk management, client relations and operations oversight. Immediately prior to joining the firm, he was the Chief Investment Officer of EW Blanch Asset Management, an alternative investment business focused on the insurance industry. He joined Blanch after seven years at Cargill Financial Services Corp. (CFSC), a proprietary financial trading operation. In 1998, Mr. Albright managed the North American equity arbitrage desk after returning from London and Geneva where he built and managed CFSC's emerging Europe/Africa equity operations. From 1993-95, he managed the municipal bond arbitrage desk. Mr. Albright joined (CFSC) in 1991 on the equity arbitrage desk, specializing in program trading and convertible bond arbitrage. From 1989-1990, he was an associate in the Boston office of the LEK Partnership, a strategy consulting firm.

    Mr. Albright received his BA in Engineering Sciences from Dartmouth College and his MS in Computer Science from the University of Minnesota. He is a Charted Financial Analyst (CFA).

  • William A. Barr, Evergreen Investment Management Company, LLC   -   is Senior Vice President, Director of Fixed Income Risk Management at Evergreen Investments in Charlotte, NC. Previously he was Vice President, Investment Risk Management - Fixed Income at RiverSource Investments in Minneapolis, MN; Chief Investment Officer for South Financial Asset Management in Greenville SC and the Director of Fixed Income Quantitative Research, Zurich Scudder Investments in Chicago, IL. He also has experience as a fixed income trader of US Treasuries, US Agencies, MBS and Investment Grade Bonds. Bill taught fixed income for the University of Chicago's Program in Financial Mathematics.

    Bill holds M.S., Financial Mathematics, University of Chicago; M.B.A., Finance, University of Chicago; M.Sc., Economics, London School of Economics and B.A., Economics, Claremont Mckenna College. He is also a CFA charter holder.

  • Hunt Blatz, Allianz Life USA   -   Hunt, as Director of Hedge Design Management, oversees hedge design, implementation and execution since September 2007. Previously, he provided quantitative analysis, security and portfolio risk statistics and lead derivatives implementation initiatives within Advantus Capital Management since 2002. Prior to joining Advantus, he was Vice President, Equity Capital Markets at Miller Johnson Steichen Kinnard.

    Hunt is a CFA Charterholder. He holds a bachelor's degree in Physics from the University of Illinois, Champaign/Urbana and is a member of the CFA Society of Minnesota.

  • John Dodson, RiverSource Investments   -   John has been a V. P. with the Investment Risk Management team at RiverSource Investments since 2002. John entered industry through a fixed-term posting with the banking department of the BIS, where he had the opportunity to review the original Value-at-Risk model on behalf of the Basle Committee. Following that assignment, John joined the proprietary derivatives trading function at Credit Suisse in Zurich where he remained until 1995 when he returned to the States to pursue a master's degree. John then shifted into risk management, working in New York and London for several years before returning to Minneapolis. In addition to his affiliation with the math program, John has taught financial derivatives for the Carlson School of Business.

    John has a BS degree in physics and mathematics from Stanford University and an MS degree in computational finance from Carnegie Mellon University. John was an UMTYMP student in the 80's and participated in a mentorship program for high school students with the U's physics department.

  • David Friar, US Bank   -   David Friar is a co-manager at U.S. Bank of the Equity Index, Small Cap Index, Mid Cap Index, and Enhanced Equity Index products. He previously provided quantitative analysis of equity portfolios and constructed quantitatively driven portfolios for institutional and taxable clients. He joined U.S. Bank in 1999 as a member of the Performance Measurement group, and has eight years of financial industry experience. He received a B.S. in finance from Metropolitan State University.
  • Gary Hatfield, Securian   -   Dr. Hatfield is currently Investment Actuary for Securian Financial Group in St. Paul (the parent company of Minnesota Life Insurance Company). The focus of his work is financial risk management. In addition to work on enterprise risk management, asset liability management, economic value of insurance liabilities and economic capital, he is responsible for oversight and implementation of Minnesota Life's derivatives based hedge programs.

    He earned his PhD in mathematics from the University of Minnesota, is a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries, a member of the American Academy of Actuaries and is also a CFA charter holder. Previous to entering the insurance field in 1998, he taught mathematics at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minnesota.

  • Vivek Kaushal, GE Commercial Services   -   Vivek Kaushal was named Chief Risk Officer of GE Commercial Finance Fleet Services in July 2005. Prior to this role, Vivek was the Vice President for Risk Management for GE Fleet's US operations.

    Vivek started his career with GE in September 1995 and has held a number of roles in Risk Management in different GE Commercial Finance businesses, including the role of Chief Risk Manager for GECF in India. Prior to GE, Vivek worked in the Corporate Banking function at ANZ Bank.

    GE Fleet Services is the premier Fleet leasing company in the world, with over 1.2 million vehicles on book and operations in 17 countries.

    Vivek graduated in 1992 with an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta. Vivek also received a BS in Chemical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi.

  • Gary Nan Tie, St. Paul Travelers Companies   -   Gary Nan Tie is Senior Vice President, Investments, and Managing Director, Financial Risk & ALM, at St. Paul Travelers, a Fortune 500 property casualty company in Saint Paul, MN, providing commercial, specialty, and personal insurance. Previously he was a Vice President at Goldman Sachs & Co. in New York and prior to that held positions at Morgan Stanley, New York and Lockheed, Palo Alto.

    He is a reviewer for the American Mathematical Society and serves on the boards of Twin Cities non-profits. He received his Bachelor's degree in science with first class honors from Monash University, Australia, his Master's degree and doctorate in mathematics from SUNY at Buffalo, and his Master's degree in statistics from Carnegie Mellon .

  • Carlos Tolmasky, Cargill   -   Carlos Tolmasky is a derivatives trader at Cargill Petroleum. He joined Cargill in 1996 as a member of their Research Group focusing on the development and implementation of derivatives models for fixed income and commodities markets. He later joined the petroleum group as a "desk quant" and, more recently, as a derivatives/relative value trader.

    The author of various papers in financial journals, Dr. Tolmasky holds an undergraduate degree (Licenciado) from the University of Buenos Aires and a PhD in mathematics from the University of Washington.

Financial Mathematics
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www.math.umn.edu/finmath/advisory_board/index.shtml
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