Email: ben@benjaminbtaylor.com; btaylor@brickfinancial.com
SUMMARY
·
Over
15 years of experience in the financial services industry with expertise in
investment management, strategic planning, financial modeling (NPV, IRR, ROI,
DCF, etc), and conducting presentations to senior management, research,
budgeting, forecasting, security analysis and portfolio management.
·
Founder
of investment advisory firm specializing in managing equity based portfolios
for individuals.
·
Served
as an associate/ consultant with top tier investment bank and Big 4
accounting/consulting firm.
·
Well
versed in market research processes, including due diligence, mining
demographic, economic and statistical data, and data analysis and compilation.
WORK HISTORY
Brick Financial Management (http://www.brickfinancial.com) –
Founder/Investment
Manager -- 2003 to present
Establish an
investment strategy selecting appropriate investments of stocks, bonds, and
funds based on client needs. Make decisions on what percentage of portfolio to
allocate to which security/strategy. Counsel clients on general financial
issues and review investment strategy and performance results. Created and
implemented all marketing materials and presentations for the firm, including,
the firm website, client presentations and newsletter articles. Conduct
seminars on topics including but not limited to personal investment strategies,
styles of investing, asset allocation, managing risk in a portfolio, time value
of money, college savings plans, retirement plans, how to read financial pages,
and investing habits of wealthy households.
Lehman Brothers (http://www.lehman.com)
--
Associate/ Senior
Associate -- 1997 to 2003
Specialize in executing specific portions of projects involving
research, data collection, and recommendation formulation for Financial Control
& Analysis group. Create and manage financial models to ensure liquidity
management. Responsible for financial activities, including reporting to CFO
& Treasury, investigating balance sheet variances, preparing forecasts in
support of controller group, implementing internal controls, and serving as
liaison to outside auditing firms.
KPMG (http://www.kpmg.com)
--
Senior Analyst/
Associate -- 1995 to 1997
Advise clients
in areas of efficiency, effectiveness, consolidation, intergovernmental
cooperation, and privatization alternatives for delivery of services. Assist
clients with strategic financial plans, budgeting, cost management processes,
cash management and cost/benefit analysis. Primarily
responsible for data collection through client and industry interviews, project
analysis, and development of recommendations and solutions.
Public Financial Management (PFM) (http://www.pfm.com)
–
Analyst -- 1994
Advise local and
state government clients in the areas of strategic planning, debt management
and bond issuances. Assisted in providing investment advice
and portfolio management services to governments, not-for-profit organizations,
pension funds and other institutional investors.
HIGHLIGHTS
·
Implemented
Brick Financial’s investment strategy on behalf of
clients. Achieved since inception annualized returns as of December 31st,
2007 of 17.9% versus the benchmark’s (S&P 500) return of 11.3%.
·
Developed
Brick Financial’s corporate website and newsletter. http://www.brickfinancial.com
·
Published
articles for several investment/special interest oriented websites.
·
Built
Brick Financial’s weblog (http://www.brickfinancial.com/brickblog)
from a subscriber base of less than 50 to well over 3,000 in less than a year.
·
Initiated
implementation of Lehman’s intranet for use in management of the firm’s fixed
income reserve.
·
Assisted
in finding areas of unallocated interest, re-engineering Lehman Brothers’
long-term debt allocation methodology.
·
Performed
daily tracking and forecasting of the debt borrowing patterns of Lehman
Brothers’ business units.
·
Performed
feasibility analyses for United Parcel Service’s (UPS) Information Systems
group. Executed NPV analysis for e-commerce initiatives such as UPS Online and
UPS Tracking.
·
Performed
cost-benefit analysis for Lipton’s Dressing division, a subsidiary of Unilever.
Developed a model to assist the Marketing and Brand Management teams pinpoint
slow selling and low profit items by size, type and placement.
·
Performed
a business process analysis for clothing retailer. Made cost management
recommendations designed to improve tracking and control of administrative
operating expenses.
·
Singularly
executed business process and organization improvement of several departments
(Purchasing, Warehousing, and Facilities Management) of the Newark (NJ) School
System after the state’s seizure of the system’s administration. Analysis
provided the client with several million dollars saved and an improved business
method.
·
Performed
an Activity Based Costing analysis for the City of
EDUCATION &
DESIGNATIONS
·
BA:
·
Registered
Investment Advisor (RIA), NASD License: Series 65
·
Chartered
Financial Analyst (CFA) candidate: CFA Institute, (in process)
·
Certificate
in Financial Planning: The American College (in process)
TECHNOLOGIES
·
Familiarity
with Axys and Moxy; Skilled
in Microsoft Office (Windows, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, Outlook, Frontpage & Publisher); Hyperion, Hyperion Retrieve,
Bloomberg, Compustat, Edgar, MRI (Intuit); Database
and Internet Applications: XHTML, HTML, ASP, MySQL,
PHP, CSS; JavaScript
ACTIVITIES
·
National
Association of Black Accountants, Member 2002 to present
·
National
Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship, Volunteer 1999 to 2003