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, 2009 of 11.24% versus the benchmark’s (S&P 500) return of 4.56%.
·
Developed Brick Financial’s corporate website and
newsletter. http://www.brickfinancial.com
·
Published articles for several investment/special interest
oriented websites including stockblogs.com, vinvesting.com, seekingalpha.com and
blacknj.com.
·
Built Brick Financial’s weblog (The Third Pig) from a subscriber
base of less than 50 to well over 3,000 in less.
·
Various projects as independent consultant working with
some of the top organizations and non-profits in the country including: The Bill
and Melinda Gates Foundation and Prudential Financial.
·
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; Database
and Internet Applications: XHTML, HTML, ASP, MySQL, PHP, CSS; JavaScript, Adobe
Creative Suite
ACTIVITIES
·
National Association of Black Accountants, Member 2002 to
present
·
National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship,
Volunteer 1999 to 2003