A small team, committed to a cause bigger than themselves,
can achieve absolutely anything.
Board Of Directors
Our Board of Directors work passionately after hours and on weekends to build Scholars of Finance as diligently, prudently, and effectively as possible.
Carla is a Vice President in the Financial Markets Infrastructure (FMI) group based in New York, focused on managing key FMI initiatives across Citi’s business globally. Born and raised in Brazil, Carla came to the USA in 2009 to earn her MBA at the University of Michigan. In 2011, Carla joined Citi as a member of their global Leadership Development program. Since then she held multiple roles across Citi’s Corporate and Consumer Bank. Carla is engaged in various mentorship and recruiting initiatives at the firm and is the Co-Chair of Citi's Hispanic & Latino Heritage Network, NYC.
Ryan is a Minneapolis, MN native, and after stints in Boston & London, returned to Minneapolis to start his career & help co-found Scholars of Finance. Since 2016 Ryan has called midtown New York home. During the day Ryan works with hedge, mutual, and sovereign wealth fund clients to source & execute their investments in U.S. public equities. After market hours Ryan enjoys running, exploring the city with his wife, and as many trips to the mountains & back to the lakes in MN as his schedule allows.
Nico, a Minnesota native trapped in Chicago by career, helps market, underwrite, execute, and manage a portfolio of private placement investments. Previously Nico served as an elected director on the board of his national fraternity where he helped develop policy objectives and represented over a thousand undergraduates across Midwestern chapters. In his free time Nico enjoys escaping the city and traveling across hemispheres, skiing, playing soccer and tennis, studying behavioral psychology and for the CFA.
Katie is passionate about helping companies cultivate and sustain an ethical culture in which every person feels empowered to speak up when something may not be right, ask questions when they aren't sure, and live by their values every day, in every interaction.
As an ethics leader, HR professional and attorney, she builds strong relationships with stakeholders across the organization. She understands the needs of the business and develops programs and solutions that drive better business outcomes.
As Global Chief Ethics Officer, Katie serves as the company’s leading voice and ambassador on the importance of maintaining a strong ethical, compliance-based corporate culture. She regularly advises and supports executive leadership in evaluating ethics expectations and establishing and enforcing ethics policies.
In her free time, she is a gardener, a reluctant camper, a cat wrangler and a back-of-the-pack triathlete.
Executive Team
Our executive team is engineering and executing the Scholars of Finance vision in universities from coast to coast.
Ross has held roles spanning Equity Research at Piper Sandler to serving on the leadership team standing up SoFi’s banking division. He has launched businesses, owned $10M+ budgets, and project/program managed 100+ teammates in various management positions.
He believes that in today's society, responsible finance, values-based leadership, and effective education are critical to the development of a better world. As such, he is committed to transforming the financial system with his team at Scholars of Finance.
His hobbies include triathlon training & competing, start-up advising, (poorly) attempting freestyle/spoken word, and studying neuroscience, economics, history, and philosophy.
Stephen joined Scholars of Finance as the Chief Operating Officer in January 2020. He was most recently a senior manager and VP of U.S. Bank. Previously he was a commissioned officer in the Minnesota National Guard’s chaplain corps and the founder and CEO of Beyond Demographics, LLC. Stephen earned a Master’s of Divinity from Bethel University and is academically published in the Journal of Pastoral Psychology. Today Stephen lives in St. Paul, Minnesota with his wife and two kids. He invests his free time into his family, friends, and music.
Advisory Board
One of Wall Street's most respected technical analysts, Ralph has been consistently ranked by Institutional Investor for more than 10 years. With 47 years of experience, he is a pioneer in the development of market analytics and has a global reputation as a technical analyst and market historian.
Ralph is a Senior Managing Director at Altaira Ltd., which offers wealth management services to family offices and high net worth individuals. He is regularly consulted for his market opinion by CNBC, Fox Business, Barron’s, and others. Ralph is a trustee on the board of the Security Industry Institute and is involved in the establishment of the Securities Traders Association University. He is also the founder of the Chartered Market Technicians Association, which today has more than 80 chapters and 5,000 members globally. He also founded and was the first chairman of the International Federation of Technical Analysts.
A former director of technical research at Knight Equity Markets, Ralph worked for 15 years at Prudential Equity Group as director of technical analysis. He worked at several of the financial industry's top firms, including Kidder Peabody & Co. and Smith Barney.
He is the Co-author of the Chartered Market Technician (CMT) examination and author of The Fourth Mega-Market, Now Through 2011: How Three Earlier Bull Markets Explain the Present and Predict the Future.
Matt is currently a founding partner of Ramp Catalyst Network, an early-stage digital health-focused venture fund, as well as acting Senior Advisor to Yellowstone Holdings helping to bring an advanced cybersecurity offering to the health market-place.
In 2014 Matt joined Accenture as the head of the Global Health Strategy practice. In 2018 he moved over to stand-up a new practice focused on the convergence of industries into health. While there he helped clients across the landscape including payers, providers, distributors, life-sciences, pharma and Med-Tech to address the disruptive changes currently affecting the healthcare industry in addition to having served those players from adjacent industries seeking health market entry. He has also worked extensively around the world including Europe, North and South America and APAC.
Prior to joining Accenture, Matt was a Partner at Bain & Co. where he developed and led Bain’s Global Medtech growth initiative from nascent to market leading in 5 years and drove the growth of their APAC health practice from Shanghai in 2011-14. He has also consistently supported PE funds in both front-end diligence and portfolio optimization. Prior to his stint at Bain he spent a decade as a serial-CEO running 3 privately backed companies and sitting on 4 boards in the med-tech, pharma and health services sectors. He originally developed his passion for healthcare while at McKinsey where he spent 5 years working across the payer/provider, pharma and med-tech sectors.
Davis rose through the banking ranks to ultimately lead the fifth largest commercial bank in the U.S. Davis served as an Executive Vice President of Bank of America and of Security Pacific. In 1993, he joined Star Banc Corporation as Executive Vice President for Consumer Banking. In 1998, he oversaw the merger of the Star Banc Corporation with the Firstar Corporation, Firstar with the Mercantile Corporation in 1999, and Firstar with U.S. Bancorp in 2001. He served as Chief Operating Officer of U.S. Bancorp from October 2004 to December 2006. He has served as President from October 2004 to January 2016, Chief Executive Officer since December 2006, and Chairman of the Board since 2007, remaining in top leadership at U.S. Bank until 2017. Since leaving, he has served as the CEO of Make-A-Wish America.
Richard Davis also sits on the boards of the National American Red Cross, Mayo Clinic, as well as many other well-known companies. He has also served on many not-for-profit boards for more than 30 years, including Goodwill, United Way, YMCA, the University of Minnesota Foundation and the University of San Diego. Additionally, he has served in leadership positions on the boards of the Minnesota Orchestra, the Guthrie Theater and the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. He was awarded the Presidential Lifetime Volunteer Service award in 2007.
Richard Davis is a native of Southern California and spent his childhood there. As a child, he earned the seed money for college as a professional actor and singer, including a performance in a production of the Wizard of Oz. This led to Davis' passion for the arts and later board work with various arts organizations. Davis began his banking career at 18 as a teller to pay his way through college. He received a bachelor's degree in Economics from California State University, Fullerton in 1983. He completed Banking School Programs at the University of Washington and Cornell University.
JC de Swaan is a lecturer in the economics department at Princeton University, where he is affiliated with the Bendheim Center for Finance. He teaches courses on ethics in finance and on Asian capital markets to undergraduate and graduate students. He also teaches at the Judge Business School at the University of Cambridge. In the past he has taught at Yale University, Hong Kong UST, and Cheung Kong Business School in Beijing.
Separately, JC de Swaan is a Partner at Cornwall Capital, an investment fund based in New York. Prior to Cornwall, he was a senior advisor on China at a global macro fund and an investment professional at an Asia-dedicated hedge fund. Prior to that, JC de Swaan worked at McKinsey & Company.
At Princeton, JC de Swaan also hosts speakers on the topic of ethics in finance and acts as a faculty adviser to first-year and sophomore students.
JC de Swaan received his B.A. from Yale University in Political Science, an MPhil in International Relations from the University of Cambridge, and a Master in Public Policy from Harvard University’s Kennedy School. He is a Member of the Council on Foreign Relations and an Associate Fellow of Ezra Stiles College, Yale University.
Andrew S. Duff served as the chairman of Piper Sandler Companies from 2003 - 2018 and was previously the firm's chief executive officer from 2000 through 2017.
Duff joined Piper Sandler in 1980 in the institutional fixed income sales group. He was later promoted to manager of institutional sales and trading in 1994, and then served as president of the individual investor services and capital markets areas until 1996. During the time period that Piper Sandler was owned by U.S. Bancorp (1996 through 2003), Duff served as president of Piper Sandler and vice chair of U.S. Bancorp for the wealth management group.
Duff currently serves on the board of directors of Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), the University of St. Thomas board of trustees and the University of St. Thomas Opus College of Business strategic board of governors. He is a longstanding member of the Walker Art Center board of trustees, and an advisor to the board of directors of Great Clips, Inc. He is a former board member of Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA).
Anthony “Tony” Paquette joined the Scholars of Finance Board of Advisors in 2019, and has joined Point72, an Asset Management firm based in Connecticut, as their Chief Financial Officer.
Tony has spent 20 years in the financial services industry, serving in many leadership roles across various countries and disciplines, including investment research, investment strategy, trading, portfolio management, asset liability management (ALM) and running entire businesses.
Prior to joining Point 72 in 2020, Tony was at SoFi, a leading FinTech in Sillicon Valley as a Business Unit Leader overseeing International, New Business, Treasury, Regulatory Operations, and led the firms application for their bank charter. Before SoFi, Tony was at J.P. Morgan Chase in New York City, where he was a Managing Director and the Global Head of Funding & Liability Management for the company. Prior to this, he held portfolio management roles in the Chief Investment Office at J.P. Morgan, and in Treasury & Corporate Investments at Bank of America. He began his career as a research analyst covering the Technology sector at Goldman Sachs.
In addition to serving in formal leadership roles, Tony has been a consistent member of committees and organizations supporting employee recruiting, leadership training, corporate cultural development and military veterans affairs.
Tony holds a B.A. from Brown University, with a double major in Business Economics and Organizational Behavior & Management, and sits on the President’s Advisory Council on Athletics for the University. He has been a CFA Charterholder since 2003.
Tony is originally from Minnesota, and together with his wife, Amber, has been directly involved with several leading non-profit organizations over the last 20 years. Tony and Amber currently live in California with their three children Stella, Allegra and Rex.
Deb Schoneman serves as president of Piper Sandler, and is a member of the firm’s board of directors. She joined Piper Sandler in 1990 in the accounting department, and has held several senior management positions, including global head of equities, chief financial officer, finance director of both equity and fixed income capital markets, and treasurer.
Schoneman serves on the board of directors of SIFMA. She also serves as vice chair of the board of directors of Allina Health, a not-for-profit health care system based in Minneapolis, MN, and is chair of its finance committee; and is a director emeritus of BestPrep, a nonprofit organization focused on business, career and financial literacy skills, and was its chair for two years. She has completed three mission trips to Haiti through the organization, Healing Haiti, and was awarded "CFO of the Year" by the Minneapolis-St. Paul Business Journal in 2014.
Schoneman earned a bachelor’s degree in finance from Minnesota State University Mankato and a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of St. Thomas in Minneapolis.
John Taft is Vice Chairman of Baird and a member of the firm's Executive Committee. Prior to joining Baird, he served as CEO of RBC Wealth Management, a full-service brokerage firm with nearly 2,000 financial advisors and over $280 billion in assets, for more than 10 years (2005-2016). He is a past chairman of the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA), where he advocated for responsible financial reform.
John's other past roles include president and CEO of Voyageur Asset Management; president and CEO of Dougherty Summit Securities; a member of the board of directors of Segall Bryant & Hamill, The Clifton Group and Columbia Threadneedle Funds; and a managing director at Piper, Sandler & Hopwood. Investment Advisor magazine named him to its 2013 IA 25 list of the most influential people in the financial industry and he made the Top 100 Thought Leaders in Trustworthy Business list by Trust Across America in 2014 and 2015.
John is a frequent public speaker and media contributor, and has authored two books, "Stewardship: Lessons Learned from the Lost Culture of Wall Street" and "A Force for Good: How Enlightened Finance Can Restore Faith in Capitalism."
Deeply committed to community involvement, inclusion and diversity and many other important issues, John credits his family, including his great grandfather, 27th U.S. President William Howard Taft, for instilling strong core values that shape his definition of business success and belief in the importance of treating all people with dignity.
Vijay Tirathai is a serial entrepreneur, mentor and a seasoned C-level executive. He has over 30 years of international experience in start-ups, business development and transformation roles covering several industries; namely retail, manufacturing and associations management. Respected by his peers and colleagues for its visionary drive, business strategy acumen and his inspiring leadership-style. He has operated and conducted business in over 25 countries and enjoys an expansive global network of peers.
As the former CEO and Chairman of the Entrepreneurs' Organization, he now seeks to nurture and invest in start-ups and early stage companies to grow through mentor-ship, access to global networks and venture capital.
Past Speakers
Mr. Dolan is Vice Chair and Chief Financial Officer of U.S. Bancorp. Mr. Dolan, 56, has served in this position since August 2016. From July 2010 to July 2016, he served as Vice Chair, Wealth Management and Investment Services, of U.S. Bancorp. From September 1998 to July 2010, Mr. Dolan served as U.S. Bancorp's Controller. He additionally held the title of Executive Vice President from January 2002 until June 2010 and Senior Vice President from September 1998 until January 2002.
Elizabeth M. Lilly is Chief Investment Officer and Executive Vice President for The Pohlad Companies and Marquette Companies, LLC. She oversees the public and private investments for the Pohlad family and provides leadership and management of their investment team.
Beth began her career with Goldman Sachs in 1985 in New York. In 1988, Beth joined Fund American Companies in Greenwich Connecticut where she worked as an analyst learning the merits of Value Investing. In 1997, she co-founded Woodland Partners in Minneapolis which focused on investing in small capitalization equities. In 2002, Woodland Partners was acquired by GAMCO Investors where she went on to serve as a Senior Vice President and Portfolio Manager of the $1.4 billion Teton Westwood Mighty Mites Fund and as a member of the value portfolio management team. In 2017, Beth founded Crocus Hill Partners to focus on investments in small and micro capitalization equities.
Beth received her BA in Economics from Hobart/William Smith College where she graduated with High Honors. She received her CFA designation in 1989. Beth currently serves on the board of the James J. Hill Center and The Ordway Center for the Performing Arts. Beth and her family live in St. Paul.
Sharon L. McCollam is Chairman of Sutter Health and on the board of 10 other companies.
In the past Ms. McCollam occupied the position of EVP, Chief Operating & Financial Officer at Williams-Sonoma, Inc., Chief Financial & Administrative Officer, EVP at Best Buy Co., Inc., Chief Financial Officer & Vice President of Dole Fresh Vegetables, Inc. and Divisional Chief Financial Officer at Dole Food Co., Inc.
Sharon L. McCollam received an undergraduate degree from the University of Central Oklahoma.
Ms. Katherine B. Quinn, also known as Kate, has been Vice Chairman and Chief Administrative Officer of US Bank NA and U.S. Bancorp since April 28, 2017. Ms. Quinn oversees all strategy, reputation and human resources work. Ms. Quinn served as the Chief Strategy & Reputation Officer and Executive Vice President at U.S. Bancorp from September 2013 until April 2017. Ms. Quinn served as Executive Vice President of Strategy and Corporate Affairs at US Bank NA. Ms. Quinn joined US Bank in September 2013 and is responsible for Strategy, Marketing, Government Relations, Customer Experience, Analytics, Corporate Communications, Community Affairs and the US Bank Foundation. Ms. Quinn served as an Executive Vice President of Strategy and Corporate Affairs at U.S. Bancorp from September 2013 until April 04, 2016. Ms. Quinn served as Chief Marketing Officer and Senior Vice President of Anthem, Inc. from March 2011 to January 2013. From September 2010 to January 2013, Ms. Quinn served as Chief Marketing Officer of Anthem, Inc. (formerly, WellPoint, Inc.), having served as Head of Corporate Marketing of WellPoint from July 2005 to September 2010. She served as Chief Marketing and Strategy Officer at The Hartford from 2003 to 2005.
Catherine R. Smith is Chief Financial & Administrative Officer at Bright Health, Inc. Ms. Smith is also on the board of Baxter International, Inc., PPG Industries, Inc. and The Curtis L. Carlson School of Management.
She previously held the position of Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President of Kennametal, Inc., Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President of Target Corp., Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President at GameStop Corp., Chief Financial Officer & EVP-Bell Systems at Textron, Inc. and Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President of Bell Helicopter Textron, Inc. (a subsidiary of Textron, Inc.), Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President of Centex Corp., CFO, VP-Intelligence & Information Systems at Raytheon Co., Chief Financial Officer for Wal-Mart International, Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President at Express Scripts, Inc. and Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President of Express Scripts Holding Co.
She received an undergraduate degree from the University of California, Santa Barbara and an MBA from USC Marshall School of Business.
Mr. Robert T. Webb, also known as Rob, has served as the President of UnitedHealth Group Ventures, LLC since 2012. At UnitedHealth Group Ventures, Mr. Webb leads the investment strategies to advance innovative business models that improve the quality and affordability of healthcare. He also serves as the Senior Vice President of UnitedHealth Group. He joined UnitedHealth Group in 2001 from One Equity Partners after a decade in venture capital, private equity and consulting. Previously, he served as the Chief Executive Officer of OptumHealth Care Solutions, Inc. at OptumHealth, Inc. Mr. Webb also served at One Equity Partners LLC, where he was a Partner and was responsible for sourcing and managing private equity investments in the health care, consumer, and financial industries. Mr. Webb joined Banc One Venture Partners in 2001 and worked in private equity with Willis Stein & Partners, L.L.C., and Sam Zell's corporate investment division. He also served as a Vice President at Equity Group Investments, LLC. Prior to his private equity experience, he was a Consulting Manager with Arthur Anderson. He currently is on the board of Symphonix Health, Orthology, and Real Appeal. Mr. Webb has been the Chairman of Medirect Latino Inc. since June 2007 and has been its Director since March 2007. He holds an M.B.A. from Northwestern University’s J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management and a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Minnesota.
Mr. Cecere is Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of U.S. Bancorp. Mr. Cecere, 57, has served as President of U.S. Bancorp since January 2016, Chief Executive Officer since April 2017 and Chairman since April 2018. He also served as Vice Chairman and Chief Operating Officer from January 2015 to January 2016 and was U.S. Bancorp’s Vice Chairman and Chief Financial Officer from February 2007 until January 2015. Until that time, he served as Vice Chairman, Wealth Management and Investment Services of U.S. Bancorp since the merger of Firstar Corporation and U.S. Bancorp in February 2001. Previously, he had served as an executive officer of the former U.S. Bancorp, including as Chief Financial Officer from May 2000 through February 2001.
Our team is growing and we’re hiring our first full-time staff. If you’re interested in building this organization, we’d love to hear from you.
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