- Brian Hunter, CIMA, Managing Director
- Soulaymane Kachani, Chief Strategy Advisor
- Ashish Kulkarni, CFA, Director Financial Engineering
- Laurent Laskowski
CFA,Vice President
Managing Director
Mr. Hunter was with Prudential Securities from July, 1999 to September, 2001. Previously, he was with Morgan Stanley Dean Witter for four years and Smith Barney for ten years. He has built a unique corporate and institutional consulting practice that concentrates on achieving maximum capability for risk-controlled assets.
In consultation with the Lehman investment banking division of Shearson Lehman Brothers, Mr. Hunter was instrumental in bringing a regional oil company public and in the design of a public conversion strategy for a regional bank. Also while at Smith Barney, he helped establish reorganization criteria that assisted the $3 billion SB Corporate Trust Company subsidiary to evolve toward a more responsive internal service organization. He also consulted to senior Smith Barney management to reconcile the firm's 401(k) business process with an emerging Corporate Services profitability model.
Prior to his tenure at Smith Barney, Mr. Hunter's experience includes his own consulting firms for derivative portfolio management and international relocation policies and systems on behalf of multinational companies and professional service firms. Clients included McKinsey & Company, Otis Elevator, CE Lummus, Levi Strauss, United Parcel and Northrop. Mr. Hunter's initial consulting experience was in competitive strategy assignments while at the Boston Consulting Group and Bain & Company. He focused on market segmentation and merger and acquisition [M&A] issues for maximizing shareholder value. Mr. Hunter's strategy consulting expertise, enhanced by twenty-one intensive years throughout the financial industry have merged to generate his concept for reshaping competitive advantage in the M & A playing field.
Mr. Hunter holds a B.S.E. degree in Aerospace and Mechanical Sciences from Princeton University where he also completed the Program for Science in Human Affairs. At Princeton, Mr. Hunter designed and initiated the Program for Science, Technology and Environment that combined curricula from the Woodrow Wilson School for Public and International Affairs and the Engineering School. Mr. Hunter received his M.S. in Urban and Policy Sciences from the State University of New York at Stony Brook where he was instrumental in developing and implementing systems solutions to complex public policy problems for New York City and the Nassau/Suffolk County Planning Commissions.
Mr. Hunter serves as a Patron Councillor to The Atlantic Council of the United States, as a member of the British-North American Committee and on the Board of Associates of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research. He is also actively involved with alumni affairs for Princeton University.
Mr. Hunter is also a CIMA-designated member of the Investment Management Consultants Association.
Chief Strategy Advisor
Currently, Dr. Kachani is a professor in the Industrial Engineering and Operations Research Department at Columbia University.
Prior to joining Columbia, he served as an Associate and a Senior Associate in the Boston office of McKinsey. Dr. Kachani holds a Ph.D. in Operations Research from the MIT Sloan School of Management. His research interests include dynamic pricing, transportation network, supply chain and inventory management.
In addition to his academic and research interests, Dr. Kachani continues to consult to McKinsey on issues revolving around pricing and revenue optimization. Dr. Kachani also holds a Master of Science in Operations Research from the MIT Sloan School of Management and a Diplôme d'ingénieur in Applied Mathematics from Ecole Centrale de Paris.
Even before assuming an advisory role, Dr. Kachani was instrumental in the development of SCA's asset allocation system while pursuing his Ph.D. at MIT.
Director - Financial Engineering
Mr. Kulkarni joined Strategic Allocation Group in 3Q'2002. His primary role encompasses development of financial models for investment strategies.
Mr.Kulkarni received his M.Eng. degree in Information Systems from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, with graduate research in Engineering Systems at MIT-Sloan School of Management.
Mr.Kulkarni also holds an M.S. in Chemical Engineering from Penn State University with research in molecular simulations. He completed undergraduate work in Chemical Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, India.
Mr.Kulkarni is a CFA charterholder, holds the FRM designation and is a member of the Boston Security Analysts Society.
Vice President
Mr. Laskowski joined Strategic Capital Allocation Group full-time in October of 2007. His primary role encompasses investment strategy, quantitative analysis, evaluation and development of financial models for SCA Group.
Mr. Laskowski received his M.S. in Operations Research from Columbia University in 2007 with graduate research in dynamic pricing and revenue optimization at Columbia Business School. He holds a Diplôme d'Ingénieur in Applied Mathematics from Ecole Centrale de Paris.
Mr.Laskowski is also a CFA charterholder and is a member of the Boston Security Analysts Society.