Our Team
Barry K. Mendelson, CIMA®
CEO
barry@cmarkc.com
Barry is responsible for leading Capital Market Consultants, guiding its direction, and developing and managing the implementation of CMC's business strategy. Barry is also directly involved on a day-to-day basis in most aspects of CMC's business.
Barry has worked in the financial services industry for over thirty years. He brings a wealth of practical management, business building, teaching and investment management consulting experiences to client engagements. He has spoken frequently at industry events over the years on subjects ranging from investment analysis, client profiling, money manager style analysis, investment consulting and advisor training and other topics. He is the author or co-author of a number of articles relating to the professional practice of investment management consulting.
Barry earned his Certified Investment Management Analysts designation (CIMA®) from the Investment Management Consultants Association and the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton Business School in 1990. He has been a member of the Investment Management Consultants Association since 1989. Barry earned a BS from Palmer College in Davenport, Iowa in 1976.
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Abdur R. Chowdhury, Ph.D.
Chief Economist
abdur@cmarkc.com
Abdur serves as the firm's Chief Economist and is primarily responsible for global economic analysis and forecasting including creating client communications like quarterly newsletters, monthly economic update reports, interpretive news alertsmonthly client conference calls and public speaking engagements for CMC clients. Dr. Chowdhury is actively involved in the development of the firm’s forecasted capital market assumptions. Abdur is Chair and Professor of economics in the College of Business Administration at Marquette University. Dr. Chowdhury also serves on the Chicago Federal Reserve Board’s Academic Advisory Council.
Abdur has over 27 years of experience as an economist. He was an Assistant Professor of Economics at Bentley College in Waltham, Massachusetts from 1983-1989, and an Associate Professor of Economics at Marquette University from 1989-2002. He taught at Thammasat University in Bangkok, Thailand as a Senior Fulbright Scholar in 1995-1996. He was a visiting Professor at the School for Advanced International Studies at John Hopkins University in Washington, D.C. in 1996. He was a visiting Researcher at the World Institute for Development Economics Research of the United Nations in Helsinki, Finland in 1998 and 2001. He was a Consultant to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in Rome, Italy in 1998-1999. He was a Senior Researcher at the Institute for Transition Economics for the Bank of Finland in 2002-2003 in Helsinki, Finland. Most recently he was the Chief Economist and Director, Economic Analysis Division for the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe in Geneva, Switzerland from 2003-2007. Abdur has been widely published in academic journals.
Abdur was educated at the University of Dhaka in Bangladesh earning a B.A. (Honors) in 1976 and an M.A. in Economics in 1977. He earned an M.A. in 1981 and a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Kentucky in 1983.
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Richard Iwanski, CFA
Senior Investment Analyst, Institutional Client Services
rick@cmarkc.com
Rick is responsible for research on investment managers, mutual funds and alternatives. Rick serves on the firm’s Investment Policy Committee and is responsible for guiding the firm’s asset allocation recommendations to clients. He is the lead investment analyst for a number of CMC institutional and advisor clients.
Rick has over 17 years of financial industry experience in market, economic and investment research activities. He has provided guidance to institutions and advisors on manager selection, asset allocation, and client profiling. His background also includes contributing to the production of economic forecasts and the analysis of economic data for use by securities analysts and portfolio managers. He is the co-author of a number of articles relating to the professional practice of investment management consulting.
Rick is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) charterholder, a member of the Investment Management Consultants Association (IMCA), the CFA Institute, and the CFA Society of Milwaukee. Rick attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics in 1992.
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Jolie Keller, CFA
Senior Investment Analyst,
Institutional Client Services
jolie@cmarkc.com
Ms. Keller is a Senior Investment Analyst at CMC and conducts original research and ongoing due diligence on investment managers and mutual funds. She has over twenty-one years of experience in the financial services industry. Jolie Chairs the firm’s Investment Policy Committee and is responsible for guiding the firm’s asset allocation recommendations to clients.
She began her career in the brokerage industry as a Registered Sales Associate at Smith Barney in 1986 and worked there until 1995. From 1995-2004 she worked at the investment management firm of Morgan Dempsey Capital Management where she was a Vice President, Assistant Portfolio Manager. At Morgan Dempsey she was the firm's head equity trader and also assisted in developing asset allocation strategies and client investment policy statements. She was an Assistant Vice President, Equity Analyst and the equity trader for Ziegler Capital Management's mutual fund family from 2004-2006. She monitored the equity products risk exposures and tailored equity portfolio models to specific client requirements. She also served in a compliance capacity insuring the equity department's policies and procedures complied with regulatory rules and procedures.
Jolie K. Keller, CFA, earned her Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation in 2003 and is a member of the Milwaukee Investment Analysts Society and CFA Institute.
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Nick Ihn
Research Associate
nick@cmarkc.com
Nick joined CMC in 2008 and is critically involved in a broad range of proprietary and client research projects. Nick is involved in investment manager and mutual fund research and ongoing due diligence of these investment products for our institutional clients. He is actively involved in our economic research, target date funds and client communications.
Nick received his BS in Finance and Marketing and successfully completed the prestigious Applied Investment Management Program from Marquette University in 2008.
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Ali Gardo
Research Associate
ali@cmarkc.com
Ali joined CMC in 2010 and is critically involved in a broad range of proprietary and client research projects. Ali is involved in investment manager and mutual fund research and ongoing due diligence of these investment products for our institutional clients.
Ali received his BA in Mathematics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2006. He is an affiliate member of the CFA Society of Milwaukee and the CFA Institute.
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Alex Powell
Research Associate Intern
alex@cmarkc.com
Alex Joined CMC in 2011 and is actively involved in a variety of client research and firm administrative projects. Alex is responsible for the administration of client research portals and assisting with manager search projects for the firm's senior investment professionals.
Alex is a senior at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and will be graduating from the Business Scholars program in December 2012 with degrees in Finance and Economics.
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Susan Mendelson
Client Communications Consultant
desktop.publishing@cmarkc.com
Susan is responsible for developing private labeled marketing and client communications used by CMC clients. Susan designs, desktop publishes and produces a range of marketing tools from single event invitations to brochures and recurring newsletters (e.g. including private labeled versions of the CMC newsletter and monthly updates).
Susan received her BA from Michigan State University and has studied design at the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design (MIAD).
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George Patten
Business Services Consultant
george@cmarkc.com
As a business partner with CMC, George is responsible for developing Capital Market Consultants’ emerging business consulting services. George’s primary responsibility is to assist CMC clients’ in growing their fee based revenues by helping them implement the consultative business model with CMC strategies and practice management techniques. He also serves as an advisor to CMC senior management regarding business development, relationship management and client service.
George has worked in the financial services industry for over eleven years. His areas of expertise include strategic planning, practice management and fee-based business building. He has been a mentor to advisors and business development managers regarding investment consulting. He has spoken at advisor-oriented industry events over the years on subjects ranging from practice management to investment consulting to client relations. He has experience in both retail and institutional investment consulting settings.
George earned his BA in economics from the University of Texas and an MBA from Duke University. In 2000, he was awarded his Certified Investment Management Analysts designation (CIMA®) from the Investment Management Consultants Association and the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton Business School. He serves on or has served on the boards of a number of not-or-profit organizations including the Greater Detroit Chapter of AUSA and the West Point Parents Club of Michigan.