Marco Bitran’s Career in Financial Fund Management and Platform Development

Since February, 2011, Marco Bitran has held responsibilities as founder of AI Exchange, Inc., a Boston alternative investment services firm that has developed a patent-pending managed account platform for enhancing transparency and liquidity. Raising $1.5 million in funding from multiple top-tier venture capital firms, he has built a seasoned executive team, including a prominent former Schwab Investments senior sales leader.

Mr. Bitran earned a B.S. in Electrical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), minoring in Economics. He gained an elected position as Vice President of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon Fraternity, also earning entrance into a number of national honor societies. He completed his education with an MBA at Harvard Business School, notably participating in finance, investment, and hedge fund management club activities.

From 2003 to 2006, Marco Bitran served as Section-Fund Manager and Global Industry Analyst with Wellington Management Company in Boston. Managing a $1 billion fund focused on global capital goods and infrastructure sectors, he held full fund performance responsibilities. Mr. Bitran notably constructed the portfolio utilizing a fundamentals driven, ground-up process that synthesized input from global equity analysts and portfolio teams. He selected portfolio holdings in cyclical companies, considering variables such as capacity utilization, profit margin, order sustainability, leading indicators, and macroeconomic variables.

Prior to taking the helm of AI Exchange, Marco Bitran held responsibilities as founder and Portfolio Manager with Clearstream Investments, LLC. Utilizing innovative fund models developed by MIT Ph.D graduate Shioulin Sam and MIT Professor Gabriel R. Bitran, he developed a quantitative ETF trading fund, expanding managed assets to $550 million within 5 years. The key AI Exchange software platform has been lifted from this firm, and technologically enhanced and commercialized. 

Evan Greenberg: The Consummate Insurance Man

You can say that insurance runs in the blood of Evan Greenberg. He father was the former Chairman of the American International Group (AIG).  Greenberg worked for 25 years under his father. Given his father’s insurance knowledge he must have learned a lot.

In those 25 years he has held a number of senior management positions at AIG. Among them were as CEO of AIG Far East and President and CEO of AIU (the foreign General Insurance of AIG).  From 1997 to 2000 he was already the President and COO of AIG.  It was widely thought that he would become the next CEO; for whatever reason Greenberg left AIG in 2000.

In 2001 he became the Vice Chairman of ACE Limited. This was just up his alley since ACE Limited is also in the insurance business.  The ACE group is a multiline property and casualty insurer and one of the largest in the world. The group offers products such as property insurance, personal accident, and life insurance.  This insurance company is based in Switzerland.

In 2004 he was elected as President and CEO of ACE Limited and in 2007 the title of Chairman of the Board was added. This shows Greenberg has been doing very well in leading the company. He still currently holds these positions.

In 2008 at the height of the financial crisis he was one of the executives who refused federal funding saying his company and the property insurance industry was able to take care of itself. This was not the case of AIG, the company he bolted many years ago.

Greenberg really knows the insurance industry.

Gail Kelly: Top Banker

It’s a common practice for some executives to have protégés and fast-track them to one day run the company. For Gail Kelly she worked at major banks in Australia and became the CEO for two banks. For her it can really be said that it was her talent that brought her to the top more than being a protégé of a more senior executive.

Rising to the highest post of a company is challenging enough and not everyone gets that lofty position. For Kelly it’s been tougher. Unfortunately the way human society is setup the woman is usually the one expected to raise the kids and take care of the household.  So unless you partner is willing to be a househusband (in Kelly’s case her husband is a pediatrician) it’s one hell of a balancing act.

Kelly only gave birth twice but has four children because she had triplets. Imagine having to raise three babies of the same age at the same time. As she recalls there was a time she forgot to drop one of her kids to school only realizing the child was at the back seat of the car when she was already at the company parking lot. There was also an instant when she had one of child admitted to a hospital (where her husband worked) so she could get some much needed sleep.

Her banking career has been marked by outstanding work.  Originally from South Africa, she started as a teller in 1980 for a South African bank. She quickly rose to managerial positions. In 1997 Kelly and her husband decided to move to Australia. Applying with the four major Australian banks she was hired in a senior position at Commonwealth Bank.

Once again she proved her worth and rose through the ranks. She was so good that in 2002 another bank, St. George hired her as CEO. There Kelly increased profitability and capitalization. This led to rumors of her returning as CEO of Commonwealth Bank in 2005 when its CEO was set to retire.

She stayed on at St. George Bank then became CEO of another major bank, Westpac in 2008. St. George was subsequently taken over by Westpac the same year.

Gail Kelly has simply been a notch above the rest.

A Good Rugby Player

While many future CEOs are known for their academic achievements while still in school some were actually just average students. This was the case of Gordon M. Nixon. While attending Queen’s University in Canada, he was known as being an average student. He was also known for being a good rugby player.

What Nixon did have also was good work ethics. He paid his way through school by tending bars during school period and in summer worked at a Montreal investment firm. He finished with a Bachelor of Commerce in 1979. 

He then worked at Dominion Securities in Toronto from 1979 to 1986 in Fixed Income and Corporate and Government Finance.  In 1986 he moved to Tokyo to head the company’s Japan operation. In 1987 the Royal Bank of Canada acquired Dominion Securities. By 1989 Nixon was back in Toronto serving as managing director for Investment Banking. He was promoted to other positions and in April 2001 was appointed as president. In August of the same year he also became CEO.

While Nixon was not an academic achiever he certainly excelled in the corporate world.  At his appointment he became the youngest ever CEO for a major Canadian financial company at the age of 44. Since then he has skillfully guided the company to steady growth with its notable expansion outside of Canada specifically the U.S.

Nixon must have certainly put his team playing skills and experience to good work. Rugby involves a lot of pain to reach the object of scoring. So Nixon knows all about pain in try to achieve bank goals. He’s been at the helm for over a decade now and doesn’t look to retire any time soon.

Gustavo Stringel’s Growth-focused Leadership With Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital

With surgical experience extending more than three decades, Gustavo Stringel currently serves as Surgeon in Chief, Director of Minimally Invasive Surgery, and Director of Pediatric Surgery with the Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital at the Westchester Medical Center. He has additionally served as Professor of Surgery and Pediatrics at New York Medical College, in Valhalla since 1994.

In his nearly two decades with the Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital, Dr. Stringel has overseen the establishment and consolidation of the Division of Pediatric Surgery. The division encompasses three full-time surgeons, as well as five surgeons assisting on a part-time or voluntary basis. He has also overseen establishment of the professional corporation Children’s Surgeons of Westchester, which he heads as President.

One of the most ambitious projects that Gustavo Stringel has participated in involved successful efforts to create a new Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital inpatient unit. He currently serves as an member of the Executive Committee, providing key input into management decisions affecting the Children’s Hospital’s day-to-day operations.

Dedicated to developing and retaining a highly qualified surgical staff, Dr. Stringel has participated in recruitment efforts that brought new cardiac surgery, plastic surgery, neurosurgery, anesthesiology, and liver transplantation specialists to the hospital. In addition, he has guided a significant increase in the complexity and number of pediatric surgical cases over the past eight years. Gustavo Stringel has also led the pediatric hospital’s significant upgrading of surgical equipment. As head of the Division of Minimally Invasive Surgery, he negotiated the acquisition of state-of-the-art operating room laparoscopic equipment, including DaVinci robotic surgical devices and Storz OR 1 equipment.

Anne Sweeney: Guiding A Big Company’s Future

Anne Sweeney is the co-chair of Disney Media Networks and president of Disney/ABC Television Group. She heads an organization that covers a broad area of media.  She leads the Disney Channels Worldwide. This is 94 children-focused, family entertainment channels. It includes among others Disney Channel, Playhouse Disney, Radio Disney brands, and Hyperion, Disney’s publishing imprint.  On the ABC side Sweeney heads ABC Owned Television Stations Group, ABC Studios, and the ABC Television Network. Under her are more than 200 affiliated stations all over America that offers children programming, entertainment and news. There are around 10,000 employees under her.

Among Sweeney’s more recent accomplishments includes getting into a partnership with Yahoo!; the Disney Television Group’s first international millennial channel, Canada’s ABC Spark; the first on-demand entertainment service in the U.K., Germany, and Portugal, ABC On Demand; and she was also able to sign Katie Couric to ABC through a nationally syndicated talk show that was already initially sold to over 80 percent of U.S. TV homes.

Sweeney has become known for producing outstanding results in her job. During her more direct handling of the Disney channel from October 2000 to 2004, she pushed through with the strategy initiated by her predecessor using a combination of movies, original series and acquired programs which saw subscriber base quintuple.  The channel is now available on cable in more than 87 million U.S. homes.

In April 1998 she directed the launch of Toon Disney the 24-hour animation channel which now reaches more than 52 million U.S. households. She oversaw the launch of the 24-hour soap opera network SOAPnet which is being viewed in more than 61 million households.

Sweeney worked for 12 years at Nickelodeon/Nick at Nite, her last position as senior vice president of Program Enterprises. While at Nickelodeon she handled its overseas expansion including a joint venture with British Sky Broadcasting.  From 1993 she was the chairman and CEO FX Networks, Inc.  where she was very successful in launching basic cable networks.

She joined The Walt Disney Company in February 1996 and continued with her achieving ways. Sweeney has made significant contributions in the various organizations that she has worked for. She is also active outside of work in organizations like the Special Olympics.

Ori Tal and Condominium-conversion Focused ESO Equity Group

An established central Florida real estate developer with international law experience, Ori Tal directs ESO Equity Group. As President and Chief Executive Officer, he leads a holding company for commercial and residential properties throughout Cocoa Beach and surrounding areas. His responsibilities include managing complex stakeholder relationships that encompass lenders, contractors, community agencies, and managed-property tenants.

Mr. Tal built his enterprise with a focus on multi-tenant residential complexes that offer investors high potential returns. His firm has recently expanded its range of holdings to include a pair of high-profile commercial projects, bringing the total square footage of ESO Equity Group projects to over 1 million. One of the largest projects the firm has completed involved the transformation of the 25,000-square-foot Executive Tower & Plaza into a Class A office space, with 17,000 square feet of dedicated retail space. One of the largest undertakings of its type in Brevard County, the Executive Tower & Plaza replaced The Galleria at Cocoa Beach and features an inviting Mediterranean-style architecture and ambiance.

Ori Tal began his progression towards entrepreneurship in Israel, where he studied Economics and Law at Haifa University. He additionally completed an officer’s training course with honors, undertaking responsibilities as Lieutenant with the Israeli Navy reserves. He established the ESO Equity Group with several years of experience in law and transactional real estate behind him.

Residential projects undertaken by Ori Tal and his executive team over the past several years include Fairway Apartments and Millennium Palms Condominiums. The latter project offered tenants renovated 1 to 3 bedroom apartment homes on 12 acres of landscaped property, with bushes and mature trees ensuring privacy. The 144-unit property was sold at a significant return-on-investment two years after acquisition, in July 2011. In all, ESO Equity Group has completed work on more than 750 condominium units through its various investment projects. 

Jill Abramson: Making History

Jill Abramson was born to be a journalist. She graduated from Harvard University in 1976 with a degree in History and Literature. While studying, Abramson was the Arts Editor of The Harvard Independent and also worked for Time Magazine from 1973 to 1976.

All her career has been in the field of journalism and she has been an investigative reporter for most of her life. She worked for various publications. Abramson spent almost a decade with The American Lawyer. She was then the editor in chief of Legal Times in Washington D.C. starting in 1986 to 1988. Then moved on to be a senior reporter of the Wall Street Journal in its Washington bureau from 1988 to 1997. Abramson then moved to The New York Times’ Washington bureau as its head.

In 2003 she became managing editor, the number two position at The New York Times. The New York Times is not just any newspaper. It has a very influential voice in the U.S. and around the world. It has also been noted for its history of being male dominated.  In fact in 1974 the paper’s female journalists brought a discrimination suit against the company. Today the situation has improved with over 40 percent of the top jobs now being held by women.

 In September 2011, Abramson made history by becoming The New York Times’ first female executive editor in its 160 year history.  She now faces new challenges as the paper tries to secure its place in the digital environment.

Miles D. White: Abbott Dark Horse

Early in life there was no indication that Miles D. White would wind up in the pharmaceutical industry. He did exhibit traits of leadership in his high school years being club president and the like. In his college days he was the first undergraduate to be the financial manager for all student businesses at Stanford University.

Obtaining a degree in mechanical engineering at Stanford in 1978 he then continued and got an MBA degree in 1980. McKinsey and Company was his first job after graduating and he stayed there until 1984 as a management consultant.  With an engineering background his next career move was supposed to be in Silicon Valley.

A job interview with Abbott Laboratories which wasn’t really his priority ended up with him being offered a management position. He became sales manager in the domestic diagnostics division of Abbott.  White rose through the ranks and became the division head in 1994. He made his mark in this division by increasing its sales to 11 percent in 1998 which was four times the industry average. He also led in the acquisition of a company that gained Abbott entry into the area of blood-glucose monitoring for diabetics.

A management change took place in 1998 with the retirement of the Chairman and CEO and the president and COO.  While the company produced profits if was lagging behind competitors and was becoming a takeover target. The race was on for the top company position. White was the dark horse in the competition, he did not have a pharmaceutical background and his division was not a top earning unit.

His detailed planning on how to rejuvenate the company and his ability to handle pressure won the board over and White became the company CEO in 1999. He went to work stream lining the number of products under research while constantly increasing overall budget for research and development.

As was his hallmark in his early days with Abbott he began acquiring companies to further growth and gain access to new products and research capabilities.  Early on he made over 60 acquisitions in his drive to grow the company. He also increased employee benefits and compensations.

Today Abbott has regained its place as a major industry player and much of the credit goes to White.

Breaking Cultural Barriers: Fathia Ahmed

Fathia Ahmed founded Heritage for Henna which started out as a small shop at a hotel in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. It was a hit with foreign visitors and convinced Mrs. Ahmed that there was a market for henna decoration outside of the region. With sponsorships her business grew to 28 locations throughout the Emirates.

The art of henna has been handed down from generation to generation in Arab culture.  What Mrs. Ahmed has done is turn it into a business that in a way will continue the tradition of henna but at the same time introduce it to new cultures. It becomes a way for others to learn more about Arab culture.

Heritage for Henna has global ambitions so you can be sure it will expose the rest of the world to a form of Arabian heritage while making profit at the same time. The company is also using the franchising model to expand business.

What’s just as amazing as the current success of the business is that Mrs. Ahmed is the CEO of her own company. If women in the Western business world are still demanding for more equality with their male counterpart, you can just imagine the challenges Mrs. Ahmed has been and will be facing.

She comes from a more conservative culture where the expectations of women are vastly different and unequal to men. Nevertheless she has continued to move forward. This in itself is already a stunning achievement for Mrs. Ahmed and an inspiration for all women.

Susan Lyne: Getting Fired Leads To Greater Success

Susan Lyne got fired as President of ABC Entertainment in 2004. It came as a shocker to her as she felt her work was only getting started after just one season with ABC.  The company then was under a lot of pressure so some people had to get the axe.  Although fired from her position, she was actually allowed to stay with the company but decided to go. Ye the shows she had picked like Desperate Housewives and Grey’s Anatomy turned out to be such big hits.

 For someone whose life had been defined by achievements getting the boot was totally unexpected. While working at the New Times (a news biweekly which eventually closed) she got a huge scoop interviewing members of the Symbionese Liberation Army. Some details of the interview helped land heiress Patricia Hearst in jail.

Then Lyne took a job as managing editor of the Village Voice. Her next job was for a film company owned by Jane Fonda. She then convinced Rupert Murdoch to put up a magazine which would look at the film business and not just the movie stars. The magazine Premiere was launched in 1987 and sold out its first publication in two weeks.

Her success led her to a job at Walt Disney Studios and after excellent work there got a promotion as president of ABC Entertainment. Then she got fired.

For a talented person like her with a positive disposition, it wasn’t long that new opportunities would arise. She joined the board of Martha Steward Living Omnimedia (MSLO). Then Steward went to jail and the CEO was removed.  Over other job offerings, she took the CEO position. This must have been one of the most challenging jobs anywhere available at that time since the company was going into a downward trend with the founder’s imprison. Lyne turned the company around.

She had her only personal challenge when her husband was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and died less than a year later in 2006. After leaving MSLO in 2008, Lyne embarked on a new career as CEO of Gilt Groupe a startup online flash sales internet company.  By 2010 she led Gilt to $400 million with 500 employees.  She now serves as chairperson.

Lyne has always been involved with something of significance.

George Paz: Performance Speaks Louder Than Words

There are so many big names CEOs who we often see on television dishing out advice left and right on how to run a successful company. True, their work has produced results for their company, which has gotten them the attention. They are also good at being able to market themselves which in itself is not an evil attribute, in fact it is also important for success.

There are other kinds of CEOs who shun the limelight and just go about their work in producing growth and value for their company.  Yet performance is always recognized, so  despite the fact that these types of CEOs don’t give much ,if any, interviews they still get recognized.

Take the case of George Paz, who most people don’t know from Adam. Chief Executive.net recently named him the number one most valuable CEO, for his sterling performance in stewarding  Express Scripts, Inc.  The company is a PBM (pharmacy benefit manager).  Growth and profit has been mainly fueled by acquisitions. The company has been able to successful integrate the businesses it has acquired while maintaining and improving profitable operations.

The company is known for keeping expenses on lease. It gives out free coffee but employees have to provide their own cups. The annual office Christmas parties are not held in some swanky hotel but in the suburban townhouse of Paz.  The CEO is also known to sometimes get his lunch from the company cafeteria.  

The latest move of the publicity shy CEO has been to acquire Medco, a rival company. In 2010 Medco’s revenue was $66 billion as against the $45 billion revenue of Express Script. George Paz and his company was able to pull of this feat.  For Paz his performance has always spoken much larger than his words.