Management Team
Craig E. Columbus, JD, MBA
Craig E. Columbus serves as President of Advanced Equities Asset Management (AEAM), managing day-to-day operations of Advanced Equities' captive money management subsidiary. In this capacity, Mr. Columbus is responsible for the portfolio management team and its efforts, including portfolio selection, trading, execution, proprietary money management and product development. Mr. Columbus was previously the Chief Market Strategist for Thomson Financial, a leading provider of information and technology solutions to the worldwide financial community. During this time, he became one of Wall Street's most recognizable figures, appearing each Monday on CNBC's Power Lunch program for seven years. He is currently a regular guest on CNBC's Kudlow & Company, where he discusses market events and trends afternoons at 5:00 p.m. EST. Mr. Columbus is a graduate of Loyola University, holds an MBA degree from Penn State University and a law degree from Indiana University. He was previously a candidate for the United States House of Representatives.
Jeffrey J. Mindlin, CFA
Jeffrey J. Mindlin serves as Advanced Equities Asset Management's Managing Director and Co-Portfolio Manager. Prior to joining AEAM, Mr. Mindlin was the Director of Research and Co-Portfolio Manager of Greenbook Investment Management, Inc., where he was instrumental in the design of sophisticated, proprietary investment strategies. Before that, he worked as the Assistant Portfolio Manager and Senior Financial Engineer for Pinnacle Investment Advisors, LLC, which operated a hedge fund and a series of managed accounts for institutional and high-net-worth clients, and sub-advised a publicly traded mutual fund. Previously, Mr. Mindlin was the Manager of Financial Engineering at Camelback Research, leading the development of several successful institutional grade quantitative products, including the popular MSN Money Stockscouter system. Mr. Mindlin earned his Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation, as well as a BS in Economics and a BS in Finance from the College of Business Honor's Program at Arizona State University, where he received the prestigious Moore Award.
Thomas R. Samuelson, CFA, CMT
Thomas R. Samuelson, CFA, CMT serves as the Chief Investment Officer for Advanced Equities Asset Management. Previously, Mr. Samuelson served as the Portfolio Manager at Geronimo Partners where he oversaw a family of three hedge funds. He was also the Portfolio Manager at Invesco Funds Group for a diversified long/short fund and a sector energy fund, where he improved the energy fund's Lipper peer group ranking from bottom-quartile to upper-quartile while its assets grew to over $330 million. Previously, he also served as the President and Portfolio Manager for Denver Energy Advisors, where he managed separate accounts for large institutional clients such as the Notre Dame endowment. Mr. Samuelson received his derivatives experience from Suisse Bank Corp (previously O'Connor & Associates), where he managed proprietary funds for the Bank. He began his career as a high-yield bond analyst for Duff & Phelps in Chicago and later became a partner of the firm. Mr. Samuelson received a BS in Engineering and an MBA from the University of Tulsa. He is one of less than a thousand people worldwide who have earned both the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and Chartered Market Technician (CMT) designations.
Lon J. Gerber
Lon J. Gerber serves as Co-Portfolio Manager for Advanced Equities Asset Management. Prior to joining AEAM, Mr. Gerber spent over 10 years at Thomson Financial, a leading provider of information and technology solutions to the worldwide financial community. For more than five years, he was responsible for directing analytic product development for the Wealth Management division. During his time at Thomson, Mr. Gerber was highly regarded for his expertise in the area of insider-trading analysis and regularly appeared in the financial media, including The Wall Street Journal, Barrons and Forbes, amongst many others. Mr. Gerber began his career in the banking industry as a financial analyst for Citibank, responsible for revenue forecasting for its U.S. consumer and commercial lending products. Mr. Gerber earned a BS in Finance from Binghamton University and an MBA degree from Penn State University.
Brian D. Wright
Brian D. Wright serves as Head Trader and Co-Portfolio Manager for Advanced Equities Asset Management. Mr. Wright has over a decade of industry experience. Previously, he served as Trader with Pinnacle Investment Advisors, where he helped oversee a family of hedge funds, institutional separate accounts, and a publicly traded mutual fund. Mr. Wright was also an Analyst with a boutique research firm, where he focused on forensic accounting and earnings quality-related research. He was one of the first analysts to raise questions about the accounting practices and viability of Krispy Kreme as early as 2003. Mr. Wright graduated Magna cum Laude from Boston University and will soon complete an MBA from the WP Carey School of Business at Arizona State University. He is currently a level 2 CFA candidate.
Larry Pesavento, MBA
Larry Pesavento, MBA serves as an exclusive trading consultant to Advanced Equities Asset Management, providing trading advice and investment management services. His widely-followed technical indicators, based on patterns and ratios he discovered, are used in several commercial software programs. In addition, the "Pesavento Index," a gauge of broad cycles, appears in the Commodity Traders Almanac. Mr. Pesavento is the author of nine books on the subject of trading. His tenth book, published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., is titled Trade What You See and will be available for sale in the summer of 2007. Before joining the Advanced Equities Asset Management as a consultant, Mr. Pesavento acted as the chief investment strategist for the investment adviser to a large hedge fund for 12 years, trading a broad array of financial instruments including commodities, futures, and currencies, both domestically and on global exchanges. Previously, Mr. Pesavento supervised Drexel-Burnham-Lambert's commodity department in its Los Angeles office. He was a member of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange from 1981 to 1983, where he was one of the original S&P500 pit traders. Mr. Pesavento has a BS in Pharmaceutical Chemistry from Indiana State University and an MBA in Finance from Indiana State University.