It’s hard to believe we have been going now for almost twenty-five years. We started here in the Maltex building in Burlington in 1995 with just two people. We have grown to ten today. Some things however have not changed. We are as committed now as we were then to professional money management and providing the highest quality financial planning advice we can. We take our fiduciary responsibility seriously.
In the early years it was just Anne Doremus and Eric as partners. We subsequently added Julie Won and more recently we welcomed Sven Eklof and Art Wright as owners of the firm. For family reasons, Julie relocated to the West Coast but she stayed very much involved with us heading our securities research effort. With her daughter now back on the East Coast in college Julie is permanently re-locating to Burlington. We couldn’t be more happy.
Anne became the Managing Partner of the firm a year ago. In addition to her CEO duties she continues to research securities and manage portfolios. Sven Eklof has been with the firm 12 years and became a partner in 2017. Previously he headed up our back office but with a newly minted CFP (Certified Financial Planner) he is now active in client service and investment research. If you get the impression we like professionals who are well rounded and multi-talented you are right. We want people who can do research, manage portfolios and also do financial planning. Art Wright came to us three years ago after eight years with TD Wealth. Art has earned his CFP and is specializing in client service and financial planning.
The two newest members of the investment team are Alex Watson and Liz Ford. Alex grew up in Essex Junction and was working for an investment firm in St. Louis before returning to Vermont. He is a CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst) and is overseeing everything IT as well as managing portfolios. Liz Ford was previously a professional pool player (you ask the details) before making a U-turn and completing her MBA at the University of Vermont. Liz is our principal bond trader, is working on her CFA designation and doing investment research.
There are also three other very valuable team members here. Jordan (Lafayette) is the new Head of Operations. Alma (Pilausic) handles all equity trading as well as complementing Jordan in operations. Finally, Kristen (Rich) is the first person you see when you come to the office. She is the Office Manager and has the distinction of being our longest tenured employee.
And finally, there is Eric. He is struggling to find things to do now that we have nine outstanding teammates doing everything so well. His secret mantra is: always hire people smarter than you! It works.
