General Consulting

 

Neil Rue, CFA, Managing Director
Portland, OR

Mr. Rue joined PCA in 1991. Mr. Rue, based in Portland, has twenty-eight years experience as an investment consultant for various institutions.  Currently, Mr. Rue is the lead consultant to several large state and municipal funds and assists in consulting to several of the largest state pension funds in the United States.  Prior to joining PCA, Mr. Rue spent seven years at the Frank Russell Company (now Russell Investments) in several product development and research-oriented capacities.

Mr. Rue has been a speaker at several industry conferences and panels, including Pensions & Investments, SACRS, the CFA Institute, NASRA and NAST. The Money Management Letter recognized Mr. Rue as Consultant of the Year for Public Funds in both 2005 and 2011.  Mr. Rue is the first consultant to be recognized two times.  Mr. Rue, a Chartered Financial Analyst, received his Bachelors and MBA degrees from the University of Washington.

 

John J. Burns, CFA, Managing Director
New York, NY

Mr. Burns joined PCA in 2008 as a Managing Director.  Previously, Mr. Burns was the Director of Public Equity for the North Carolina Retirement Systems in Raleigh, NC.  In that capacity he was responsible for equity portfolio structure, investment manager monitoring and due diligence, and equity portfolio transitions.

Prior to joining NCRS, Mr. Burns spent twenty-four years at the New York City Retirement Systems where he was responsible for overseeing the $85 billion publicly traded Equity and Fixed Income portfolios.  In addition, he developed and recommended asset allocation strategy and investment policies for the five NYC Pension Funds and four Variable Supplements Funds.

Mr. Burns, a Chartered Financial Analyst, received his BS in Business Administration from Manhattan College and his Masters of Business Administration from Pace University’s Graduate School of Business Administration. 

 

Jeremy Thiessen, Managing Director
Portland, OR

Mr. Thiessen joined PCA in 2002 and provides consulting services for PCA clients across all asset classes including special emphasis on 529 College Savings Plans. Mr. Thiessen currently serves six clients, including four 529 College Savings Plans. For traditional asset classes, Mr. Thiessen’s focus includes risk budgeting, portfolio and manager attribution analysis, asset class structural reviews, investment manager searches, and performance monitoring.  

Previously, Mr. Thiessen served as Senior Asset Manager of Columbia Housing, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary and affordable housing syndicate of PNC Financial Services.  Mr. Thiessen was a member of the Special Assets Resolution Group and managed a portfolio of “watch list” assets.  His responsibilities included overseeing and analyzing a portfolio of 25 tax credit limited partnerships, creating solutions for troubled assets, and implementing solution strategies.

Prior to serving as a Senior Asset Manager for Columbia Housing, Inc., Mr. Thiessen was a Trust Officer for Farmers and Merchants Trust Company of Long Beach, California.  There he was responsible for a portfolio of 129 trust accounts, totaling $53 million in assets under management across the full spectrum of asset classes.  Mr. Thiessen earned his MBA with an emphasis in finance from California State University, Long Beach.

 

Sarah Bernstein, Ph.D, Principal
Los Angeles, CA

Ms. Bernstein joined PCA in 2002 as a Principal and has assumed senior responsibilities across varying clients and consulting projects. Prior to joining PCA, Ms. Bernstein was an equity analyst with several Wall Street firms including Kaufman Bros., First Union Capital Markets Corp., US Bancorp, and Piper Jaffray. In the July 2000 issue of "Wall Street Journal 1999 Best on the Street," Ms. Bernstein was named No. 1 for Estimate Accuracy and No. 3 for Stock Picking within the Enterprise Software sector.

Prior to her Wall Street experience, Ms. Bernstein was an Economic Affairs Officer at the United Nations Secretariat where she analyzed investment, productivity, growth, inflation, technological change and employment in developed market economies for internal UN discussion and publication. In addition, Ms. Bernstein was a Vice President with Mantis Holdings, a Project Director with the Ontario Investment Fund Initiative, and a Senior Economist with the Cuomo Commission on Competitiveness.

Ms. Bernstein earned a BA in Politics at the University of California and a Ph. D. in Economics at the New School for Social Research in New York.

 

David Sancewich, Principal
Portland, OR

Mr. Sancewich joined PCA in 2004 and provides consulting services for PCA clients across all asset classes, as well as conducting both traditional and hedge fund/absolute return strategy research.  Consulting services include risk budgeting, investment policy and guideline development, portfolio and manager attribution analysis, asset class structural reviews, investment manager searches, and performance monitoring.  Mr. Sancewich also conducts traditional and alternative manager due diligence.

Previously, Mr. Sancewich worked at Windermere Investment Consulting as an Analyst, where he focused on performance measurement analysis, traditional manager research, and day-to-day support of client specific issues.

Prior to that, Mr. Sancewich worked as an Analyst for the Russell Investment Group, where he evaluated various US equity products for Russell’s manager research group.  Mr. Sancewich also advised large institutional clients on manager selection, as well as Russell’s multi-manager funds business.  He also helped work on the structure of Russell’s equity, taxable, and alternative investment products.

Mr. Sancewich earned a MBA as well as a Bachelor of Arts degree in Business Management from Washington State University.

 

John Linder, CFA, CPA, Principal
Portland, OR

Mr. Linder joined PCA in 2009 as a Senior Vice President with both consulting and investment research responsibilities. He has lead consultant responsibilities for two clients, and consults to PCA relationships representing over $450 billion in client assets.  Prior to joining PCA, he was a Partner and Senior Investment/Tax Strategist at CTC Consulting in Portland, Oregon, where he worked closely with both the consulting and research arms of CTC Consulting to integrate portfolio structuring, investment strategy, risk management, manager selection and tax management decisions within a consistent analytical framework. He currently provides ongoing advice to investment committees, boards, and executive staff of plan sponsors across a broad range of ongoing investment issues. In addition to ongoing retainer consulting duties, his project consulting engagements have included: structuring an absolute / alternative return strategic class (Oregon PERS), restructuring the strategic class framework (CalPERS), leading asset-liability studies, and conducting absolute return and private partnership due diligence reviews.

Prior to joining CTC in 2004, he was a senior buy-side equity analyst at Alsin Capital, a small Oregon-based capital management firm. In 2002, he moved to Oregon from Minneapolis, where he was manager of business valuation and litigation services with the CPA firm Larson Allen Weishair & Co, LLP. He began his career in the financial services industry in 1996 at the CPA firm McGladrey & Pullen, LLP.

Mr. Linder has been a speaker at SACRS and the Sacramento Chapter of the CFA Society. He is a CFA charter holder and a member of the CFA Society of Portland and the Portland Alternative Investment Association. He is also a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and has earned business valuation accreditations from both the AICPA (American Institute of Certified Public Accountants) and the ASA (American Society of Appraisers). He received his BA in economics from Middlebury College magna cum laude, and his Masters of Accountancy (MAC) from the Kenan-Flagler School of Business at UNC Chapel Hill.

 

Kay Ceserani, Senior Vice President
Portland, OR

Ms. Ceserani joined PCA in 2008 and provides consulting services for PCA clients. Ms. Ceserani has worked in the investment consulting industry in various roles since 1993. She has extensive experience in the development, execution and monitoring of investment programs for institutional clients, as well as expertise in performing due diligence on money management firms and their products.

Prior to PCA, Ms. Ceserani was a Consulting Project Manager at Yanni Partners in Pittsburgh, PA for six years. Her responsibilities included quarterly analysis of client portfolios, asset allocation studies, asset transitions, manager selection and monitoring and special research projects. Ms. Ceserani has also served as the Director of Operations at Greycourt & Co., Inc in Pittsburgh, PA, the Director of US Equity Research and Consulting Manager at Ennis, Knupp & Associates, in Chicago, IL. She also spent six years at R.V. Kuhns in Portland, OR.

Ms. Ceserani earned a BS in Political Science at the University of Oregon.

 

Eric White, Vice President
Roseville, CA

Mr. White joined PCA in 2009 as an Analyst.  He currently has consultant support and analytic responsibilities for PCA’s 529 College Savings Plan clients.  In addition, Mr. White provides general investment manager due diligence, portfolio performance measurements and analytics, and assistance on client specific projects for PCA’s defined benefit plans.   

Previously, Mr. White served as an Intern at Merrill Lynch.  His responsibilities included asset allocation modeling and analyzing individual securities and investment products.  Prior to joining PCA, Mr. White graduated from the University of San Francisco with a Masters degree in Economics with an emphasis in Finance.  His thesis topics included a history of recent financial crises and the role of the Federal Reserve, and the cause and effects of the Yen carry trade. 

 

Colin Bebee, Analyst
Portland, OR

Mr. Bebee joined PCA in 2010 as an Analyst.  His responsibilities include providing portfolio performance measurements and analytics, investment manager due diligence, general economic research, and assisting with various client and internal projects.

Prior to joining PCA, Mr. Bebee served as a Private Equity Researcher for Thomas Capital Group.  At TCG he was responsible for maintaining a database of potential limited partners, as well as researching and analyzing asset allocations of public pension plans throughout the United States.

Mr. Bebee received Bachelor of Science degrees in both Finance and Economics from Linfield College, summa cum laude. 

 

Ryan Lobdell, Analyst
Portland, OR

Mr. Lobdell joined PCA in 2011 as an Analyst. His responsibilities include but are not limited to, providing portfolio and investment level performance measurement and analytics, investment manager due diligence, and assisting with various client and internal projects.  Prior to being hired as an Analyst, Mr. Lobdell served as an Intern with PCA assisting with various client and internal projects.

Mr. Lobdell received his Bachelor of Science degree in Finance with an Economics Minor from Linfield College.

 

Ashley Tamashiro, Analyst
Portland, OR

Ms. Yoshida joined PCA in 2007.  Her responsibilities include providing performance measurement and analytics for client portfolios, performing editorial and quality control for materials in all asset classes, and assisting with various client and internal projects, including marketing.

Previously, Ms. Yoshida worked as an account manager responsible for professional services project accounting and as a sales support specialist at Symantec Corporation.  In 2006, Ms. Tamashiro received Symantec’s Director’s Award for her contributions to the company.

Ms. Yoshida earned a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Portland and a Certificate in Human Resource Management at Portland State University.

 

Desiree Jablonski, Associate
Portland, OR

Desiree Jablonski joined PCA in 2009.  She provides services for both PCA and clients including managing firm responses to requests for proposals, reporting of client portfolio performance, providing quality control and editorial reviews for internal and client related materials and projects as well as firm operational responsibilities. 

Prior to joining PCA Ms. Jablonski served as Administrative Specialist Senior for Northern Arizona University.  Her duties included database administration, providing oversight for the cross indexing and maintenance of personnel materials as well as analyzing and responding to matters concerning policies and procedures. 

Desiree earned her Bachelor’s in Business from Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff Arizona.