Our Story
Our team harnesses the dynamism of different perspectives, pairing years of portfolio management experience with years of software development. This depth helps us make factor investing painless for our clients.
Our Mission
Distilling the immense benefits of factor investing into an easily implementable strategy for you.
We're Hiring!
Vijay Vaidyanathan
OAM’s founder and lead Portfolio Manager Vijay Vaidyanathan has a PhD in Finance and an MS (Risk & Asset Management) from the EDHEC Business School, France. He also has an MS in Computer Science from SUNY Albany and a MSc (Tech) from BITS Pilani, India and is an alumnus of IMD Lausanne, Switzerland. Previously, Vijay was the President, EDHEC-Risk Indices and Benchmarks North America where his research interests included smart beta and the role of factors and risk premia in equity markets. He holds several patents in financial micro-transactions in Digital Markets.
Monty Joshi, CFA
Monty Joshi, CFA is the co-Portfolio manager for OAM. Monty has an MBA from the Haas School, UC Berkeley and a BA (Econ) from the University of Chicago. He has served in various of investment-related roles such as risk manager with the Chicago Board of Trade, equity options trader with Hull Trading (now part of Goldman Sachs), long-short hedge fund manager, and pension consultant with AD Biller and Associates. Previously, he managed finance/operations for several start-up companies in Silicon Valley.
Armand Aquino, CFA
Armand Aquino, CFA has an MS in Financial Analysis, University of San Francisco and a BS from UCLA. He was a Technical Project Manager 2 at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco responsible for developing analysis and reporting solutions for the Bank Supervision and Regulation groups of the Federal Reserve System.
Alec Barlow
Alec discovered his passion for programming and software development while working in clinical research at the March of Dimes Prematurity Research Center at Stanford University. He has a BS in Economics from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo and is driven to figure out ways of leveraging technology to improve people’s ability to do their jobs.
Teun Lucas
Teun Lucas joins Optimal from MSCI and prior to that JPMorgan in London and Amsterdam, where he worked with Advisors and Pension Funds on Smart Beta, Factor based solutions and Equity Derivatives. He was also a senior account manager for institutional clients at Northern Trust in London. Teun has an MS in Finance and Investments, Cum Laude, from the Erasmus University in Rotterdam, Netherlands.
Priscilla Macalincag
Priscilla is passionate about creating products that not only look good, but give users a positive experience. Priscilla doesn’t mind being called a nerd; she loves learning new programming languages and gets excited when she solves problems. Priscilla has a Bachelor’s in Communication Studies and a Graduate Diploma in Creative Technologies, New Zealand.
Jennie Chen
As the Operations Manager at Optimal, Jennie is responsible for daily operations, human resources, accounting, and compliance activities. After spending more than 15 years supporting executives at various high-tech start-up companies and law firms, Jennie understands that people are one of the most valuable assets an organization can have. She thrives on challenges, particularly on expanding a firm’s reach within a structured framework, and enjoys building bridges between employees. In her free time, Jennie enjoys reading, listening to music, skiing, basketball, and swimming.
Yang Li
Yang has worked in the tech, banking, and consulting industries. He is a CFA Level III candidate, and is responsible for quantitative analytics and financial modeling. Yang is always looking to further his skills in advanced data analytical methods and financial model building. Yang has a Masters of Finance from HULT and a BS from Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University.
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