Raised in Queens, New York, Dan joined AB through its asset-management arm, then headquartered in New York City, and he took to it immediately. His initial role served the equity portfolio-management team, a big first step that immersed him in complicated security selection and asset-allocation details for the company’s largest clients. “It was an interesting time for a newbie, during the technology bubble, and our value-style investment services were underperforming dramatically,” Dan said. “But I was given license to really dig deep into market happenings and the huge dichotomy between value and growth stocks.”
Dan’s findings would lead to another important first for him: authorship of a technical white paper. Soon, his analysis would be highly leveraged across the organization to acknowledge AB’s performance challenges, and why they would recover—which they did.
AB’s culture encourages relentless ingenuity, which for Dan over time led to an MBA from Columbia University, roles analyzing stocks and building model portfolios, and eventually the position as the first director of research for the Private Wealth Management Group.
Dan also helped launch AB’s groundbreaking Dynamic Asset Allocation strategies, which challenged the firm’s long-standing strategic approach and led to the development of a broad set of solutions for clients across the globe. “It was probably my most exciting project, and definitely my hardest,” he said.
Dan credits AB’s training, cross-company interaction and management support for building the inroads that let him innovate and contribute in ways he never expected: “People at all levels of the organization put me on special projects right alongside them, which gave me broad exposure beyond my assigned job and stretched me to develop concepts not being considered.”
Now a senior leader and mentor to many, Dan sees lasting reward in bringing different parts of the firm together to help it fully benefit from diversity of thought. “I love to engage and see what people are working on, talk about problems they’re solving or opinions they have on anything that can improve our business,” he said.
