INVESTMENT TEAM
VITALY VEKSLER, CFA
FOUNDER, CEO, AND PORTFOLIO MANAGER
Vitaly Veksler founded Beyond Borders Investment Strategies (BBIS) in 2014 and serves as the firm’s CEO and Portfolio Manager. He is an investment management professional with over 20 years of experience. Throughout his career, Vitaly has specialized in identifying global and country-specific macroeconomic, geopolitical, business, and investment valuation trends and translating these trends into individual investment selections and asset allocation decisions for global multi-asset class portfolios.
At BBIS, Vitaly manages Global ex-US and Emerging & Frontier Markets Country Value Equity portfolios built from single-country exchange-traded funds (ETFs) of developed, emerging, and frontier countries. He also advises other investors on which countries to invest in. Vitaly has presented the firm’s investment strategies and discussed the emerging market, global investing, and impact investing topics at such thought-leading industry organizations as CFA Society Boston and leading universities such as Boston University, Tufts, Cornell, Harvard, and MIT. Articles and interviews with Vitaly about BBIS’ investment strategies have been posted on ETF.com, Yahoo Finance, Fidelity.com, QProb (quantitative investment blog), Harvest (digital marketing platform connecting investors with financial firms and products), The Investors Podcast (with its motto “We Study Billionaires”), Finding Unique Value Podcast, and Advisors Perspectives (a leading online publication for wealth managers).
Before BBIS, Vitaly was Vice President at BNY Mellon Asset Management. There he authored highly successful quarterly Global Economic & Market Outlook reports that were initially distributed to BNY Mellon Asset Management’s largest institutional clients, and later to all institutional and private clients of BNY Mellon (not just those of BNY Mellon Asset Management) worldwide as an example of the BNY Mellon’s thought leadership in the asset allocation area. As part of BNY Mellon’s internal consulting group, he also focused on answering challenging questions about the global and emerging investing topics posted by the company’s largest institutional clients. Among other high-profile projects, he co-developed a new framework for thematic investing in emerging market equities and wrote an influential paper that was featured in the Chief Investment Officer Magazine. Before BNY Mellon, Vitaly worked on the Technology equity team at Fidelity Management & Research, the famed equity research group of Fidelity Investments, and the top-ranked Energy equity team at State Street Research & Management (now BlackRock). Vitaly analyzed business, economic, and political trends affecting global public equities and identified global companies’ stocks that benefitted from these trends.
Vitaly is a CFA charter holder, served for three years on the CFA Society Boston’s Board, and led the society’s Economist & Strategist Program Committee for six years. He received his MBA degree from The MIT Sloan School of Management, his Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy (MALD) degree with a concentration in International Finance from The Fletcher School at Tufts University, and his Diploma (BS and MS degrees combined) in Management Information Systems and Artificial Intelligence from Moscow Technical University (MIREA).
To access Vitaly's LinkedIn profile, please Click Here
Vitaly Veksler founded Beyond Borders Investment Strategies (BBIS) in 2014 and serves as the firm’s CEO and Portfolio Manager. He is an investment management professional with over 20 years of experience. Throughout his career, Vitaly has specialized in identifying global and country-specific macroeconomic, geopolitical, business, and investment valuation trends and translating these trends into individual investment selections and asset allocation decisions for global multi-asset class portfolios.
At BBIS, Vitaly manages Global ex-US and Emerging & Frontier Markets Country Value Equity portfolios built from single-country exchange-traded funds (ETFs) of developed, emerging, and frontier countries. He also advises other investors on which countries to invest in. Vitaly has presented the firm’s investment strategies and discussed the emerging market, global investing, and impact investing topics at such thought-leading industry organizations as CFA Society Boston and leading universities such as Boston University, Tufts, Cornell, Harvard, and MIT. Articles and interviews with Vitaly about BBIS’ investment strategies have been posted on ETF.com, Yahoo Finance, Fidelity.com, QProb (quantitative investment blog), Harvest (digital marketing platform connecting investors with financial firms and products), The Investors Podcast (with its motto “We Study Billionaires”), Finding Unique Value Podcast, and Advisors Perspectives (a leading online publication for wealth managers).
Before BBIS, Vitaly was Vice President at BNY Mellon Asset Management. There he authored highly successful quarterly Global Economic & Market Outlook reports that were initially distributed to BNY Mellon Asset Management’s largest institutional clients, and later to all institutional and private clients of BNY Mellon (not just those of BNY Mellon Asset Management) worldwide as an example of the BNY Mellon’s thought leadership in the asset allocation area. As part of BNY Mellon’s internal consulting group, he also focused on answering challenging questions about the global and emerging investing topics posted by the company’s largest institutional clients. Among other high-profile projects, he co-developed a new framework for thematic investing in emerging market equities and wrote an influential paper that was featured in the Chief Investment Officer Magazine. Before BNY Mellon, Vitaly worked on the Technology equity team at Fidelity Management & Research, the famed equity research group of Fidelity Investments, and the top-ranked Energy equity team at State Street Research & Management (now BlackRock). Vitaly analyzed business, economic, and political trends affecting global public equities and identified global companies’ stocks that benefitted from these trends.
Vitaly is a CFA charter holder, served for three years on the CFA Society Boston’s Board, and led the society’s Economist & Strategist Program Committee for six years. He received his MBA degree from The MIT Sloan School of Management, his Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy (MALD) degree with a concentration in International Finance from The Fletcher School at Tufts University, and his Diploma (BS and MS degrees combined) in Management Information Systems and Artificial Intelligence from Moscow Technical University (MIREA).
To access Vitaly's LinkedIn profile, please Click Here
ADVISORY BOARD *
LAWRENCE F. POHLMAN, PHD
ADVISORY BOARD MEMBER
Larry has a distinguished career covering 25 years of experience in equity, fixed income and asset allocation. He is a successful player / coach recruiting, managing and mentoring teams of researchers while personally pursuing state of the art research. He is a skilled presenter of complex quantitative and analytical aspects of investment strategies to clients at various levels of expertise. He regularly speaks at professional conferences and is widely published in prominent journals.
Larry was the Chief Investment Officer at BNP Paribas Quantitative Strategies. His team managed $3 billion in global quantitative equities and minimum volatility strategies. Before BNP, Larry was responsible for the Quantitative Investment Group at Wellington Management. He and his team developed Wellington Management’s quantitative models for a wide range of styles including US and International securities. His team also managed $26 billion in pure quantitative portfolios. Prior to joining Wellington, Larry was the Director of Research at PanAgora Asset Management where he was responsible for overseeing all research, development and enhancements to PanAgora's quantitative models covering $12 billion. He also co-chaired PanAgora’s Investment Committee. Prior to joining PanAgora, Larry was a Senior Vice President and the Director of Fixed Income Research at Independence Investment Associates. Previous to that, he was a Vice President at Blackrock Financial Management, where he worked in their portfolio engineering group, and was an Associate in Mortgage Securities Research at Goldman Sachs & Co.
Larry holds his Ph.D. in Finance, Masters of Philosophy in Finance, MBA in Finance and Management Science, MS in Operations Research, and BS in Nuclear Engineering, all from Columbia University. He is a member of the American Finance Association, Boston Security Analysts Society, Econometric Society, the Chicago Quantitative Alliance and MENSA.
To access Larry's LinkedIn profile, please Click Here
Larry has a distinguished career covering 25 years of experience in equity, fixed income and asset allocation. He is a successful player / coach recruiting, managing and mentoring teams of researchers while personally pursuing state of the art research. He is a skilled presenter of complex quantitative and analytical aspects of investment strategies to clients at various levels of expertise. He regularly speaks at professional conferences and is widely published in prominent journals.
Larry was the Chief Investment Officer at BNP Paribas Quantitative Strategies. His team managed $3 billion in global quantitative equities and minimum volatility strategies. Before BNP, Larry was responsible for the Quantitative Investment Group at Wellington Management. He and his team developed Wellington Management’s quantitative models for a wide range of styles including US and International securities. His team also managed $26 billion in pure quantitative portfolios. Prior to joining Wellington, Larry was the Director of Research at PanAgora Asset Management where he was responsible for overseeing all research, development and enhancements to PanAgora's quantitative models covering $12 billion. He also co-chaired PanAgora’s Investment Committee. Prior to joining PanAgora, Larry was a Senior Vice President and the Director of Fixed Income Research at Independence Investment Associates. Previous to that, he was a Vice President at Blackrock Financial Management, where he worked in their portfolio engineering group, and was an Associate in Mortgage Securities Research at Goldman Sachs & Co.
Larry holds his Ph.D. in Finance, Masters of Philosophy in Finance, MBA in Finance and Management Science, MS in Operations Research, and BS in Nuclear Engineering, all from Columbia University. He is a member of the American Finance Association, Boston Security Analysts Society, Econometric Society, the Chicago Quantitative Alliance and MENSA.
To access Larry's LinkedIn profile, please Click Here
PATRICK SCHENA, PHD
ADVISORY BOARD MEMBER
Patrick Schena is Adjunct Assistant Professor of International Business Relations at the Fletcher School, Tufts University, where he is also Senior Fellow of the Council on Emerging Market Enterprises and Co-Head of SovereigNet, The Fletcher Network for Sovereign Wealth and Global Capital. At SovereigNet, he co-leads efforts aimed at advancing research, advisory leadership and education on the role of sovereigns as institutional investors. In addition, he is an Associate-in-Research at the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, Harvard University. He currently serves as Chairman of the advisory committee of a World Bank - The Public-Private Infrastructure Advisory Facility (PPIAF) study on the evolution and role of strategic investment funds.
Dr. Schena has 30 years of experience in finance, operations, and technology management focused on investment management. He was formerly a Principal leading delivery of the Investment Management Services practice at a Genpact-Headstrong Corp., a global provider of outsourcing services. He has participated in and co-founded two companies providing technology and operations services to investment managers. He holds a PhD in International Finance from the Fletcher School, Tufts University and additional graduate degrees from The Fletcher School and Boston College.
To access Professor Schena's profile on the website of The Fletcher School at Tufts University, please Click Here
Patrick Schena is Adjunct Assistant Professor of International Business Relations at the Fletcher School, Tufts University, where he is also Senior Fellow of the Council on Emerging Market Enterprises and Co-Head of SovereigNet, The Fletcher Network for Sovereign Wealth and Global Capital. At SovereigNet, he co-leads efforts aimed at advancing research, advisory leadership and education on the role of sovereigns as institutional investors. In addition, he is an Associate-in-Research at the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, Harvard University. He currently serves as Chairman of the advisory committee of a World Bank - The Public-Private Infrastructure Advisory Facility (PPIAF) study on the evolution and role of strategic investment funds.
Dr. Schena has 30 years of experience in finance, operations, and technology management focused on investment management. He was formerly a Principal leading delivery of the Investment Management Services practice at a Genpact-Headstrong Corp., a global provider of outsourcing services. He has participated in and co-founded two companies providing technology and operations services to investment managers. He holds a PhD in International Finance from the Fletcher School, Tufts University and additional graduate degrees from The Fletcher School and Boston College.
To access Professor Schena's profile on the website of The Fletcher School at Tufts University, please Click Here
* Members of the Advisory Board advise full-time Beyond Borders Investment Strategies’ employees on strategic business questions in such areas as investing, marketing, and communications. The members of the Advisory Board are not registered investment advisor representatives and are not involved in selling the firm’s services to clients or advising clients on their portfolios.
THE BBIS INTERN HALL OF FAME **
Below are short bios of interns indicted in the BBIS Hall of Fame based on their accomplishments to the firm. All interns contributed to making BBIS a stronger firm. They worked on projects in investment research, marketing, website development, brand building, and other areas. All interns volunteered to work at BBIS. They worked for the firm with energy and interest as if they were getting paid millions of dollars for their efforts. Their motivation, high morale, and interest in the projects that they worked on were palpable and contagious. I highly recommend each one of them to other employers and hope that I will have a chance to work with them in the future.
BRADEN WEINSTOCK
INVESTMENT RESEARCH INTERN
September 2014 – February 2015
I met Braden in December 2013 when I served as the Industry Mentor to his team competing in the CFA Institute Research Challenge representing Tufts University. Over the four months that I spent advising the team, I was very impressed by Braden’s intelligence, eloquence, and hard work. He built a complex Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) model, gave an excellent presentation of his work, and spent 27 hours straight finishing the final report with his teammates.
I hired him as the first intern in the history of BBIS in September 2014 because of his accomplishments during the CFA Institute Research Challenge. Over the next six months, he helped BBIS with brand building, investment research, building the website, and developing marketing materials. While the materials have evolved over the years, they still have Braden’s touch imprinted in them.
When Braden went to work for Bridgewater Associates, the world’s largest hedge fund that utilizes a global
macro investing style and the world’s largest hedge fund overall, I felt proud of his accomplishments. I felt the same way a soccer coach of an aspiring team would feel about his team’s “star” player, who was leaving to play for Real Madrid, one of the most popular and accomplished clubs in global soccer. I cannot recommend him highly enough and would welcome an opportunity to work with Braden in the future!
To access Braden's LinkedIn profile, please Click Here
September 2014 – February 2015
I met Braden in December 2013 when I served as the Industry Mentor to his team competing in the CFA Institute Research Challenge representing Tufts University. Over the four months that I spent advising the team, I was very impressed by Braden’s intelligence, eloquence, and hard work. He built a complex Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) model, gave an excellent presentation of his work, and spent 27 hours straight finishing the final report with his teammates.
I hired him as the first intern in the history of BBIS in September 2014 because of his accomplishments during the CFA Institute Research Challenge. Over the next six months, he helped BBIS with brand building, investment research, building the website, and developing marketing materials. While the materials have evolved over the years, they still have Braden’s touch imprinted in them.
When Braden went to work for Bridgewater Associates, the world’s largest hedge fund that utilizes a global
macro investing style and the world’s largest hedge fund overall, I felt proud of his accomplishments. I felt the same way a soccer coach of an aspiring team would feel about his team’s “star” player, who was leaving to play for Real Madrid, one of the most popular and accomplished clubs in global soccer. I cannot recommend him highly enough and would welcome an opportunity to work with Braden in the future!
To access Braden's LinkedIn profile, please Click Here
MAX COHEN-CASADO
INVESTMENT RESEARCH INTERN
May 2016 – August 2017
I had the pleasure of working with Max Cohen-Casado when he had an internship at Beyond Borders Investment Strategies (BBIS). I appreciated Max’s top-notch research and editorial skills. I was very impressed with his globally-oriented approach that he honed during his multiple foreign trips and academic studies at the Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. I also appreciated his easygoing personality and a good sense of humor.
Max’s biggest contribution to the success of BBIS was the development of a database of local macroeconomic and financial news provider sources for all 49 developed, emerging, and frontier countries around the world that BBIS covers. From the investment decision-making standpoint, it is essential to know information published in the local rather than just in the global sources. The first step in this process is to identify several news providers per country. Max did a wonderful job with it!
He also edited several research and marketing publications. For example, he edited a white paper, “Investment Lessons from Fishing: Building Portfolios from Single-Country Equity Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs).” This paper is one of the key ones among BBIS’ publications. It compares and contrasts BBIS’ method of investing with three common methods of investing internationally: stock picking, hybrid top-down and bottom-up stock picking, and investing via broad-based international indices. His editorial comments and questions made the paper better.
I highly recommend Max and hope to work with him in the future!
To access Max's LinkedIn profile, please Click Here
May 2016 – August 2017
I had the pleasure of working with Max Cohen-Casado when he had an internship at Beyond Borders Investment Strategies (BBIS). I appreciated Max’s top-notch research and editorial skills. I was very impressed with his globally-oriented approach that he honed during his multiple foreign trips and academic studies at the Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. I also appreciated his easygoing personality and a good sense of humor.
Max’s biggest contribution to the success of BBIS was the development of a database of local macroeconomic and financial news provider sources for all 49 developed, emerging, and frontier countries around the world that BBIS covers. From the investment decision-making standpoint, it is essential to know information published in the local rather than just in the global sources. The first step in this process is to identify several news providers per country. Max did a wonderful job with it!
He also edited several research and marketing publications. For example, he edited a white paper, “Investment Lessons from Fishing: Building Portfolios from Single-Country Equity Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs).” This paper is one of the key ones among BBIS’ publications. It compares and contrasts BBIS’ method of investing with three common methods of investing internationally: stock picking, hybrid top-down and bottom-up stock picking, and investing via broad-based international indices. His editorial comments and questions made the paper better.
I highly recommend Max and hope to work with him in the future!
To access Max's LinkedIn profile, please Click Here
DAVID ANDREWS
INVESTMENT RESEARCH INTERN
July 2018 – Present
David Andrews is a rock star! While working as an intern at Beyond Borders Investment Strategies (BBIS), David completed every project at an “A+” level. I had the pleasure of meeting David after I spoke about BBIS’ strategy of country selection and rotation in equity investing at the “Emerging Markets: Investment Theories and Practice” class at Harvard University in July 2017. He joined BBIS as an intern a year later, in July 2018.
David is a smart, worldly, hard-working, and genuinely nice professional. David’s biggest contributions to BBIS were in the marketing and editorial areas. During his internship, David developed a report on BBIS’ capital-raising strategy that was full of excellent suggestions. He also created lists of potential investors in the family office and Registered Investment Advisor (RIA) universes. For each organization, he wrote thoughtful comments about their interests in the international and impact investing areas, as well as about people whom David or I may know in these organizations. David also helped me with editing a number of reports. For example, David’s thoughtful comments and edits made the “2018 Outlook: Five Trends Impacting Emerging and Frontier Market Equities as Investment Risks Increase” report a better document.
However, David’s most significant contribution to BBIS was his thoughtful advice to me to write about the positive impact of investing in crisis-stricken countries’ stock markets. David gave this advice after listening to my ideas on the cardinal importance of domestic and, especially, foreign investments that helped to end a monster economic and political crisis in the former Soviet republics during the 1990s. David’s advice motivated me to write the white paper titled, “We Will Not Leave You Behind: Economic, Social and Political Impact of Investing via Single-Country Equity ETFs in Countries During and After Major Crises.” The paper generated strong interest from impact-oriented investors in BBIS’ strategies and was later republished in a shortened form by Advisor Perspectives, a leading interactive publisher for wealth managers. I was also invited to several prestigious conferences to talk about BBIS’ style of impact investing using single-country ETFs after publishing the paper. All this would not have happened without David’s advice to write the paper and his wonderful comments and edits that made it better. In my opinion, only a small percentage of interns, or young professionals in general, would have the vision, maturity, and confidence to propose a project that would take months to develop but would also result in such a positive outcome!
After working with David, I am not surprised at all that he managed to get an almost perfect GPA and became a salutatorian of his class at Harvard University. I cannot recommend him highly enough and hope to work with him in the future!
To access David's LinkedIn profile, please Click Here
July 2018 – Present
David Andrews is a rock star! While working as an intern at Beyond Borders Investment Strategies (BBIS), David completed every project at an “A+” level. I had the pleasure of meeting David after I spoke about BBIS’ strategy of country selection and rotation in equity investing at the “Emerging Markets: Investment Theories and Practice” class at Harvard University in July 2017. He joined BBIS as an intern a year later, in July 2018.
David is a smart, worldly, hard-working, and genuinely nice professional. David’s biggest contributions to BBIS were in the marketing and editorial areas. During his internship, David developed a report on BBIS’ capital-raising strategy that was full of excellent suggestions. He also created lists of potential investors in the family office and Registered Investment Advisor (RIA) universes. For each organization, he wrote thoughtful comments about their interests in the international and impact investing areas, as well as about people whom David or I may know in these organizations. David also helped me with editing a number of reports. For example, David’s thoughtful comments and edits made the “2018 Outlook: Five Trends Impacting Emerging and Frontier Market Equities as Investment Risks Increase” report a better document.
However, David’s most significant contribution to BBIS was his thoughtful advice to me to write about the positive impact of investing in crisis-stricken countries’ stock markets. David gave this advice after listening to my ideas on the cardinal importance of domestic and, especially, foreign investments that helped to end a monster economic and political crisis in the former Soviet republics during the 1990s. David’s advice motivated me to write the white paper titled, “We Will Not Leave You Behind: Economic, Social and Political Impact of Investing via Single-Country Equity ETFs in Countries During and After Major Crises.” The paper generated strong interest from impact-oriented investors in BBIS’ strategies and was later republished in a shortened form by Advisor Perspectives, a leading interactive publisher for wealth managers. I was also invited to several prestigious conferences to talk about BBIS’ style of impact investing using single-country ETFs after publishing the paper. All this would not have happened without David’s advice to write the paper and his wonderful comments and edits that made it better. In my opinion, only a small percentage of interns, or young professionals in general, would have the vision, maturity, and confidence to propose a project that would take months to develop but would also result in such a positive outcome!
After working with David, I am not surprised at all that he managed to get an almost perfect GPA and became a salutatorian of his class at Harvard University. I cannot recommend him highly enough and hope to work with him in the future!
To access David's LinkedIn profile, please Click Here
JACOB SPIEGEL
INVESTMENT RESEARCH INTERN
December 2018 – January 2019
I had the pleasure of working with Jacob Spiegel when he was an intern at Beyond Borders Investment Strategies (BBIS) in the winter of 2018-2019. At the time, he was a sophomore at Cornell University.
I appreciated the intelligence and hard work that he demonstrated at BBIS. Jacob is a thoughtful and professional individual. He analyses problems by attacking them from multiple angles. Jacob is not afraid to ask questions and be asked questions — an essential skill for an investor. In the end, he formulates solutions that are based on inputs that he gained from multiple sources and his own solid analysis of these inputs. I believe that Jacob has the potential to grow into a successful investor.
At BBIS, Jacob helped me with marketing and editorial tasks related to impact investing. For example, he compiled a list of impact investors in the Northeast of the United States. His comments on the draft of my white paper, “We Will Not Leave You Behind: Economic, Social and Political Impact of Investing via Single-Country Equity ETFs in Countries During and After Major Crises,” definitely helped me to improve the final paper.
I highly recommend Jacob and hope that we will have a chance to work together in the future!
To access Jacob's LinkedIn profile, please Click Here
December 2018 – January 2019
I had the pleasure of working with Jacob Spiegel when he was an intern at Beyond Borders Investment Strategies (BBIS) in the winter of 2018-2019. At the time, he was a sophomore at Cornell University.
I appreciated the intelligence and hard work that he demonstrated at BBIS. Jacob is a thoughtful and professional individual. He analyses problems by attacking them from multiple angles. Jacob is not afraid to ask questions and be asked questions — an essential skill for an investor. In the end, he formulates solutions that are based on inputs that he gained from multiple sources and his own solid analysis of these inputs. I believe that Jacob has the potential to grow into a successful investor.
At BBIS, Jacob helped me with marketing and editorial tasks related to impact investing. For example, he compiled a list of impact investors in the Northeast of the United States. His comments on the draft of my white paper, “We Will Not Leave You Behind: Economic, Social and Political Impact of Investing via Single-Country Equity ETFs in Countries During and After Major Crises,” definitely helped me to improve the final paper.
I highly recommend Jacob and hope that we will have a chance to work together in the future!
To access Jacob's LinkedIn profile, please Click Here
IVAN EVDOKIMOV
INVESTMENT RESEARCH INTERN
May 2020 – September 2020
I had the pleasure of working with Ivan Evdokimov during the summer of 2020 when he served as an intern at Beyond Borders Investment Strategies (BBIS). Ivan came to BBIS after being highly recommended by one of his professors at Hult International Business School, where he earned two master’s degrees - one in International Business and one in Finance. During the internship, Ivan demonstrated excellent knowledge of quantitative methods, programming skills, and macroeconomic research skills. Moreover, he possesses the strong intelligence needed to combine these skills to achieve great results. Ivan also demonstrated the independence and strong work ethic required of professionals who work virtually. I appreciated that he always came well prepared for our virtual meetings that took place twice a week.
Ivan partnered with me on two projects that I had wanted to work on for a long time but had not had the time to pursue. He helped BBIS systematize sector composition of not only single-country Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) that we use (accounting for one or two competing ETFs per country), but also of all single-country ETFs in our database. Sector composition is often important for determining the ETF investment suitability during various stages of the global economic and stock market cycles. Ivan exceeded my expectations by developing a program that helped him complete this project in just a couple of days. His ability to apply programming skills to business applications is one of his strengths.
For his second project, Ivan researched correlations between the oil prices and the currencies of oil-exporting countries. These correlations are strong most of the time but weaken during crises when the oil prices drop significantly. Following up on this observation, Ivan researched the roles and various mechanisms of central banks’ monetary interventions in various oil-exporting countries. His detailed research identified different mechanisms of the interventions based on whether countries employed floating or fixed exchange rates, whether they borrowed in hard currencies or local (weaker) currencies, and whether they had Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWFs). The results of his research could be helpful for global investors.
I wish Ivan all the best with his studies at the Financial Econometrics program at the University of Essex in the UK. I highly recommend Ivan and hope that we will have a chance to work together in the future!
To access Ivan's LinkedIn profile, please Click Here
May 2020 – September 2020
I had the pleasure of working with Ivan Evdokimov during the summer of 2020 when he served as an intern at Beyond Borders Investment Strategies (BBIS). Ivan came to BBIS after being highly recommended by one of his professors at Hult International Business School, where he earned two master’s degrees - one in International Business and one in Finance. During the internship, Ivan demonstrated excellent knowledge of quantitative methods, programming skills, and macroeconomic research skills. Moreover, he possesses the strong intelligence needed to combine these skills to achieve great results. Ivan also demonstrated the independence and strong work ethic required of professionals who work virtually. I appreciated that he always came well prepared for our virtual meetings that took place twice a week.
Ivan partnered with me on two projects that I had wanted to work on for a long time but had not had the time to pursue. He helped BBIS systematize sector composition of not only single-country Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) that we use (accounting for one or two competing ETFs per country), but also of all single-country ETFs in our database. Sector composition is often important for determining the ETF investment suitability during various stages of the global economic and stock market cycles. Ivan exceeded my expectations by developing a program that helped him complete this project in just a couple of days. His ability to apply programming skills to business applications is one of his strengths.
For his second project, Ivan researched correlations between the oil prices and the currencies of oil-exporting countries. These correlations are strong most of the time but weaken during crises when the oil prices drop significantly. Following up on this observation, Ivan researched the roles and various mechanisms of central banks’ monetary interventions in various oil-exporting countries. His detailed research identified different mechanisms of the interventions based on whether countries employed floating or fixed exchange rates, whether they borrowed in hard currencies or local (weaker) currencies, and whether they had Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWFs). The results of his research could be helpful for global investors.
I wish Ivan all the best with his studies at the Financial Econometrics program at the University of Essex in the UK. I highly recommend Ivan and hope that we will have a chance to work together in the future!
To access Ivan's LinkedIn profile, please Click Here
** Unless indicated specifically, the interns do not currently work at Beyond Borders Investment Strategies.