Re-introducing the Provident Team
We have a great team here at Provident, and I’m proud of the work each of them does. Our clients see the trades we make in their portfolios, and they read Investment Comments, Viewpoint, and quarterly letters authored by our portfolio managers. But there is a broader team behind the scenes. I’d like to share a bit about each of them so clients can see how our company functions.
There are actually three teams at Provident – the Investment Committee, Operations, and Marketing. The Investment Committee consists of the portfolio managers/analysts who make decisions on stocks. That consists of me as President, Dan Boyle (or “Dan B”) who has been elevated to Senior Vice President, Miles Putnam who is now Vice President, and James Skubik, now Senior Portfolio Manager. Dan started with us in 2004, having previously worked with an investment analytics and information provider to Wall Street and then a private equity firm with $100 million under management. That same summer, Miles started as an intern while studying at the University of Michigan. Six years later, after completing undergraduate and graduate studies, he joined us as an analyst. James came to us as an analyst in 2017, having previously worked for several local investment management firms, one of which he co-founded. He was previously with JP Morgan, working on teams that offered complex financial products including those backed by mortgages and auto loans. The four members of the Investment Committee hold the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation and constitute Provident’s shareholders.
The Operations team is led by Eric Pozolo, CFP, our Director of Operations. Eric came to us in 2018 from Thomson Reuters where he monitored income tax law in several states to develop software used by tax accountants. We felt his background with state taxes would help address a need we had in managing our clients’ municipal bond portfolios and that his Master’s in Information Sciences would be useful as we became increasingly automated. He took the Certified Financial Planner (CFP) coursework and exam for additional background. Eric is our in-house technology expert and has helped us implement software and services that have made us more efficient. He remains our municipal bond analyst/manager and has expanded his role beyond technology to encompass our business operations, including working closely with our Admin team.
The Operations/Admin team touches much of what clients see. The team is led by Terri Buchanan, Manager of Operations. Terri joined Provident in 2011 as the newest member of the team she now leads. Jeanine Russ came onboard in 2020 followed by Natalie Frederick who started with us this past March in advance of the retirement of Doreen Phelps. Jeanine and Natalie are Client Operations Specialists. This team performs all the behind-the-scenes functions that make our business run successfully. They prepare client correspondence, handle billing, make sure our trades are correctly documented, edit and process two newsletters we author for Better Investing, oversee the birthday and Thanksgiving cards clients enjoy so much, and keep our office adequately supplied. They also make sure we have fun occasionally, such as our team lunches to celebrate employee birthdays. Terri, Jeanine, and Natalie came to us with a variety of experiences including healthcare, insurance, mortgage, and retail. But one thing they all have in common is that they are former teachers like some of their predecessors. I suspect that has something to do with dedication to process and attention to detail.
With the recent retirement of Doreen Phelps, Dan Krstevski, CFP (or “Dan K” as he’s known here) is the longest tenured employee after me. He came to us in 2001 after he and I got to know each other when he worked in Detroit-area branches of TD Waterhouse Securities, our clients’ custodian at the time. Dan is our Director of Client Services, our version of a marketing director. In his role, he fields inquiries about Provident’s services, onboards new clients, and handles client requests such as incoming transfers, requests for withdrawals, required minimum IRA distributions, and account changes. As a CFP professional, he also has the education and experience to consult with clients regarding financial concerns outside of security selection.
This past April, we brought on a fellow CFA charterholder looking for his next opportunity, Eric Wathen. We didn’t have a particular role to be filled, but there were some activities that would benefit from an extra pair of capable hands. Not knowing how else to describe Eric’s role, we labeled him as a “consultant.” Most of his early focus was helping with marketing ideas, some of which we are starting to implement. We’ve also had him work on “stock screening” and other ways of identifying promising candidates for potential future investment. His focus on family will keep him in a part-time capacity for a while, but he is now a Provident employee with the title of Research and Marketing Analyst.
Before I joined Provident in 1992 when it was still known as Seger-Elvekrog, the firm consisted of two skilled stock pickers and three part-time secretaries. It wasn’t really structured as a business but would need to become so in order to grow and succeed over the long haul. Introducing our newer employees and identifying roles and responsibilities is my way of sharing with our clients the progress we’ve made toward Ralph and Maury’s dream to create an enduring business out of what Maury used to call “our little enterprise.”
Scott D. Horsburgh, CFA President