Leadership Team
Hayne Leland, Principal and CEO
- Professor Emeritus, Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley
- Former President and Fellow of the American Finance Association
- Financial Engineer of the Year, IAQF, 2016
- Author of more than 50 articles in finance and economics
- Winner of the inaugural $100,000 Stephen A. Ross Award for Research in Financial Engineering, 2008
- Founding principal, Leland O’Brien Rubinstein Associates (LOR)
- One of Fortune Magazine’s Businessmen of the Year, 1987
- Co-creator of the S&P 500 SuperTrust, the first ETF
- Served on scientific advisory boards of Wells Asset Management, Goldman Sachs, and the Paris Stock Exchange.
- A.B., Harvard; M.Sc.(Econ.) London School of Economics; Ph.D., Harvard
John O’Brien, Founding Member
- Managing Director of Credit Suisse Asset Management
- Chairman and CEO of Leland O’Brien Rubinstein (LOR) Associates
- Co-developer and chairman of the S&P 500 SuperTrust, the world’s first ETF
- Co-founded Wilshire Associates (originally named O'Brien Associates), and co-developed the Wilshire 5000 index (originally known as the O'Brien 5000)
- Co-developer of and Faculty Advisor to the Master’s in Financial Engineering (MFE) program at UC Berkeley, Haas School of Business.
- Creator and teacher of MFE course in Financial Innovation
- One of Fortune Magazine’s “Businessmen of the Year,” 1987
- MacArthur Award for lifetime contributions to investment consulting from the Investment Management Consultants Association, 2004
- S.B., Economics, MIT; M.S. in operations research, UCLA
NOTE: John O'Brien passed away in Oct 2022; but he will continue to remain as our guide..
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Miguel Palacios, Member and Research Associate
- Associate Professor of Finance at the Haskayne School of Business, University of Calgary
- Co-founder of Lumni Inc., a firm that has financed over 8,000 students in Latin America with equity-like instruments instead of debt
- Author of Investing in Human Capital: A Capital Markets Approach (Cambridge University press, 2004), as well as numerous peer-reviewed academic articles in finance
- Profiled by the Wall Street Journal. See interview here
- B.S., Mechanical Engineering, Universidad de los Andes; M.B.A., Darden Business School, University of Virginia; M.A., Economics, Ph.D., Business Administration – Finance, UC Berkeley
Matthew Lockard, Member and Research Associate
- Associate Professor of Philosophy at SMU, Dallas, Texas
- Author of several peer-reviewed articles and winner of awards for innovative work in Analytic Philosophy
- B.A., Whitworth University, Mathematics and Philosophy.; M.A. and Ph.D., Philosophy, UCLA; M.S., Finance, SMU Cox School of Business
John Austin, Member and COO
John has been a retired real estate professional with over 40 years in the income-property real estate industry. Most recently associated with Wells Fargo Bank for 17 years. Eight years in Wells Fargo Bank’s Real Estate Managed Assets Group, monitoring performance of troubled or potentially troubled commercial real estate loans, regular contact with borrowers, negotiation and documentation of loan extensions/modifications, internal and external reporting of workout status, market conditions, borrower financial condition, etc. Property types included apartments, retail, industrial, hotel, self-storage and land. Nine years in Wells Fargo Bank’s Merchant Banking Group, underwriting, recommending, closing and post-closing monitoring and reporting on the bank’s investment. Loans were typically mezzanine and/or highly leveraged, secured by value-add transactions with experienced and creditworthy developers. Mr Austin earned an MBA in Finance from UCLA and a BA in English Literature from UC Santa Barbara.
John has been a retired real estate professional with over 40 years in the income-property real estate industry. Most recently associated with Wells Fargo Bank for 17 years. Eight years in Wells Fargo Bank’s Real Estate Managed Assets Group, monitoring performance of troubled or potentially troubled commercial real estate loans, regular contact with borrowers, negotiation and documentation of loan extensions/modifications, internal and external reporting of workout status, market conditions, borrower financial condition, etc. Property types included apartments, retail, industrial, hotel, self-storage and land. Nine years in Wells Fargo Bank’s Merchant Banking Group, underwriting, recommending, closing and post-closing monitoring and reporting on the bank’s investment. Loans were typically mezzanine and/or highly leveraged, secured by value-add transactions with experienced and creditworthy developers. Mr Austin earned an MBA in Finance from UCLA and a BA in English Literature from UC Santa Barbara.
Tapan Samaddar, Member and CIO
Tapan has held multiple corporate positions, primarily in product management. In his recent role at a Global Fortune 100 company, he leads a product line that generates close to $1B in worldwide annual revenues with profit-and-loss (P&L) responsibility. Earlier, Tapan had spent over a decade in engineering development, specifically developing and implementing algorithms to store and manage electrons and stay on the cutting edge of particle physics. Other highlights:
Tapan has held multiple corporate positions, primarily in product management. In his recent role at a Global Fortune 100 company, he leads a product line that generates close to $1B in worldwide annual revenues with profit-and-loss (P&L) responsibility. Earlier, Tapan had spent over a decade in engineering development, specifically developing and implementing algorithms to store and manage electrons and stay on the cutting edge of particle physics. Other highlights:
- Holds 10 US Patents. Engineering book co-author (ISBN 007147045X)
- Series 65 Licensed - Registered Investment Adviser, Licensed in California
- Dual MBA degrees from Columbia Business School, NY (Dean’s List) and HAAS School of Business, UC Berkeley, CA; BS, Electrical Engineering, IIT Roorkee, India.