Equitas

David Thomas is a founder and CEO of Equitas Capital Advisors LLC, the largest independent consulting firm based in Louisiana, and Equitas Partners LLC the general partner for the Equitas Evergreen Fund, the largest fund of funds in Louisiana. Equitas serves as an outside Chief Investment Officer for family offices, foundations, universities, hospitals and corporations with approximately $3 billion under management. Since 1979, David has been active in the investment consulting industry. In 1982 David founded the Louisiana consulting group for UBS PaineWebber. In 1989 he formed the Senior Financial Consulting Group at Prudential Securities, which grew to become the largest consulting group for Prudential worldwide. In 2002 Mr. Thomas and his partners created their independent company, Equitas Capital Advisors, LLC; and in 2003 The Equitas Evergreen Fund of Funds.

David earned the designation of Certified Investment Management Analyst (CIMA®) at the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School of Business and received his BBA from Belmont College in Nashville, Tennessee. David has written numerous articles, which have been published in Pension World, Case and Comment, and Directors and Boards, among others. Professional associations include IMCA - The Investment Management Consultants Association, and LATEC-Louisiana Trustee Education Council. David also served as an adjunct professor of finance for Southern University of New Orleans for five years and serves as a trustee for the Christian Health Ministries Foundation. He was named an honorary Louisiana State Representative for his work as a founding sponsor of LAPERS – Louisiana Association of Public Employees’ Retirement Systems. He and his wife, Lucy, reside in New Orleans with their three children; Nicholas, Olivia, and Alexander.

Rich is originally from Fairfield, CT and attended Tulane University where he received a Bachelor of Arts in History. He has been involved in the financial services industry both in New Orleans and New York City for many years in a variety of positions. Upon graduating from Tulane in 1989, he worked for Merrill Lynch as a Financial Consultant in their New Orleans office where he advised high net worth individuals as well as foundations and pension plans on how to structure and invest their portfolios. He left Merrill to pursue his MBA at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN which he received in 1997 with a double concentration in finance and marketing. Upon graduating, Rich moved to New York City to join Brown Brothers Harriman & Co., the nation’s oldest and largest private bank, as an associate in their Institutional Asset Management Group where he focused on new business development nationally with pension consultants, institutional and ultra high net worth clients. In 2000, he joined Sanford Bernstein in New York as a Vice President, Director of Consultant Relations responsible for sales and marketing of asset management services to the institutional and high net worth investment consultant community. Rich took a break from Wall Street in 2003 to work at his family’s real estate business and then co-founded his own firm, Commodore Mortgage Group in New York City in 2004 and subsequently Bouchner & Co. Real Estate in 2008, also in New York.   Rich and his wife Marguerite are very excited to be back in New Orleans and look forward to rediscovering all that the city has to offer.

Austin is a native of the New Orleans area. He attended Tulane University earning a Bachelor of Arts in History as well as Masters of Business Administration with a concentration in finance and international business. Prior to joining Equitas Capital Advisors, Austin worked as an Investment Associate in the Private Banking and Investment Group at Merrill Lynch in Washington DC that advised to approximately $1.3B of assets under management. At Merrill, he focused on investment strategy, manager due diligence, asset allocation, and assisting in managing and trading discretionary portfolios of ultra-affluent family clients.  At Equitas, Austin will help manage the Equitas Evergreen Fund of Funds and serve as an Investment Management Consultant.  He holds Series 7 and 66 licenses and is a Level III Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) candidate.  Austin resides in uptown New Orleans.

Rachel is a native of China and received her B.A. from Seattle Pacific University in 2003, with a double concentration in Finance and Information Systems. Prior to joining the Equitas group, Rachel acquired valuable analytical, teamwork, marketing, and customer service experience through a variety of positions in Beijing and Seattle. She enjoys research, quantitative analysis, and the professional yet friendly working environment at Equitas. Rachel’s responsibilities include verifying the accuracy and fair presentation of clients’ investment portfolio performance. Rachel also creates client-specific asset allocation studies, participates in investment manager searches, assists consultants with portfolio construction, and evaluates existing manager performance. She likes to work together with Equitas consultants, managers, custodians, and software providers to provide excellent client service. Rachel currently resides in uptown New Orleans with her husband Lev.

Derek Fossier is a native of New Orleans. A graduate of Jesuit High School, Derek earned his Bachelor of Science in Economics from Tulane University, and then subsequently joined the MBA program at the A.B. Freeman School of Business. In pursuit of his degree, he had the opportunity to study international finance in Mexico, Paris and Beijing. He first joined Equitas Capital Advisors in 2008 as an analyst, performing research in a number of areas, including asset allocation studies, performance reporting, and manager searches and screens. Derek resides in downtown New Orleans.

Yu is a native of China and received her B.S. Finance Degree from Zhongshan University in China and Master of Finance degree from the A. B. Freeman School of Business at Tulane University. Prior to joining the Equitas group in 2010, Yu worked as a Portfolio Analyst at Planning Associates of Louisiana, LLC and was with Citigroup as a Compliance Examiner. She won awards in both the national Mathematics competition and Physics competition in China. Yu is currently pursuing the CFA designation. She resides in New Orleans with her husband.

Sue Christina moved to the city of New Orleans 17 years ago. She has over 33 years of experience in the financial services industry. The majority of her experience is in supervision and management. Sue spent 9 years living in Southern California where she was Vice President and Chief Branch Operations Manager for several California offices of Shearson and E.F. Hutton. She also spent 4 years as the Vice President of Administration and Control Administrator for the Smith Barney offices of Washington, D.C. and New Orleans, LA. She joined the group in 1998. Sue brings her extensive experience to Equitas Capital Advisors, LLC in the areas of client services, operations management, investment manager coordination, compliance and audit oversight, trade processing, personnel management and investment advice. She currently holds her Series 7, Series 8 and Series 65 securities licenses.    She currently resides in the Lakeview section of New Orleans.

Trina has served in the financial services industry in a wide variety of positions for over 28 years. A native of New Orleans, she began her career at Merrill Lynch in 1983 and later relocated to Columbia, SC as Assistant Operations Manager. Trina returned to New Orleans in 1998 and joined our group a year later, bringing not only a high level of professional and personal commitment to our clients, but extensive experience in operational and administrative services. Prior to joining the Equitas Capital family again, she worked for Capital One Southcoast, Inc. where she provided administrative/operational/ financial service support to the top institutional equity sales producers and trading staff. She is a mother of four children and a grandmother of two granddaughters. She and her family make their home in New Orleans.

Robert Morgan is a Finance Major with an Economics Minor at Tulane University. Robert will graduate with a degree from the A. B. Freeman School of Business at Tulane in May of 2012. Robert has worked previously as a research intern for Natural Territory, an independent eco-friendly construction consultation company, and for Amerco and U- haul. Robert has also worked as a credit analyst for an Alliance Bank loan department. He has a strong accounting background which makes him an asset to Equitas Capital. Robert assists the other analysts with data collection, performance reporting and works on special projects. Robert is originally from Phoenix, Arizona.

Karen Mayer Dwyer CPA is a native of New Orleans, mother of three children and owns her own business. Karen obtained her Bachelor of Science degree from Nicholls State University, and has 36 years experience in public accounting. Her accounting practice is primarily a tax practice, consulting and bookkeeping. Her working experience includes working with for profit businesses and non profits from start up to dissolution. Karen’s professional memberships include the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, (AICPA), the Louisiana Certified Public Accounts (LCPA), and the Association of Women Accountants (ASWA). In addition to being a licensed Certified Public Accountant she is also a Quickbooks Pro Advisor. Karen has been an active Community Volunteer for over 20 years and in 2009 she received on the state level the LCPA’s Distinguished Public Service Award and on the national level she was the recipient of the 2009 AICPA Public Service Award. Karen currently serves as the Vice Chair/Treasurer of the Non Profit Board Voices for International Business and Education, is Treasurer of the Non Profit Board International School of Louisiana and President of the Board of the Non Profit A Child’s Wish of Greater New Orleans.