Investment Panel
Martin D. Sass
Brooklyn College alumnus Martin Sass is chairman and chief executive officer of M.D. Sass, a leading independent registered investment management firm, which he founded in 1972. Before founding M.D. Sass, he was president, chief investment officer, and a principal shareholder of Neuwirth Management and Research Corp. Earlier, he was the founder and director of the Special Situations Division of Argus Research Corporation. Sass endowed the MDSII hedge fund with the goal of helping students who, like himself, come from humble backgrounds, to attain successful careers in finance. He and others in his firm meets with MDSII students periodically to enhance their understanding of financial markets, develop their analytical skills, and share his expertise in security analysis, investment strategy, and portfolio management. M.D. Sass currently manages approximately $7 billion in hedge funds, private equity funds, and separate accounts in equity, fixed income, and alternative investment strategies.
Ari D. Sass, CFA
Ari Sass is executive vice president and portfolio manager of M.D. Sass. He has over 11 years of experience and prior roles with Warner Music Group and Bear Sterns. He was CEO and co-founder of Insound, LLC. He received an M.B.A. from New York University and a B.A. in economics from the University of Michigan.
Tanner Coyle, CFA
Tanner Coyle is an equity analyst at M.D. Sass. He graduated with a B.S. in finance from Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota in 2012, and is currently the industry adviser for MDSII students. His primary role is helping students to identify investment ideas, understand industry trends and competitive positioning, analyze company competitive advantages, value propositions and management teams, build financial models, utilize different valuation frameworks to find undervalued or overvalued securities, write research reports to articulate their investment thesis, and present investment proposals to industry professionals.
Evan Silverstein
Evan Silverstein, a Brooklyn College alumnus, is a member of the investment panel for MDSII. He served as general partner and portfolio manager of Silcap LLC, a market-neutral hedge fund that principally invests in utilities and energy companies. Silverstein has 28 years of experience in the utility and energy industry. He began his career in 1975 when he accepted a position at Drexel Burnham Lambert. He served as portfolio manager specializing in utilities and energy companies for the Bass Brothers Companies and as senior equity utility analyst for L.F. Rothschild, Unterberg & Towbin. He has been a director of NRG Energy, Inc. since December 2012. He served as a director of RRI Energy, Inc. and GenOn Energy, Inc. from August 2006 to December 2012. He has given numerous speeches and has testified before Congress on a variety of energy-related issues. Silverstein is a member of the Wall Street Advisory Group.
Sunil Mohanty, D.B.A.
Sunil Mohanty is professor and chair of the Finance Department. His research focuses on accuracy of analysts' earnings forecasts, returns and risks associated with deep value investing, regulations and bank risk-taking behavior, oil price shocks and stock prices, and energy finance and economics. He published articles in the Journal of Business, International Journal of Money and Finance, Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Journal of Financial Research, Financial Review, Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta Economic Review, Energy Economics, and Emerging Markets Review, among others. Previously, he was a consultant to Minnesota Bankers Association and an instructor for the CFA Level I and II at the University of St. Thomas in Minneapolis. He advises and mentors MDSII students.
Lawrence Busch, CFA
Brooklyn College alumnus Lawrence Busch is a member of the investment panel for MDSII. He is the founder and president of Sage Capital Management LLC and has over 25 years of financial services experience specializing in asset allocation, quantitative investment analysis and performance measurement. Previously, he was director of investment research at a boutique personal financial planning firm servicing high net worth individuals. Prior to that, he was manager of Investment Counseling for Ernst & Young LLP's national personal financial planning practice. He is a chartered financial analyst and a member of the Association for Investment Management and Research and the New York Society of Securities Analysts. He is a contributing author of articles for several financial publications and has appeared on CNN and Fox Business.
Ante Basic
Ante Basic, a Brooklyn College alumnus, is a member of the investment panel for MDSII. He is a founding partner of Trigon Investment Advisors, a firm that specializes in systematic foreign exchange strategies that aims to profit from volatility in selected major, dollar-block and emerging market currency pairs. Basic began his career working for Chase Manhattan Bank from 1990 to 1996 in the bank's Global Trading Strategies Group. After working for Chase he co-founded Global Capital Market Strategies. Trigon Investment Advisors currently has $580 million worth of assets under management.
