About Us

Quantitative Research Group (QRG), a privately held company, was founded in New York in 2001 to fill the untapped demand for stock selection products and services that enrich institutional managers’ investment processes. Prior to founding the firm, its principals earned their reputation and strong track record for creating differentiated asset management products as senior professionals at Drexel Burnham Lambert, Bloomberg, and Franklin Templeton Investments. QRG provides a range of turnkey portfolio strategies to private and public institutional asset managers, FinTechs. TAMPs(turnkey asset manager platform), RIAs, and other investment professionals and platforms.

TEAM

JEAN W. THOMAS
Mr. Jean W. Thomas is Founder, Managing Partner. He applies years of expertise in making sustained and transformational contributions on Wall Street to help money managers create better opportunities to generate alpha and achieve their global investment management objectives.

Before founding the firm, he was Managing Director of Bridge Information Systems America, Inc. and Board Director of DAIS Group Inc. He led DAIS, a Drexel Burnham founded global equity research business, to profitability by increasing its product mix and client retention rate. He also served in various senior and executive roles at Automatic Data Processing Inc.’s Brokerage Information Services Group, Templeton Quantitative Advisors Inc. an asset management subsidiary of Franklin Templeton, and Drexel Burnham Lambert. He started his career at Citibank N.A.’s Institutional Banking Division while simultaneously carrying a full academic load in his undergraduate computer science studies.

Mr. Thomas’ academic training includes an MBA from New York University’s Executive Program at the Stern School, an M.S. in Computer Science from Pratt Institute, and a B.S. in Computer Science from City College of New York.

TARI LARSON
Ms. Tari Larson is Principal and Senior Vice President of Client Services. In addition to cultivating lasting relationships with QRG’s strategic partners, Ms. Larson also leads the firm’s operations, administration and client relationships. Her other contributions in advancing QRG’s objectives to capitalize on emerging market shifts range from idea creation to product implementation, coalesce and direct product launch through testing, training, and marketing. She utilizes her direct involvement management style in leading business practice improvements in operations, administration, and client services functions.

Ms. Larson performed graduate studies in Chemistry at the University of Texas at Austin and also holds a B.S.in Chemistry, Magna Cum Laude, from the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

VITO RENNA
Mr. Vito Renna is Principal and Senior Vice President. He is responsible for directing product development as well as designing and implementing investment analytics and structured methodologies to ensure the seamless integration of QRG’s products in clients’ investment processes and platforms. Mr. Renna has more than 20 years of experience in providing a wide range of strategic investment technology solutions to the financial services and banking community. He has an MBA from Pace University’s Graduate School of Business and a BA in Computer Science and Mathematics from Queens College of New York.
JOHN WEKLAR
Mr. John Weklar is Principal and Vice President. In addition to enhancing our product distribution architecture, he is responsible for quantitative investment analytics and financial database design and implementation to facilitate the firm’s product objectives. Mr. Weklar received a BS in Computer Science from Manhattan College and AAS in Plant Science from State University of New York at Cobleskill.
MARC MILLER
Mr. Marc Miller is Principal and Vice President of Database and Content. He is responsible for database architecture and implementation of content taxonomy for the firm’s extensible database infrastructure. He has developed vendor and client feeds as well as production notification systems. His financial database management and expertise is a key contribution to the creation of the group’s quantitative products utilizing earnings estimates, management guidance, short interest and alpha capture. Mr. Miller studied Political Science, Computer Science and Accounting from 1970 to 1974 at the University of Illinois.

BOARD ADVISORS

MICHAEL CLEMENT
Mr. Michael Clement, PhD., is the KPMG Centennial Professor of Accounting at the University of Texas at Austin. Prior to joining the faculty, he served in various private sector roles, including Vice President in the Global Investment Research department at Goldman Sachs, Vice President in the Office of the Chief Financial Officer at Citicorp and Senior Assistant Accountant at Deloitte Haskins & Sells.

Dr. Clement received a BBA in accounting from Baruch College, an MBA in finance from the University of Chicago, and he later earned a Ph.D. in accounting from Stanford University. He is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.

Dr. Clement frequently lectures on topics such as factors affecting the performance of security analysts and the capital market’s use of voluntary firm disclosures for valuation. His work is published in the Journal of Accounting and Economics, the Journal of Accounting Research, the Accounting Review, and the Review of Accounting Studies. His work has been mentioned in popular press outlets including the Wall Street Journal, Barron’s, the Financial Times, the Economist and the USA Today.

DAVID LEINWEBER
Mr. David Leinweber, PhD., is former CEO and Founder of Codexa Corporation, a firm that built tools for professional investors and traders. Prior to founding Codexa, Dr. Leinweber was Managing Director and Partner of First Quadrant where he was responsible for over $5 billion in global actively managed quantitative equity portfolios. Before his tenure at First Quadrant, he served as Independent Consultant on advanced financial information systems strategy and design, Vice President of MJT Advisers, Chief Scientist and Co-founder of Integrated Analytics Corp, and various senior roles at Inference Corporation, at LISP Machines Inc., and RAND Corporation.

Dr. Leinweber has consulted, published, and lectured widely on the use of advanced technology in finance. His papers are included in the Chartered Financial Analyst readings on trading and quantitative investing. His new book, “Markets and Technology: Forbidden Secrets of Nerds on Wall Street” was published by Wiley in 2000. He is a three-time winner in the Wall Street Journal’s “Pros vs. the Darts” contest.

Dr. Leinweber received S.B. degrees in Physics and Electrical Engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics from Harvard University.

ROBERT E. BUTMAN
Mr. Robert E. Butman, CFA, is President and CEO of Second Moment Capital Management. He was formerly President and CEO of TQA Investors, LLC, where his responsibilities included oversight of all investment management and research activities. Prior to the spin off of TQA Investors from the Franklin Templeton organization in 1996, he was President, Chief Executive Officer, and Director of Templeton Quantitative Advisors (“TQA”), a wholly owned subsidiary of Templeton Worldwide, Inc. In addition, Mr. Butman was President of The DAIS Group, a TQA research division, where he played an integral role in the development of its proprietary technology for stock selection, risk modeling and portfolio engineering.

Prior to Templeton, he served in various senior and executive roles at Drexel Burnham Lambert and Data Resources, Inc. Mr. Butman started his career as a systems analyst with IBM.

Mr. Butman received a B.S. in Management Science from the University of Maryland and an M.B.A. in Finance from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. He is on the Board of Directors of The Institute for Quantitative Research in Finance, and holds memberships with the Institute of Chartered Financial Analysts as well as the Stamford Society of Security Analysts.

SAM NATARAJAN
Mr. Sam Natarajan, CFA, is Founder and CEO of Harvest Technology Corporation. He has more than 20 years of experience in providing technology solutions to the financial services industry. He founded Harvest Technology to help meet the overwhelming demand for Information Technology professionals who understand business solutions and strategy.

Mr. Natarajan holds a BA in Computer Science from Williams College, an MS in Computer Science from Stevens Institute of Technology, and an MBA in Finance from the Stern School of Business at New York University. He is a member of the Institute of Chartered Financial Analysts.