Born and raised in Needham, Massachusetts, Michael knew he wanted to be an investor from an early age. In third grade, he scratched “Spanish” off his black-and-white, cow-patterned composition notebook and wrote “Investments.” Page 1 of that notebook describes how a mutual fund works.
Michael officially started in the financial services industry during high school, where he spent vacations and weekends working at a bank to fund his college tuition. He graduated from Bentley University, summa cum laude, with majors in finance and liberal studies, and earned a minor in economics with credits from the London School of Economics and Political Science. After completing a summer internship at Harvard Management Company (HMC), which administers Harvard University’s $40+ billion endowment, he went on to work at HMC in the financial derivatives group.
With a strong background in quantitative finance from HMC, Michael founded Pine Knot Capital Management, a public equity-focused investment partnership with a deep value investing approach. At Pine Knot Michael earned his Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation.
In 2014, Michael joined Heritage, where he developed a strategic asset allocation framework to support a range of portfolio objectives, designed and implemented a complex, controlled portfolio management system, and expanded the use of private investments for ultra-high net worth clients. During this time Michael earned his Certified Financial Planner® (CFP) designation.
An avid reader, Michael sequentially read biographies of all U.S. Presidents from Washington through Obama, along with those of supplemental major historical figures, which has given him a better understanding of political and geopolitical risks to financial markets. Michael, his wife, Vasilina, and daughter, Vanessa, live in Medfield, Massachusetts. While Michael still can’t speak Spanish, his daughter is quadrilingual, including Spanish, at three years old.