Percipio Capital Management, LLC, founded by leaders of the asset management industry, is a technology driven asset management firm that is exploiting proprietary state-of-the-art artificial intelligence technology focused on recognizing predictive patterns in extremely large and complex fields of data at unprecedented speed of analysis, to produce investment products which will deliver above average risk-adjusted returns to investors.    Our founders and board include the following:

Gil Syswerda, Chief Scientist

Gil co-founded Optimax Systems Corporation in 1993, where he served as CTO and Chairman. Optimax products used genetic algorithms and constraint computation technology to perform detailed production schedule optimization, providing significant value to its customers.  Optimax was acquired by i2 Technologies in 1997, where Gil served first as acting CTO and later as Director of Advanced Technologies. He has published extensively on the theory of genetic algorithms and their application to scheduling. He is active in professional circles, having served on the organizing and program committees of many conferences on genetic algorithms and as President of the International Society of Genetic Algorithms.  For five years prior to the founding of Optimax, he was employed by BBN as a computer scientist in the Intelligent Systems Group, where his research concentrated in the areas of machine learning, genetic algorithms, and machine vision. While at BBN, Gil developed a genetic-algorithm-based procedure to perform schedule optimization, for which he received a patent.  From 1985 to 1988, he consulted as a scientific programmer to Warner-Lambert/Parke-Davis.  In 1984 he co-founded and served as President of Ann Arbor Softworks, a firm which developed commercial software products for the newly introduced Apple Macintosh.   Gil received his B.A. with Distinction in 1986 from the University of Michigan, where he also earned his M.S. in Computer Science in 1987

Jeff Palmucci, Chief Technology Officer

Jeff was most recently a Fellow at i2 Technologies, the highest technical position within the company. At i2, Jeff was lead architect for production scheduling products, and did extensive research into new optimization techniques for production scheduling. Prior to i2, Jeff co-founded Optimax Systems Corporation. From 1989 to 1993, Jeff worked at BBN Laboratories, where he performed research in genetic algorithms and scheduling, machine vision, simulation, natural language, machine learning, cognitive science, and expert systems. In the summer of 1989, Jeff worked at the CalTech Jet Propulsion Laboratory for the Voyager Neptune flyby. From 1987 to 1989, Jeff worked at the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, where he did research in programming languages, distributed systems, natural language, and knowledge representation. In 1986, Jeff worked at Charles Stark Draper labs on heuristic learning techniques.  Jeff has publications in the areas of natural languages, machine learning, genetic algorithms, expert systems, and programming languages. He received a BS in Computer Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1989

Frederick Goff, CEO/CIO

Fred is the CEO/CIO of PERCIPIO.  Fred brings to this role proven experience in leading and growing global financial organizations, managing capital in various asset classes (most extensively in emerging market fixed income), and managing technology.  Among the roles he has held are: Managing Director/Head Trader of BankBoston Robertson Stephen’s global Emerging Markets Trading and Derivatives; Chief Investment Officer of The GHK companies (an energy E&P company), and Global Head of Sales of a global fixed income broker dealer.  Fred has enjoyed a successful career as a proprietary trader in different asset classes.  Most notably he managed up to $1billion of BankBoston’s capital demonstrating consistent outperformance versus both internal budgets and industry indices.  In his position as a proprietary trader, Fred has successfully invested in f/x, fixed income, simple and complex derivatives, equity, and energy commodities.  He received his BS in Industrial Management and Economics from Carnegie Mellon in 1989 and his MS in Public Policy and Management from Carnegie Mellon in 1990.  In 2001, he earned an MS from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the Management of Technology. 

Mark Casady, Chairman

Mark is CEO of LPL Financial.  Before joining the firm in 2002, Mark was Managing Director, Mutual Fund Group for Deutsche Asset Management, Americas - formerly Scudder Investments. He joined Scudder in 1994 and held roles as Managing Director - Americas; Head of Global Mutual Fund Group; Head of Defined Contribution Services; and was a member of the Scudder, Stevens and Clark Board of Directors and Management Committee. Prior to that, Mark held roles at Concord Financial Group as Institutional Sales Manager; and at Northern Trust as Vice President - Investments, Strategic Business Planner and Head of Global Custody Operations in their London Office. He has also served on the Executive Committee of the Investment Company Institute Board of Governors.

M. Roch Hillenbrand: Vice Chairman

After beginning his career with Citibank in 1974, Roch joined Commodities Corporation in 1980 (Commodities Corporation was formed to invest capital with a diverse group of hedge fund managers with a goal of achieving above average returns within a state-of-the-art risk management system).  Through his tenure he served as treasurer, CFO, Director of Marketing, COO and Head of Trader Management.  Roch served as President of Commodities Corporation from 1994 until he negotiated and concluded its acquisition by Goldman Sachs & Company in 1997.  Thereafter, he continued serving as President of what Goldman Sachs Hedge Fund Strategies Group and in addition was named Head of Global Active Equity within the Goldman Sachs Asset management division.  Roch was named a Partner in 1998 and served as a member of senior management of GSAM and was a member of the Goldman Sachs Firmwide Risk Committee.  He retired as Managing Director of Goldman Sachs in 2002 and consulted with them through 2003.  He received a BS in Economics from Boston College in 1972 and an MBA with distinction from NYU in 1974.

Jeremiah H. Chafkin

Mr. Chafkin joined IXIS Asset Management Group in 2006 as President and Chief Executive Officer of IXIS Asset Management US Group. He is responsible for the Group's asset management operations in the United States and Asia.  Prior to joining IXIS Asset Management Group, Mr. Chafkin served as Executive Vice President, Client Portfolio Solutions for Schwab Investor Services, with responsibility for the investment advice the firm provides to its clients. He previously headed several other Schwab units, including its Private Client business, Asset Management Products and Services, and its mutual fund division.  Before joining Schwab, Mr. Chafkin served as Chief Executive Officer of Structured Investment Management for Bankers Trust Company. During his 15 year tenure at Bankers Trust, he held several other senior management positions including that of President, Japan Bankers Trust Company.  He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Yale University and a Masters of Business Administration degree from Columbia University.

Jeff D. Plunkett

Mr. Plunkett is Executive Vice President and Group General Counsel. He is responsible for all legal matters for the Group and also oversees the Group’s corporate development activities.  Prior to joining IXIS Asset Management North America in 1996, he was a Partner in the Corporate Department of Goodwin, Procter & Hoar, LLP, practicing in the areas of securities laws and business transactions, primarily mergers and acquisitions.  Mr. Plunkett holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Dartmouth College and a Juris Doctor degree from Cornell University Law School.

Arnold Scott

Arnie enjoyed a prominent career of 32 years with MFS Investment management.  His responsibilities and achievements over this tenure included being General Counsel, creating the International Division and leading its growth for over a decade, serving on the Board of Directors and Management Committee, supervised the global administrative departments, and created and led the Strategic Planning team.  Arnie was the Senior Executive Vice President at the time of his retirement in 2001.  Currently, Arnie serves as Chairman and CEO of Asset Link International, a strategic consulting firm he co-founded in 2003.  He also serves as a director of many ventures both for profit and non-profit.  Throughout his career Arnie was active in leadership roles in investment management trade organizations such as the Investment Company Institute.

David Blundin

David has been the CEO of Vestmark since October of 2001. Previously, he was Chief Technologist at Vignette Corporation which has over 1,000 enterprise customers including seven of the top ten firms in the Financial Services sector. Prior to Vignette, David was the founder, CEO and Chairman of DataSage, Inc. DataSage was acquired by Vignette in a half-billion dollar Investment in January of 2000. Prior to 1997, David was the President and CEO of Cirrus Recognition Systems, a database mining software company. Previously, he was among the first ten employees at MicroStrategy (NASDAQ: MSTR) and now serves on MicroStrategy’s board of directors. David received a BS in Computer Science degree from MIT and serves on the boards of several Boston area high-tech start-ups. He is also a limited partner in three Boston area venture funds.