Panelist Biographies
Moderator: Philip Sun is a fintech entrepreneur, investment manager and leader of quantitative research and investment teams with over 25 years of professional experience. Philip currently is the CEO and cofounder of a fintech startup, Adaptive Investment Solutions, LLC. Philip is also a Professor of Finance, Entrepreneurship and Data Science at Boston University and Hult International Business School. Philip began teaching Algorithmic and High-frequency class as an adjunct in the Master of Science in Mathematical Finance & Financial Technology program in the Fall of 2022, where he is working to reshape the class to combine both mathematical rigor and in-depth exposure to real world data and trading applications. Prior to starting Adaptive, Philip was the Head of Quantitative Research and Investments at Sentinel Investments, a fully owned investment management subsidiary of National Life Group. Before Sentinel, Philip held senior quantitative research and investment positions in the fixed-income and asset allocation divisions in Fidelity Investments and Wellington Management. Prior to Wellington, Philip started his career as a portfolio manager of quantitative macro strategies at Highbridge Capital Management (now part of JP Morgan Asset Management) and PanAgora Asset Management. Philip holds an MBA from the Wharton School, a PhD in Physics from Carnegie Mellon University, and dual Bachelor Degrees in Physics and Mathematics from Stony Brook University. Philip is a Chartered Financial Analyst.
Mengjia (Sara) Tan is a Quantitative Analyst at Adaptive Investment Solutions. Her quantitative finance journey began at UC San Diego, where she studied mathematics and economics and became fascinated by the dynamics of capital markets. She later deepened that interest through Boston University’s Mathematical Finance & Financial Technology master’s program, where she focused on strategies involving index option hedging, volatility modeling, and portfolio analytics. Outside of work, she stays active in the quant community, organizing events and exchanging insights with industry professionals.
Ronnie Hoogerwerf, PhD, is a quantitative researcher at Squarepoint Capital. Ronnie came to quantitative finance in a roundabout way; with an education as an astrophysicist and experience in academia and a couple of tech companies he ended up joining Cargometrics, a ship-tracking tech company that also started a hedge fund trading on their own information. Currently, he works as a quantitative researcher at Squarepoint Capital providing quant services to the metals and gas commodity desks.
William Zieff is Director at Northfield Information Services, a leading provider of financial risk analytics. Bill has extensive experience in finance and investing. Prior to Northfield, he was Chief Investment Officer of Global Strategic Products, Wells Fargo Asset Management; Partner and Co-Chief Investment Officer of Global Asset Allocation at Putnam Investments; and Director of Asset Allocation at Grantham, Mayo, Van Otterloo. Bill has taught master’s and undergraduate courses in finance at Northeastern University and Boston College. Bill holds an A.B. degree in Economics and Mathematics from Brown University and MBA from Harvard Business School.
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