Since Backstop was founded in 2003, we’ve been very fortunate to grow from a small start-up in Chicago to a company with more than 250 team members and 5 offices worldwide. As we continue to prosper as a company, it’s important that we take a step back and look at how we can not only make an impact in our industry, but also give back to the communities in which we work.
It is the mission of the Backstop Foundation to support the health, education and welfare of children in the communities in which we operate. The Backstop Foundation will give annual donations to benefit organizations that support this mission. We will aim to give 40 percent of the funds to industry-related charities, 40 percent to education-related charities and the remaining 20 percent is to be donated at the advisory board’s discretion based on employee feedback.
Clint Coghill is the CEO of Backstop Solutions Group. Clint co-founded Backstop in 2003 with the vision of helping the institutional investment community work better, for everyone.
With nearly 30 years of experience in the investment management industry, from Goldman Sachs to Coghill Capital Management to Backstop, Clint is steeped in the inner workings of institutional investing. Clint uses his insider’s perspective to steer Backstop in its development of software solutions that connect institutional and alternative investors with the information they need to make the best data-informed decisions.
Clint is also passionate about charitable work, having founded the Environmental Impact Initiative, a think-and-do tank that bridges the gap between leading green solutions and the organizations that can gain by them.
Clint received his Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration from the University of Arizona, and his Master’s Degree in Business Administration from the London Business School.
Jim Schuler has 20+ years of experience in the financial services industry, specifically focusing on finance, accounting, legal, operations, deal structuring, project management and evaluating financial and operational results. Prior to Backstop, Jim was a Principal and the CFO at Coghill Capital Management, with previous financial leadership roles at Goldman Sachs, The Hull Group, LLC, and accounting group Schultz, Chez and Jesser, LLP. He also serves on various private company and charitable boards.
Jim is a Certified Public Accountant with a Bachelor's degree from Arizona State University and an MBA with a concentration in Finance from DePaul University's Kellstadt School of Business.
Kimberly Greuling has over 17 years of experience in the financial technology realm. At Thomson Financial Publishing, she lead a team developing solutions for OFAC compliance. She moved on to lead development at Aurora Investment Management, building a proprietary portfolio accounting system. Kim has spent the last eleven years at Backstop leading various development teams.
She is a founding member of the Women Influence Chicago Initiative to increase female leadership at growth and enterprise tech companies in Chicago. She holds a BS in Computer Science from the University of Michigan.
With more than 15 years of experience in the financial services industry, Greg Fujii serves as the COO at Backstop. Before his appointment in 2019, Greg joined Backstop in 2017 to lead the Company's Professional Services Group. Having used and implemented Backstop's software at a number of alternative investment firms, Greg's primary focus is on managing day-to-day operations to ensure that we can effectively help clients across the Institutional investment landscape maximize productivity.
Prior to joining Backstop, Greg held various positions at Chicago-based hedge funds including Portfolio Manager and Senior Analyst. Greg holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial and Labor relations from Cornell University.
A seasoned human resources professional with a passion for employee experience and its impact on organizational success, Sara Schroeder serves as the SVP of People and Development at Backstop.
In this role, she leads Backstop’s people strategy and is responsible for continuously developing and enhancing the company’s employee-focused culture, while also helping Backstop to grow and scale. She also focuses on creating programs to amplify employee performance, development, growth, and engagement.
Before joining Backstop, Sara served as the VP of People at Maropost, a customer engagement platform, and prior to that, she served as Global Head of HR at Signal, a martech SaaS company. She brings more than ten years of experience in human resources and talent development to Backstop.
Sara holds a B.A. from the University of Vermont and an M.B.A, Human Resources Management from DePaul University.
Adam Hoit has been an exemplary leader over his eight-year tenure at Backstop. As VP of Product, Adam is responsible for driving coherent product strategy across client verticals, deepening the alignment of the product team with other business units, and establishing efficient processes throughout the product lifecycle.
Adam joined Backstop in 2008 as a project manager, and filled several leadership roles on the professional services team before transitioning to Product. With 9 years’ experience in the investment industry, Adam previously worked as Director of Learning and Development at OptionsXpress, a major retail derivatives brokerage. Prior to OptionsXpress, Adam spent three years in Beijing at China’s leading Education and Technology enterprise, where he gained experience applying Adult Learning Theory and best practices of instructional design in corporate and educational settings. Adam earned his B.A. from Georgetown University.
Over the past 20+ years in the institutional investment industry, Chad has served in multiple roles, including portfolio manager, head of global due diligence, and chief operating officer. Prior to joining Backstop in 2018, Chad honed his holistic approach to the investment process at MCP Alternative Asset Management, where he facilitated decision-making for global institutional investors, pensions, endowments, and UHNW families. Chad also boasts an extensive consulting background. At Backstop, he is responsible for the overall client experience for the company’s allocator customers.
Chad holds an Accounting degree from University of Iowa and an MBA in Analytic Finance and Econometrics from the University of Chicago. He is a CPA and CFA charterholder.
One of Backstop’s longest employees, Deanne Folk has been instrumental in growing the organization from a startup to a 200-person company. As VP of Client Success, Deanne oversees our Knowledge Management and Client Care departments. Both departments are a multi-regional team and lead the charge on various client and employee education and support events, including our annual conference and Backstop’s new hire onboarding program.
Before heading up Client Success, Deanne held various leadership roles on Backstop’s education and client services team. In each position, Deanne developed programs to enhance the user experience and increase the impact of user support. Prior to Backstop, she was an account executive for CBS radio.
Deanne was one of the first women to graduate from Western Michigan with a major in Telecommunications Information Management. She has presented at Information and Telecommunications Education and Research Association’s annual conference, and at Western’s Annual IT Forum Conference, where she also served on an advisory panel for the TIM major.
Ana is a Senior Relationship Manager in the institutional investment division at Allianz Global Investors. Prior to Allianz, she was the President of JHL Capital Group, an alternative investment management firm.
Ana started her career as a Latin American investment banker at Smith Barney in New York. She later worked at Goldman Sachs in New York and Singapore as a Vice President in their Equities and Investment Research Divisions with a focus on international equities. Ana was Director of Institutional Sales for Amba Research, a global investment research outsourcing firm, and Managing Director, Business Development and Investor Relations, at alternative investment management firm Coghill Capital Management
Ana received a B.S. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Cornell University and an M.B.A. in Finance and International Business from Columbia Graduate School of Business. She was a Board Director of rare earths mining and processing company MP Materials. She serves in the Parker Center for Investment Research Advisory board at Cornell University and in the Steering Committee for the President’s Council of Cornell Women, where she chairs its Grants Committee. She also serves in the Fundraising Committee for the Francis Parker School in San Diego.
David is the President of Huizenga Capital Management (HCM), which was founded in 1990 and recently recognized by Institutional Investor as their “2012 Family Office of the Year.” David oversees investments across a wide range of asset classes, including private equity, hedge funds, public securities, real estate, oil and gas.
Prior to joining HCM in 2000, David had a successful career overseeing a number of private businesses, acquisitions and operating entities across North America. He received a BA from University of Illinois at Champaign and earned a certificate in Portfolio Management from the University of Chicago.
David is currently a board member of several outside companies and advisory boards. Additionally, he is an active member of the Young Presidents Organization and currently serves as an officer of the Chicago Chapter.
Jim was most recently the Executive Chairman of InvestorForce, which provides advanced performance management solutions for institutional investment consultants. Jim led the management team in the firm’s sale to MSCI.
Previously, Jim was Executive Managing Director for Standard & Poor’s Investment Services business, where he oversaw S&P’s portfolio of global institutional markets businesses for all aspects of the strategy, growth, and worldwide expansion of S&P’s institutional investor market and mutual fund segments. Jim was previously the President of S&P’s Compustat division. Jim has also been the CEO of the investment bank C.E. Unterberg, Towbin, CEO of the internet media company Inform, as well as Managing Director at both Salomon Brothers and Bankers Trust Company.
Jim has an MBA from Columbia University Business School and a BA from Columbia College, where he majored in Computer Science/Artificial Intelligence with a concentration in Humanities and French. He currently serves as Chairman of the Board of Directors of Liberty Skis Corporation, and as a Board Director of Larkspur & Hawk, a luxury goods manufacturer, and he has also served as an Independent Director for PH2 Advisors, a Cayman Islands hedge fund.
Hope serves as Chief Client Officer for Capital Preferences, Ltd., a technology and research firm that uses breakthrough behavioral economic models and applied decision science to help global financial institutions and their advisor networks understand client risk tolerance and loss aversion leading to improved investment recommendations. Prior to Capital Preferences, Hope spent over two decades as Global Head of Sales and Client Services at InvestorForce*, a technology company specializing in data aggregation, performance measurement and investment reporting software for the institutional investment community globally.
Hope is a seasoned financial technology business leader with experience building sales and relationship management organizations, developing go-to-market product strategies, creating strategic distribution/partnerships, negotiating complex sales contracts and fostering deep, long-standing client engagements. Additionally, she has been actively involved driving several acquisition transactions and two successful business exits, one to a public company and another to a growth private equity firm.
Hope started her career at Blackrock (ne Barclays Global Investors) as a relationship manager interacting with all constituents in the investment community. Hope received a B.A. in Economics from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst with a minor in the Japanese Language.
*InvestorForce was acquired by MSCI in 2013.
Michael is a Partner and Co-Founder of Dark Forest Capital Management where he serves as the Chief Operating Officer.
Prior to Dark Forest, Michael was President and COO of WorldQuant and was responsible for global day-to-day operations, execution of strategic business initiatives and capital development initiatives. Prior to joining WorldQuant in 2014, Michael was Chief Operating Officer, Chief Compliance Officer and Head of Investor Relations at Elm Ridge Capital, and before that served as Chief Operating Officer at Credit Suisse Alternative Asset Management.
Prior to these roles he was Chief Technology Officer and Chief Administrative Officer at Silver Point Capital. He entered the alternative asset management industry in 2002 as a Managing Director in IT at Citadel LLC. Michael began his career at Bell Communication Research in 1992 and made the transition to financial technology in 1994 as a software developer at JP Morgan on the Fixed Income Derivatives desk.
Michael holds Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He serves on the board of directors of BronxWorks, he also serves on the advisory boards LeverData Inc and Wellesley Asset Management. Mr. DeAddio holds a U.S. patent entitled “Object Oriented System For Managing Complex Financial Instruments.”
JJ is a Managing Director and Head of Americas Institutional Coverage at asset manager DWS Group in Chicago. He also serves as Chairman of the Global Institutional Practice at DWS.
Prior to joining DWS Group, JJ was a Partner and Head of Institutional Advisory Solutions at Aon. JJ’s career also has included time as Managing Director and Head of Global Business Development at Wilshire Associates, and as a Vice President at Van Kampen Investments
Since graduating from Illinois Wesleyan University in 1996 with a BA in Risk Management, JJ has more than 22 years’ investment industry experience with work that’s spanned the institutional investment and consultant spectrum. JJ is a member of the Economic Club of Chicago and the Board of Advisors of St. Rita High School in Chicago.
Roger is a Boston-based Managing Director at TA Associates, a global growth private equity firm. A veteran of more than 30 years in the private equity industry, Roger joined TA in 1989 and previously served on the Executive, Core Investment and Portfolio committees. He previously worked at Bankers Trust Company, where he focused on leveraged acquisitions.
Over the course of his career Roger has sponsored numerous investments in the asset management and transaction processing sectors. He’s served on the Boards of seven private company investments that have gone public, raising more than $1 billion in capital. Roger currently serves on the Board of Evanston Capital Management, Rectangle Health, Russell Investments and Stadion Money Management, and is a Board Observer of Full Sail.
He has a BA from Haverford College and an MBA from Harvard Business School. Roger was a co-founder of the Down Syndrome Research and Treatment Foundation (now LuMind Foundation), and is a Member of the Board of Managers of Haverford College.
Tao Huang joined the Backstop Board of Advisors in 2016. He is the Vice Chairman of Analysys International, a leading Chinese internet analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to the Chinese internet industry. He is a founding member of Rangelight, LLC, a private equity firm based in Chicago. He currently also serves on the boards of several companies; Armstrong World Industries, Inc. (“AWI”), a global building materials firm, SMS Assist, a fast growing SaaS (Software as a Service) provider in the property management industry and Principal Mutual funds (“PFG”), one of the largest asset management firms in the country.
He is also a senior advisor to Tur Partners, a global advisory firm founded by Richard Daley, the former mayor of Chicago. Tao was formerly Chief Operating Officer for Morningstar, Inc. (“MORN”), a leading independent provider of investment research in North America, Europe, Australia and Asia. As COO, he was responsible for leading Morningstar’s executive team, implementing its global strategic goals and managing most of its major acquisitions and integrations. Over the course of his tenure as COO, Morningstar’s revenue grew from $70 million in 2000 to $550 million in 2010.
Prior to his role as COO, Tao spent three years as Morningstar’s President of the International Division, during which he and his team launched operations in 18 different countries through startups, joint ventures and acquisitions. He has also held numerous leading technology roles at Morningstar, including 15 years as the Company’s Chief Technology Officer. Tao received a B.S. in Computer Science from Hunan University (China), an M.S. in Computer Science from Marquette University and an MBA from the University of Chicago.