Our People

As a matter of philosophy, Flaherty & Crumrine operates with a very compact staff of highly qualified professionals. This approach is designed to encourage the focus on their specialized investment niche and to avoid having the attention of their key people diverted.

Donald F. Crumrine CFA, Director and Chairman
Mr. Crumrine has over 35 years of experience managing portfolios of preferred securities. He co-founded Flaherty & Crumrine in 1983 after spending twelve years at Scudder, Stevens & Clark. While at Scudder, Mr. Crumrine and his partner Bob Flaherty built a reputation for excellence in managing preferred securities. As innovators in the development of strategies for hedging the general interest rate exposure of these portfolios, Flaherty and Crumrine founded the firm to focus on managing preferred portfolios and associated hedges.

Mr. Crumrine is actively involved in the day-to-day management of all client portfolios and directs client service and marketing efforts.

Mr. Crumrine also serves as Chairman of the Board, Chief Executive Officer and a Director of our four U.S. closed-end funds: Flaherty & Crumrine Preferred Income Fund, Flaherty & Crumrine Preferred Income Opportunity Fund, Flaherty & Crumrine/Claymore Preferred Securities Income Fund Incorporated and Flaherty & Crumrine/Claymore Total Return Fund Incorporated.

Mr. Crumrine has a B.S. in Finance from the University of Southern California and earned his M.B.A. from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. He has co-authored research papers presented to the committee for after-tax performance measurement of the CFA Institute. He has testified before the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee on matters related to the preferred securities market. Click here to view bio

Robert M. Ettinger CFA, Director and President
Mr. Ettinger has over 25 years of experience managing preferred securities, twenty-two of those having been spent with Flaherty & Crumrine. Prior to joining F&C, he also worked at Scudder Stevens & Clark with Bob Flaherty and Don Crumrine on developing strategies to hedge preferred securities.

Mr. Ettinger and Mr. Chadwick have the primary responsibility for implementing investment strategies of the firm and act as the firm’s traders. Along with his colleagues at Flaherty & Crumrine, Mr. Ettinger has developed a number of sophisticated tools for analyzing preferred securities. He serves as the primary liaison between Flaherty & Crumrine and the brokerage community.

Mr. Ettinger also serves as President of the U.S. Flaherty & Crumrine funds.

Mr. Ettinger has a B.A. in Economics from UCLA and was honored as the department’s Commencement Speaker in 2001. He received his M.B.A. from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. While at Wharton, he served as the student representative on the M.B.A. Admissions Committee. Click here to view bio

Bradford S. Stone, Director and Vice President
Mr. Stone joined Flaherty & Crumrine in May 2003, after a 20-year career on Wall Street. Based in Summit, New Jersey, he is a member of the firm’s portfolio management team and responsible for macroeconomic and credit research. From 2001 until joining Flaherty & Crumrine, he was Director of U.S. Market Strategy at Barclays Capital in New York, where he advised clients on market strategies across U.S. treasuries, agencies and interest rate derivative products. Prior to Barclays, Mr. Stone spent 14 years at Goldman Sachs, where he most recently held the position of Director – Interest Rate Product Strategy, Americas. He was a regular member of Institutional Investor’s All-America Fixed Income Research Team, earning the top ranking in Derivatives Strategy in 2001. He began his career at Salomon Brothers as an options trader and derivative salesperson.

Mr. Stone is in charge of the economic and credit research group located in our New Jersey office. Credit analysis operations are largely based on independent research from shareholder reports and company interviews.

Mr. Stone also serves as Vice President and Assistant Treasurer of the U.S. Flaherty & Crumrine funds and serves as the primary liaison with the rating agencies of the funds’ auction rate securities.

Mr. Stone received his M.B.A. from Wharton Graduate School of Business and his A.B. in Economics from Dartmouth College. Click here to view bio

R. Eric Chadwick CFA, Director and Vice President
Mr. Chadwick has more than ten years of experience managing preferred securities, eight of those having been spent with Flaherty & Crumrine. Prior to joining F&C, he worked at Koch Industries Inc., where he was responsible for managing sizable portfolios of both preferred securities and corporate bonds. He was also responsible for developing analytical tools used in the management of the portfolios, and providing fundamental research on a broad range of credits.

Mr. Chadwick and Mr. Ettinger have the primary responsibility for implementing investment strategies of the firm and act as the firm’s traders. He is actively involved in the development of tools for managing the portfolios and developing firm-wide systems. He shares responsibility with Mr. Ettinger for initiating and maintaining relationships with the brokerage community.

Mr. Chadwick also serves as Chief Financial Officer, Vice President and Treasurer of the U.S. Flaherty & Crumrine funds. In addition, Mr. Chadwick oversees the financial reporting and tax operations for the U.S. Flaherty & Crumrine funds.

Mr. Chadwick received his M.B.A. from the Anderson School at UCLA and has a B.S. in Economics from the University of Kansas. Click here to view bio

Chad Conwell, Director, Vice President, Chief Legal Officer and Chief Compliance Officer
Mr. Conwell joined Flaherty & Crumrine in July of 2005. Prior to joining F&C, Mr. Conwell practiced at Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker LLP, a global law firm, for more than six years in the areas of investment management regulation and corporate finance.

Mr. Conwell also serves as Vice President, Secretary and Chief Compliance Officer of the U.S. Flaherty & Crumrine funds.

Mr. Conwell received his B.A. with distinction from the University of California at Berkeley and graduated cum laude with a J.D. from the Georgetown University Law Center. Click here to view bio

Rick J. Seto CFA, Vice President and Senior Credit Analyst
Mr. Seto joined Flaherty & Crumrine as a Credit Analyst in October 2003, after spending seven years as an equity and fixed income analyst, and eight years as a commercial bank lending officer. Based in Summit, New Jersey, he currently has responsibility for a broad range of investment-grade credits and is a member of the firm’s credit committee.

From 1999 until joining Flaherty & Crumrine, Mr. Seto was an Associate Equity Analyst at UBS Investment Bank, where he covered natural gas pipelines, local distribution companies, electric utilities and master limited partnerships. Prior to UBS, he spent three years at Moody’s Investors Service as an Associate Analyst covering investment-grade consumer products and retail companies. From 1991-1996, he was an AVP and Commercial Lending Officer at NatWest Bank with primary account and cross-sell responsibilities for a portfolio of consumer products, consumer finance and retail companies. Mr. Seto was a member of the top-ranked Institutional Investor’s All-America Natural Gas Equity Research Team at UBS in 2003. He began his career at Heller Financial Inc. as a financial analyst in asset-based lending.

Mr. Seto completed a formal credit-training program at NatWest Bank, and received his B.S. in Statistics and Econometrics from New York University. Click here to view bio

Joseph L. Schembri, Vice President
Mr. Schembri joined Flaherty & Crumrine in September of 2010. Along with Mr. Ettinger and Mr. Chadwick, Mr. Schembri acts as one of the firm’s traders.

From 1998 until joining Flaherty & Crumrine, Mr. Schembri was a member of the Institutional Fixed Income Group at Citigroup Global Markets, having spent his entire career at the bank and leaving as a Senior Vice President. During his tenure at Citigroup, he focused on fixed-income credit instruments, with particular emphasis on preferred stocks and hybrid preferred securities.

Mr. Schembri earned his B.S. in Business and Economics from Lehigh University Click here to view bio

Pinto Suri, Senior Credit Analyst
Mr. Suri joined Flaherty & Crumrine in February of 2005 as a Senior Credit Analyst. Prior to joining the team, Mr. Suri worked at several broker/dealers before focusing on research at Moody’s Investors Service. Following Moody’s he worked at A.M. Best Company as a Managing Senior Financial Analyst, and more recently at UBS Investment Bank, as an Associate Director of Equity Research. Immediately before joining Flaherty & Crumrine, Mr. Suri worked at Merrill Lynch as a Vice President and Senior Analyst.

Mr. Suri has a B.B.A. from Temple University, an M.B.A. from Duke University, and was a doctoral student in accounting in the College of Business at the University of Iowa. Click here to view bio

Lisa Tucci CFA, Senior Credit Analyst
Ms. Tucci joined Flaherty & Crumrine as a Senior Credit Analyst in March 2005. Prior to joining the team she had five years experience as an Associate Director of Equity Research at UBS Investment Bank.

Ms. Tucci graduated with honors, with a B.S. from State University at Albany, New York. Click here to view bio

DONALD F. CRUMRINE, CFA – Chairman of the Board & Director

8/83 – Present:	Flaherty & Crumrine Incorporated
12/69 – 7/83:	Scudder, Stevens & Clark and affiliates Vice President, Investments – Scudder, Stevens & Clark Director – Scudder Preferred Group

ROBERT M. ETTINGER, CFA – President, Chief Financial Officer & Director

7/85 – Present:	Flaherty & Crumrine Incorporated
5/84 – 5/85:	The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania & Clark and Affiliates Assistant Director of Admissions – Graduate Division
8/80 – 8/83:	Scudder, Stevens & Clark Incorporated Analyst

R. ERIC CHADWICK, CFA — Director and Vice President

1/99 – Present:	Flaherty & Crumrine Incorporated
1/97 – 12/98:	Koch Industries, Inc. Portfolio Manager

BRADFORD S. STONE — Director and Vice President

5/03 – Present:	Flaherty & Crumrine Incorporated
6/01 – 5/03:	Barclays Capital Director, U.S. Market Strategy
2/87 – 6/01:	Goldman, Sachs & Company Vice President, Interest Rate Strategy Executive Director, Global Hedge Fund Sales
8/83 – 2/87:	Salomon Brothers Inc. Vice President, Government & Derivatives Sales Associate, Options Trading Hedge Fund Sales

CHAD C. CONWELL – Vice President, Chief Compliance Officer & Chief Legal Officer

7/05 – Present:	Flaherty & Crumrine Incorporated
9/98 – 6/05:	Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker, LLP Attorney

RICK J. SETO, CFA – Vice President and Senior Credit Analyst

10/03 – Present:	Flaherty & Crumrine Incorporated
10/99 – 10/03:	UBS Investment Bank Associate Analyst (Equity Research), Natural Gas & Electric Utilities, MLPs
10/96 – 10/99:	Moody's Investors Service Associate Analyst, Investment Grade Consumer Products and Retail Companies
12/91 – 10/96:	Fleet Bank, N.A. (formerly NatWest Bank, N.A.) Assistant Vice President, Commercial Lending Officer Assistant Treasurer, Diversified Industries and Corporate Finance Group Financial Analyst, Asset-Based Lending

JOSEPH L. SCHEMBRI – Vice President

09/10 – Present:	Flaherty & Crumrine Incorporated
7/98 – 9/10:	Citigroup Global Markets Senior Vice President

PINTO SURI – Senior Credit Analyst

2/05 – Present:	Flaherty & Crumrine Incorporated
9/04 – 2/05:	Merrill Lynch Vice President, Senior Analyst Manager Due Diligence
6/00 – 9/04:	UBS Investment Bank Associate Director (Equity Research) Valuation & Accounting
1/98 – 6/00:	A.M. Best Company Managing Senior Financial Analyst, Debt Ratings Group
6/97 – 1/98:	Moody’s Investors Service Associate Analyst, Investment Grade Retailers and Leisure
6/95 – 6/97:	PaineWebber, Inc. Corporate Retirement Plans Consulting Group
1/92 – 8/94:	Kidder, Peabody & Company Investment Sales

LISA C. TUCCI, CFA — Senior Credit Analyst

3/05 – Present:	Flaherty & Crumrine Incorporated
11/00 – 3/05:	UBS Investment Bank Associate Director (Equity Research) Natural Gas & Electric Utilities