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 managed portfolios of preferred securities since 1973. 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 exclusively 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. He 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 and Flaherty & Crumrine/Claymore Total Return Fund.

Mr. Crumrine earned a B.S. in Finance from the University of Southern California and 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 managed preferred securities at Flaherty & Crumrine since 1985. Mr. Ettinger and Mr. Chadwick have the primary responsibility of implementing investment strategies 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 shares responsibility with Mr. Chadwick for initiating and maintaining relationships with the brokerage community. He also serves as President of the U.S. Flaherty & Crumrine funds.

Prior to joining Flaherty & Crumrine, he worked for three years at Scudder Stevens & Clark with Mr. Flaherty and Mr. Crumrine on managing preferred securities and developing related hedging strategies.

Mr. Ettinger earned his B.A. in Economics from UCLA and was honored as the department’s Commencement Speaker in 2001. He earned 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 is responsible for macroeconomic and quantitative research and analysis. In addition, he directs our credit research group. He also serves as Vice President and Assistant Treasurer of the U.S. Flaherty & Crumrine funds.

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, he 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 earned his M.B.A. from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania 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 managed preferred securities at Flaherty & Crumrine since 1998. Mr. Chadwick and Mr. Ettinger have the primary responsibility of implementing investment strategies and act as the firm’s traders. Mr. Chadwick is actively involved in the development of tools for managing the portfolios and developing firm-wide systems. He also serves as Chief Financial Officer, Vice President and Treasurer of the U.S. Flaherty & Crumrine funds and oversees the financial reporting and tax operations for the U.S. Flaherty & Crumrine funds.

Prior to joining Flaherty & Crumrine in 1999, 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 earned his M.B.A. from the UCLA Anderson School of Management and his 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. In addition to serving in his legal and compliance capacities, he works with Mr. Crumrine in client servicing and marketing. Mr. Conwell also serves as Vice President, Secretary and Chief Compliance Officer of the U.S. Flaherty & Crumrine funds.

Previously, Mr. Conwell practiced at Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker LLP, a global law firm, for more than six years in the areas of corporate finance and investment management regulation.

Mr. Conwell earned his B.A. from the University of California at Berkeley and his J.D. from the Georgetown University Law Center. Click here to view bio

Rick J. Seto CFA, Vice President and Managing Director
Mr. Seto joined Flaherty & Crumrine in October 2003 after spending eight years as an equity and fixed income analyst and eight years as a commercial bank lending officer. Mr. Seto is a member of the firm’s credit committee, where his focus is on global banks, REITs and industrials.

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. He 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 earned his B.S. in Statistics and Econometrics from New York University. Click here to view bio

Lisa Tucci CFA, Managing Director
Ms.Tucci joined Flaherty & Crumrine in March 2005. Ms. Tucci is a member of the firm’s credit committee, where her focus is on the utility and energy industries.

Prior to joining Flaherty & Crumrine, she spent five years as an Associate Director of Equity Research at UBS Investment Bank, where she covered natural gas pipelines and natural gas and electric utilities. Ms. Tucci was a member of the top-ranked Institutional Investor’s All-America Natural Gas Equity Research Team at UBS in 2003 and earned an honorable mention herself the same year.

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

Gordon Russo, Senior Credit Analyst
Mr. Russo joined Flaherty & Crumrine in December of 2012. He has over 10 years of experience covering investment grade and high yield corporate credits primarily in the insurance and healthcare sectors. His prior experience includes manager of a team of analysts at an investment bank, bank examiner for the U.S. Department of the Treasury and he began his career as a corporate accountant for a regional bank holding company.

Mr. Russo earned his M.S.F. from Bentley College Graduate School and his B.A. from Rutgers College.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 Incorporated 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 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 – Director, 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 Managing Director

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

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

12/12 – Present:	Flaherty & Crumrine Incorporated
12/00 – 5/12:	Dwight Asset Management Senior Vice President Insurance and healthcare
8/92 – 5/00:	Sandler O'Neill and Partners, L.P. Managing Director
11/89 – 8/92:	U.S. Department of the Treasury Office of Thrift Supervision Bank Examiner / Supervisory Analyst
2/85 – 5/89:	Bank of New England Corporation Corporate Accountant

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