Summary
Overview
Work History
Education
Skills
Timeline
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Ryan Sheehy

Toms River,NJ

Summary

Executive leader with a deep financial services background focused on providing strategic direction and leadership to address business needs along with client challenges. Successful at effectively communicating complex strategies while providing valuable insights to business stakeholders. Leverages exceptional business acumen balanced with capability to accelerate process improvement while simultaneously boosting efficiency and improving the client experience. Acts as true change-agent while building a culture of collaboration through a strategic leadership-driven approach.

Overview

18
18
years of professional experience

Work History

Head of SMA, Personal Account Management

Lord Abbett & Co. LLC
02.2024 - Current
  • Currently, I am responsible for leading the SMA business within Client Services, acting as the business lead overseeing the Personal Account Management (Client Service Specialist desk) as well as the SMA Operations team.The Lord Abbett Separately Managed Accounts (SMA) team supports the highly customized SMA business with ~$25 billion AUM and ~29k accounts. Responsible for oversight of 22 employees as well as the vendor relationship with SEI, which handles the back office service support.
  • Transitioned the SMA Operational support structure to better align with business and client needs by restructuring teams, bringing in new talent and acting as a change-agent to revamp workflows and identify areas for automation.
  • Automated the new account onboarding workflow within CLM (3rd party Appian) and created a universal Smart PDF dual contract. Incorporated the sub-advised agreement into the RIA business.
  • Lead a 10-week sprint focused on identifying, evaluating and choosing the most appropriate Order Management System (OMS) to partner with for offering our Taxable Fixed Income SMA's at scale.
  • Responsible for vetting new client opportunities at the individual, RIA and platform level, conducting contract reviews with Legal, Compliance and Risk to determine if the opportunities were suitable for the firm.
  • Platform development lead, partnering with the Strategic Relationship Group (SRG) as well as our technology teams and SEI to build out large scale relationships with new Sponsors/Custodians.
  • Responsible for presenting SMA Goals and Initiatives at the weekly Client Services meetings, Monthly Leaders calls as well as ad-hoc town halls for firm wide viewers.
  • Partners with Sales Leadership within Client Services to determine the SMA sales goals for the group (broken out by asset class).
  • Responsible for determining the SMA team goals, conducting periodic 1:1's, holding mid-year and year-end performance reviews as well as delivering compensation discussions.
  • Lead and participated in new business relationships with RIA's and Wire houses to explain our SMA product lineup, Client Service and Operational support model.

Head of SMA Operations (Director)

BlackRock
01.2021 - 02.2024
  • Company Overview: Global Investment Operations
  • Lead the Separately Managed Accounts (SMA) Operational team supporting the highly customized Active Equity & Fixed Income business with $160 billion AUM and 45k discretionary accounts. Responsible for oversight of 45 employees and operational support functions consisting of Reconciliation, Composite Reporting, Performance, Trade Support, Error Control, Contract Review, Onboarding, Billing, Data & Compliance Maintenance, Vendor Management, Technology Enhancements & Automation.
  • Recognized for extensive industry knowledge and deep network of industry relationships; actively identified and implemented industry best practices, serving as a thought leader on various industry-specific topics.
  • Transitioned the SMA Operational support structure to better align with business and client needs by restructuring teams, bringing in new talent and acting as a change-agent to revamp workflows and identify areas for automation.
  • Responsible for Project Oversight on Automation within the SMA Onboarding workflow.
  • Introduced and implemented the use of SalesForce for the largest book of business within the SMA relationship. Reduced operational risk by 75% by removing manual intervention and leveraging SalesForce technology to review new commitments directly into Aladdin. As a result, op events were reduced by roughly 85%, saving the firm roughly $50k annually.
  • Constructed and implemented the use of an API driven portfolio loader tool that handles the automated loading of client portfolio attributes into ADAM/ALADDIN.
  • Partnered with the PACoE team to review and test out new vendor technology offerings. Identified multiple vendor products that would aid in further automating the SMA Onboarding process.
  • Partnered with LiveOak and ABBYY – Vantage to create a best-in-class onboarding experience leveraging OCR capabilities as well as Docusign workflows. Reduced Onboarding FTE’s by 35% resulting in roughly $350k annual savings.
  • Developed the BlackRock Dual Contract Smart PDF, a tactical solution for Onboarding that eliminated the back and forth “noise” between client – advisor – asset manager. Implemented the use of electronic signature which was the first use case within BlackRock’s SMA business.
  • Budget management for the SMA Operations Org
  • Member of the SMA Advisory Committee representing BlackRock
  • Member of the promotional review board within Global Investment Operations (GIO)
  • Oversees operational risk exposure by identifying areas of high risk and working with Risk Management to develop and implement corrective action. Establish and review key operational risk indicators/key control standards and formulate action plans to minimize the firm’s risk exposure.
  • Responsible for the Strategy & Services team which handles sponsor platform launches, new strategy setups (including Seed portfolios), model AUM reporting, tech enhancements, Metric reporting and rigorous regression testing models for planned tech deployments.
  • Revamped the billing process for SMA by introducing an Escalation Matrix policy and in doing so eliminated outstanding receivables outside of the SLA by 100%. Lead the operational effort of collecting $3.2MM in outstanding receivables (from prior 5 yr period) and was successful in collecting 98% of outstanding revenue.
  • Awarded BlackRock Principles Award in 2022 for outstanding performance related to large scale initiative in developing BlackRock’s Managed Models business.
  • Selected for the BlackRock Tech & Ops “Excel” program which is limited to 25 high performing Directors within the firm that are on track for Managing Director.

Head of SMA Onboarding (Director)

BlackRock
01.2013 - 01.2021
  • Responsible for the Onboarding of all new SMA Account relationships comprised of Wire house FA’s as well as RIA’s. Oversaw a group of 12 FTE’s responsible for client experience, contract review and AML/KYC. Partnered with USWA, PMG, Legal & Compliance to onboard highly complex relationships. Focus on developing best-in-class client service and improving the SLA for all Onboarding related change events.

New Account & Trade Support Manager (AVP)

Merrill Lynch - Bank of America
01.2008 - 01.2013
  • Supported the Managed Account Advisors business with over 150 investment managers covering 200k accounts and $100 billion AUM. Oversaw a group of 20 FTE’s supporting inbound FA/Client inquiries, implementation of new accounts and any trade/settlement related issues from brokers/custodians.

Education

Bachelor of Arts and Sciences - Communications (Major), Philosophy (Minor)

The Catholic University of America
05.2003

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Christian Brothers Academy
05.1999

Skills

  • Financial Services
  • Relationship Management
  • Business Development
  • Risk Management
  • Team Building
  • Staff Leadership
  • Contract Negotiation
  • Platform & Program Development
  • Project Management
  • Regulatory & Compliance
  • Operational Efficiency
  • Process Improvement & Reengineering
  • Policy Development
  • Client Service
  • Recruiting
  • Microsoft Office Suite
  • Bloomberg
  • Invest Cloud – APL
  • SmartPM/Perform
  • Aladdin
  • Charles River
  • IMTC
  • Revport
  • SalesForce
  • Developing Leaders

Timeline

Head of SMA, Personal Account Management

Lord Abbett & Co. LLC
02.2024 - Current

Head of SMA Operations (Director)

BlackRock
01.2021 - 02.2024

Head of SMA Onboarding (Director)

BlackRock
01.2013 - 01.2021

New Account & Trade Support Manager (AVP)

Merrill Lynch - Bank of America
01.2008 - 01.2013

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Christian Brothers Academy

Bachelor of Arts and Sciences - Communications (Major), Philosophy (Minor)

The Catholic University of America

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Ryan Sheehy