Management and Team

Colin Wahl, CFA
Founder and CEO

Colin is a business professional with over 20 years of experience. He was trained in market research during his years in brand management with The Procter & Gamble Company. He has continued to build significant expertise over the years through his roles as a marketing consultant, senior marketing executive and college lecturer. Colin most recently served as an Adjunct Professor at The University of North Carolina's Kenan-Flagler Business School.

Previously, he was the Founder and CEO of InvestorForce, Inc., a firm that provides technology for conducting online investment research. The company's investors include CalPERS (California Public Employees Retirement System), Merrill Lynch, Mellon Bank, and Thomas Weisel Capital Partners. InvestorForce won a "World-class Performance" award from Electronic Commerce World.  InvestorForce’s database business was purchased by MorningStar, Inc. in 2006.

Prior to InvestorForce, Colin was Founder and CEO of Momentum Group, Inc. a firm that provided research-based marketing consulting. Over the years his clients have included Brandywine Asset Management, Prudential Investments, GE Investments, INVESCO, Mellon Asset Management, and Morgan Stanley. Earlier in his career, Colin began his career as a Brand Manager with The Procter and Gamble Company.

Colin has been a speaker at various conferences including The Charles Schwab Institutional Annual Conference and Mellon Corporation's Annual Global Executive Team Meeting.

Colin holds an MBA with distinction from the University of Michigan and B.Com from the University of Toronto. He is a Chartered Accountant (CA) and Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA).

David G. Lee
President

David is a seasoned business executive with over 25 years of experience in investment and financial services.

Prior to joining Client Opinions, David was Chief Operating Officer and Chairman of the Executive Committee of Brandywine Asset Management, a $15 billion institutional investment firm. In this role, he was responsible for business and financial management including strategy, national sales, client service, operations, technology and human resources.

David has held various senior executive positions in the investment/financial field. Prior to Brandywine, he was President, Fund Resources (Mutual Fund Division of SEI Investments), managing mutual fund operations for 400 fund clients with assets of $100 billion. David was also President of the SEI Mutual Funds. Prior to SEI, he was with Great Western Financial Brokerage as President of GW Sierra Trust Funds and Senior Vice President, Investment Services, responsible for managing the firm's $2 billion broker-distributed mutual fund company. He also managed sub-advisors, a wholesaling network and shareholder servicing capabilities. He developed fee-related services with special focus on annuity products; wrap accounts and investment management services to retail and institutional customers. He managed Great Western Bank's 401 (K) and 457 Plan products and sales.

Previously, David spent time with San Diego Trust & Savings Bank as Vice President, Asset Banking, responsible for trust and retail products including the pension and private trust sales team, corporate cash management, retail mutual fund programs and discount brokerage services. David began his career with Clayton Trust Company as a Vice President and Trust Officer. In this role he oversaw administration and client management for approximately 1,100 corporate pension plans, individual retirement accounts, and Keogh Plans.

David's past roles/memberships include: Director, ICI (Investment Company Institute) Board of Governors; Director (Chairman), Bishop Street Funds, Hawaii; President and Chairman, Fund Resources, Intl. (Dublin); Chairman, San Diego Special Olympics.

David attended the University of Missouri and graduated cum laude with a B.S. degree in Special Education.

Rick Thompson
Executive Vice President

Rick has led worldwide marketing and sales teams and business units across many industries including consumer products, personal computing, training, and software.  He has been Chief Marketing Officer at Global Knowledge, Ultimus Software, and Flashpoint Technologies where he directed worldwide marketing, product management, innovation, business development and company strategy.    

At IBM, Rick ran the IBM Direct business and Worldwide Product Marketing for the PC business, including marketing the Aptiva PC, ThinkPad, Consumer Software, and all PC Peripherals.  His product innovation led to the successful launch of the PC industry’s first black, split system PC that revitalized IBM’s PC business and made the cover of Forbes, Business Week and Time.  He used his market research and new product innovation capabilities to start several new business ventures for IBM including IBM Home Director, a line of home automation products, IBM Real Estate solution, IBM Little Tykes children’s products, and the IBM Crayola children’s software, and IBM Licensed products.

He began his career at Procter & Gamble where he led marketing for the Tide, Joy, Dash, and Gain businesses.  Rick gained much of his foundation in market research at P&G and led the research and launch of two of the most successful new products ever at P&G, Tide with Bleach and Ultra Tide.

Rick has a B.S. from the University of Maryland and an M.B.A. from Michigan and holds four U.S. Patents for his innovation in chemistry, personal computing, and peer to peer photo-sharing. 

Noah Fisher
Research Associate

Noah works with Client Opinions internal team to provide general support in the execution of research projects, with an emphasis on turnkey surveys. He coordinates project planning, development and implementation, and manages client relationships. His background includes various research and consulting roles both in the US and the UK.

Noah is a graduate of the University of St. Andrews, Scotland, with a joint degree in Economics and International Relations.  He also holds an M.A. in International Relations.

Kimberly Kalmar
Research Associate
 
Kimberly coordinates the custom projects component of Client Opinions. She is involved in project planning, development, implementation, and report delivery for most custom surveys. In addition, she acts as general support and client liaison for a number of other projects. She is also responsible for website maintenance.

Kimberly’s memberships include: Chapel Hill-Carrboro Chamber of Commerce, Honorary Fraternity of Alpha Chi, and Habitat for Humanity, Wake Co. – Family Support Committee & Scholarship Committee.

Kimberly is a graduate of Thiel College, Greenville, PA with a double-major in Sociology and Juvenile & Family Justice. She also holds an M.S. in Sociology from North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC. 

Nina Lee
Research Associate

Nina works with our internal team to provide general support in the execution of research projects. Her background includes experience in various analytical software applications such as SPSS, SAP Data Processing and EViews.

Nina is a graduate of the University of North Carolina's Kenan-Flagler Business School with a double degree in Business and Economics. She has also studied strategic and global marketing at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and is fluent in Mandarin Chinese and proficient in French.

Theodore L. Reed, PhD
President, reed | group

Dr. Reed is a re-known market researcher with over 20 years of experience in working with organizations to collect market data to drive organizational renewal and focus. His experience covers start-up firms, non-profits and Fortune 500 companies. Ted is recognized for his expertise in the application of quantitative and qualitative research techniques to help organizations gather critical information that impacts strategic positioning, client retention and sales/marketing effectiveness. Mr. Wahl has known and worked with Dr. Reed since the early 1990's in developing and executing market research.

Dr. Reed is co-author of A Theory of Public Bureaucracy (Harvard Press, 1975) and numerous articles on organization change and adaptation. He is a frequent industry speaker on issues of client retention, customer retention and customer satisfaction.

Todd Cipperman, esquire

Todd Cipperman has extensive experience in the investment management and financial services industries. He has served as general counsel of a public mutual fund and financial technology firm with over $80 Billion in assets under management and $600 Million in annual revenues. He has also served as general counsel of one of the largest international equity managers and served as primary in-house counsel to a $65 Billion mutual fund family. Mr. Cipperman also spent several years in private practice on Wall Street representing both buy and sell side clients in investment management and capital markets transactions. He has represented a wide range of firm including investment advisers, broker-dealers, fund sponsors, fund service providers, and technology companies.

During his career, Mr. Cipperman has been engaged in the full array of investment management transactions. He has created mutual, hedge, offshore and private equity funds. He has developed separate account, wrap account, and annuity products. He has also developed innovative distribution structures and worked several acquisitions and joint ventures. He has developed and executed compliance and internal audit programs.

He is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania Law School and Cornell University.

Joe Ford
Consultant

Joe has over 10 years of research experience, on both the client and vendor sides. In addition to being an independent consultant, he is a Group Manager with a leading market research firm directing customer satisfaction projects for one of the world's largest technology firms. Previously, Joe led the research division at CDNOW.com, a large Internet music retailer.

Joe started his career with Wharton Econometrics, where as Associate Economist he conducted macroeconomic forecasts for the U.S. and was quoted in Business Week and the Wall Street Journal, and as Senior Financial Analyst contributed articles to Standard & Poor's Blue List publication. He continues to write, consult and also teaches part-time.

Joe earned his Bachelor's degree in Economics from Villanova University and his M.B.A. from Vanderbilt University.

Patty Harrison
Unified Fund Services, Inc.

Patty is a financial industry professional with over 20 years of leadership, customer service, business analysis, and project management experience.  She has been recognized for her leadership and for the creation of a corporate service philosophy and strategy that led to national recognition of corporate service excellence.
 
She is currently acting as an independent consultant and business analyst.  She has performed critical operational reviews of corporate policies and procedures to address gaps identified between corporate process and industry regulations.  These reviews have resulted in implementation and/or enhancement of over 100 corporate policies, procedures, and reports.   Patty has also been instrumental in the creation of formalized corporate documentation and resource manuals.  She was successful in the implementation of an annual client research program leading to the implementation of strategic initiatives for enhanced service satisfaction including assignment of account relationship managers, new billing process/procedures, and additional service level goals and benchmarks.

Patty’s career began at Oppenheimer Fund Services where she held numerous leadership positions.  As Vice President, she managed diverse investment product operations for the variable annuity product, closed-end funds, and Oppenheimer’s first charitable donor advised fund.  In her career at Oppenheimer she was also responsible for a broad range of projects. She created and implemented a rollover asset retention program to capture assets from Mass Mutual sponsored Qualified Plans with over $28 million retained within initial 9 months.  She managed the corporate project design and implementation of Cost Basis Processing resulting in improved data accuracy and statement generation to an additional 30,000 customers.  While managing the registered representative customer service department the company was recognized three years in a row as the number one service provider in the industry- Dalbar Survey (nationally recognized industry award).

Patty earned her B.S.B.A. in business from the University of Denver.

Steven Kramer
Consultant

Steve is a seasoned sales, marketing, and product business manager with over 25 years of experience in the financial services industry. He has been a leader at major corporations and has established extensive client and industry relationships.

Most recently, Steve's role at Prudential Financial was critical where he was responsible for redesigning the delivery of mutual fund products and services to multiple distribution channels including both Prudential Securities and Prudential Insurance. Prior to this assignment, he managed the Managed Money Product Group (totaling $12 billion in AUM). He introduced the model portfolio concept as well as developed fee-based and high net worth sales and marketing initiatives.

Previously, Steve worked for SEI Investments where he was responsible for developing the prototype wholesaling structure for SEI 's banking. Steve 's last assignment at SEI was to lead the Bank Advisory Group.

Steve also spent nearly 10 years building and developing INVEST Financial (acquired by Kemper Financial) one of the first and leading providers of bank-based brokerage services in the country. Steve started his career in financial services with Drexel Burnham Lambert in Manhattan.

Steve has been recognized a leader and has been awarded several awards along the way-Drexel's Producer Awards, Kemper's Golden Circle Awards, SEI President's Club, and Prudential Search For Excellence and Leadership Programs.

Steve attended The University of Wisconsin (Madison) and graduated with a BA and earned an MBA from The City University of New York.

Peggy B. Thompson
Vice President, Westport Consulting Group

Peggy spent 10 years with national companies in marketing, logistics and strategic planning. She spent 5 years in Brand Management with Procter & Gamble on Brands such as Folgers, Crisco and Millstone Coffee. Peggy has been with Westport Consulting Group for 5 years, specializing in consumer food products and foodservice marketing consulting.

Following assignments with Shell Oil and Pillsbury, Peggy attended Harvard Business School, receiving her Masters in Business Administration.

Ellen Weber
Vice President, Antiphony Consulting

Ellen has extensive operational and human resource expertise. Prior to joining Antiphony, Ellen was a vice president at the Mayer Leadership Group, an executive coaching firm. She also was instrumental in the growth of Investor Force, a provider of technology-based solutions for institutional investment professionals, where she created the company's initial human resources department, facilitated strategic planning, and managed the organizational aspects of the company's mergers and acquisitions. 

Ellen spent twelve years at Shared Medical Systems where she was responsible for initiatives encompassing organizational development, customer support and corporate communications. She also has served as a senior consultant for Andersen Consulting, and she currently is the executive director for Robin Hood Ventures, an angel investment fund focused on emerging growth companies.

Ellen graduated from The Wharton School with a B.S. in economics.

Rob Weber
Managing Director, Antiphony Consulting

Rob has held a variety of executive positions for emerging technology companies. Most recently, he served as President of knoa, an e-learning software company, where he successfully redefined the corporate product strategy and repositioned the company to capitalize on new market opportunities. Additionally, he served as President of Elastomeric Technologies, a leading electronic connector manufacturer.

Rob is a founder of Robin Hood Ventures, an angel investment fund focused on emerging growth companies. Additionally, he serves as a Lecturer at The Wharton School where he teaches business planning and entrepreneurial management.

Rob earned Bachelor of Science in Economics (B.S.E.) and Bachelor of Applied Science (B.A.S.) degrees from The Wharton School and School of Engineering at The University of Pennsylvania.