Barry F. Cronin
Barry F. Cronin, Chief Investment Officer, has led Taylor’s hedge fund research and analytics efforts since the firm's inception. Mr. Cronin chairs the firm’s Investment Committee and has primary responsibility for management of the firm’s investment portfolios, including Taylor Insurance Series LP, Taylor Investment Series Ltd. and Taylor Waypoint Fund LP. Mr. Cronin has been actively involved in the alternative investment field for more than 18 years. Prior to joining Taylor, from 1998 until 2001 he was with Graham Capital Management where he served in various capacities including portfolio manager of a global macro portfolio. From 1992 to 1998, Mr. Cronin served as a portfolio manager for Tudor Investment Corporation, where he managed a leveraged portfolio of stocks, bonds, commodities and currency instruments. Mr. Cronin also worked for Bellwether Futures, a subsidiary of Tudor, at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange from 1990 to 1992. Mr. Cronin began his career with Merrill Lynch Futures at the Chicago Board of Trade 1989. He received his B.A. from Colby College, and his M.B.A. and M.A. from Boston University.
Kevin F. McDonald
Kevin F. McDonald, Co-Founder, has primary responsibility for all day-to-day operations as well as strategic planning for Taylor, and has served on the Investment Committee continuously since the firm’s inception in 2002. Mr. McDonald has more than 17 years experience in the investment field. Prior to co-founding the Taylor Companies, from 1999 to 2001 Mr. McDonald was a Director at Larch Lane Advisors, an alternative asset management firm specializing in multi-manager hedge fund portfolios. From 1994 to 1999 Mr. McDonald was a Vice President in the futures and options group at JP Morgan, responsible for developing and marketing investment strategies to hedge fund clients. From 1991 to 1994, Mr. McDonald was an Assistant Treasurer and proprietary fixed-income trader at BSI – AG, where he was involved in all aspects of the launch of and investment activity of Swiss American Capital Management, a global macro hedge fund. Mr. McDonald began his career at Chemical Bank (a predecessor to JP Morgan Chase) where he was a credit analyst in the corporate finance group. He received his B.A. from the University of Virginia.
Jason M. Taylor
Jason M. Taylor, Co-Founder, has primary responsibility for oversight of investment operations, systems and regulatory compliance at Taylor, and has served on the Investment Committee continuously since the firm’s inception in 2002. Mr. Taylor has more than 12 years experience in the investment field and has been personally investing in hedge fund strategies and private equity for more than 17 years. Prior to co-founding the Taylor Companies, he served in various positions including equity trader for Taylor & Company, which was the primary investment vehicle for the Bass family of Fort Worth, Texas. Mr. Taylor was also an equity trader for the BBT Fund, LP, a $2BN multi-strategy hedge fund, from 1995 until 1999. He received his B.A. from the University of Texas at Austin.
Eric Butcher ebutcher@tayloradvisors.com
Eric Butcher, Managing Director, Director of Investment Research and a member of the Investment Committee. He works with the investment team on manager research, portfolio construction and risk management. Mr. Butcher has over 14 years in the alternative investment management business, previously as a Managing Director, Head of Quantitative Strategy and Head Trader at Northern Lights, a credit and capital structure arbitrage fund. From 1994-2004, he served as a Managing Director and Senior Trader at McVeigh & Co. which was part of the $2 billion BBT Fund, LP in Fort Worth, TX. While at McVeigh & Co., Mr. Butcher specialized in convertible securities arbitrage and related strategies involving volatility, credit and capital structure arbitrage. Mr. Butcher was responsible for developing and modeling new strategies – including structuring synthetic convertibles, modeling credit derivatives, valuing long/short credit positions, and valuing various equity linked securities as well as implementing hedging strategies using equities, options, futures, swaps and credit derivatives in order to maintain desired risk profiles. Prior to Mr. Butcher's work with McVeigh & Co., he was granted a research appointment in mechanical engineering from the University of Washington in Seattle, WA where he conducted research for the University's Department of Mechanical Engineering within a post-masters program specializing in fluid dynamics and combustion, assisting in the design and construction of a testing facility to measure particulate emissions during coal combustion and created numerical models to approximate experimental results of testing facility. He received his B.S. in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Colorado, and his M.S. in Aeronautics and Astronautics from the University of Washington.
Paul D. Prater
Paul D. Prater, Chief Financial Officer, is a CPA with more than 25 years experience in the financial services industries. Mr. Prater has led the back office hedge fund manager due diligence at Taylor continuously since 2003, in addition to overseeing all fund accounting and administration matters, and is a member of the Investment Committee. Mr. Prater is also a partner with Tatum CFO Partners, a national partnership of career CFOs with access to the intellectual capital of over 350 partners in 26 cities. Prior to joining Taylor he worked with a private equity group in Dallas, serving as CFO of portfolio companies. From 1988 to 1993, Mr. Prater was Vice President-Finance and Operations of an international franchise company in the service industry. From 1977 to 1988, he focused on the financial services and investment operations industries at the accounting firm of KPMG, where he was the senior manager responsible for auditing of all investment operations of the Bass companies, including Taylor & Companies. He received his B.B.A. from Texas Christian University.
Christine Woodhouse
Christine Woodhouse, General Counsel, has responsibility for general legal matters as well as regulatory compliance at the Taylor Companies, where she participates in all aspects of hedge fund manager due diligence as well as serving on the firm’s Investment Committee. Ms. Woodhouse is a frequent speaker on issues involving the hedge fund industry, and a guest lecturer at the Morin Center for Banking and Financial Law at Boston University, where she previously served as Adjunct Professor. Prior to joining Taylor in 2005, she was General Counsel to Hudson Castle Group in Tarrytown, New York, and Senior Corporate Associate at Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle, where she represented the Airline Transportation Stabilization Board in designing and implementing its emergency loan guarantee program for the U.S. airline industry following September 11, 2001. Prior to joining Curtis, Mallet, from 1996 to 2000 Ms. Woodhouse served as Attorney-Advisor at the Export-Import Bank of the U.S. From 1990 to 1996, Ms. Woodhouse was an Associate with the firm of Powell, Goldstein, Frazer & Murphy in Washington D.C, where she handled a broad array of federal regulatory and compliance matters. She received her A.B. with honors from Stanford University, and M.A. and J.D. from the University of Virginia. She is admitted to practice law in New York.
James V.V. Burke
James V.V. Burke, Senior Analyst, assists the firm in its asset allocation and investment management oversight. He originally joined the Taylor organization as a research analyst in March 2003 before attending the Columbia Graduate School of Business’ two year full-time program as a member of the class of 2006. Prior to joining Taylor, James worked as a financial analyst from 1999 to 2002 in the Mergers & Acquisitions department at Lehman Brothers where he focused on the Communications and Media sectors. He received his B.A. in English Literature from Georgetown University and his M.B.A. from the Columbia Business School.
Kyle B. Dwyer
Kyle B. Dwyer, Research Analyst, assists in a broad range of asset allocation and investment management procedures. Starting as an intern with Taylor Investment Advisors, LP in January 2006, he joined the company full time July of 2006. He received his B.S. in Finance and Marketing from Fairfield University.
Thomas M. Taylor
Taylor Investment Advisors LP and Flagler Drive Financial LP were founded in 2002 by Thomas M. Taylor, a pioneer hedge fund investor for over 40 years, to provide knowledgeable and experienced guidance to clients facing an expanding array of alternative investment and insurance options. Prior to forming The Taylor Companies, Mr. Taylor founded and ran Taylor & Company, which oversaw investments for members of the Bass family of Fort Worth, Texas from 1978 through 1999, and specialized in managing a variety of market-neutral and arbitrage investment strategies. While with Bass, Mr. Taylor also made a number of long-term, strategic block equity investments in public corporations and was a principal investor through various venture capital and other investment partnerships. Mr. Taylor had served as Chairman of the Board of three NYSE listed companies and as a member of nine corporate boards in the United States and Canada during this time. Mr. Taylor also served as the General Partner of BBT Fund, LP, ultimately a $2B multi- strategy arbitrage hedge fund consisting of Bass, Taylor and outside investor capital, and was responsible for all aspects of fund management including the overall investment strategy, asset allocation and risk management. In October 1999, Mr. Taylor sold Taylor & Company; today, Taylor & Company "alumni" manage some of the largest and most respected hedge funds in the industry, with an estimated $14B in total assets. Prior to joining the Bass family in 1978, Mr. Taylor was with Kidder Peabody, where he led its arbitrage department. Mr. Taylor was a graduate of TCU and a supporter of many charities including the Robin Hood Foundation, the American Red Cross and the Fort Worth Symphony.