Christopher Cutler CFA, Founder
Chris Cutler founded the investment consulting firm Manager Analysis Services, LLC [MAS] in March 2003. He advises institutional clients and family offices on the governance and implementation of their investment programs, particularly with respect to their investments with OCIOs and managers of private equity, venture capital, hedge fund, public equity, and fixed income investment strategies. He has reviewed about 2,000 asset managers and investment ventures.
Prior to founding MAS, Chris worked at Deutsche Bank from 1994 to 2003. He managed risk for specialized fixed income derivatives products, marketed OTC interest rate derivatives, and developed structured financial products. Chris was an economist and bank regulator at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York from 1988 to 1994. He co-authored the Federal Reserve System’s original Trading Activities Manual, the comprehensive guide to the Federal Reserve System’s examiners when they examine banks’ trading floors.
Chris has an MBA in Finance from NYU’s Stern School of Business Executive Program, a BA in Economics from the University of Chicago, and is a CFA Charterholder. He serves as a Board Director at Americans For The Arts, a public charity with a mission to build recognition and support for the extraordinary and dynamic value of the arts. He also holds leadership roles in the 12,000-member NY Chapter of the CFA Institute, CFA Society New York [CFANY]. He led a successful governance reform effort in 2014, was competitively elected to the Board in 2016, and served as the Vice Chair of CFANY’s Board of Directors for the years 2017 and 2018. He has chaired CFANY’s Programming Committee and Nominating Committee, and he has served on the Executive Search and Audit Committees. Chris has also contributed to the CFA Institute’s Advocacy projects, seeking to inform policymakers and the public about the most pertinent concerns investors face today and to mobilize action to improve the investment climate.
Safia B. Mehta, CFA
Managing Director and Practice Leader — Adviser and OCIO Performance Evaluations
Safia Mehta CFA leads our Adviser and OCIO performance evaluation efforts. She performed similar work in numerous capacities prior to joining Manager Analysis, including evaluations of managers and consultants when she worked for Commonfund, PepsiCo, Prudential, and Progress Investment Management. She assists pension plans, endowment foundations and OCIO firms in developing their asset allocation strategy, portfolio construction, manager research and due diligence across asset classes. She also assists clients with specialized needs within Emerging, MWBE and ESG manager due diligence areas.
Prior to joining MAS in 2018, Safia previously served as SVP, Portfolio Manager at Progress Investment Management, where she managed discretionary multi- asset class portfolios for blue-chip institutional clients, including endowments & pension plans. Other career highlights include her tenure at Alliance Bernstein, where she led the development and placement of multi-asset investment solutions for Asian and European investors, and at Prudential Retirement she provided direction and oversight of their $40 billion multi-asset class sub-advisory investment platform for over 150 clients including non-profit entities. As the Pension Manager at PepsiCo, she implemented governance standards and hired investment consultants and investment managers.. As a Fund Manager at Commonfund, she managed international portfolios for university endowments and foundations.
Safia graduated with a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Toronto, Canada and is a CFA Charterholder. Safia has been a member of the CFA Institute’s Asset Manager Code Advisory Committee, and a Board member of the CFA Society of Stamford. She regularly speaks at various industry conferences on current investment topics.