About Us

Our Story

Smartleaf Asset Management LLC (SAM) is a fully owned subsidiary of Smartleaf, Inc. whose automated rebalancing workflow platform helps its clients deliver customized, tax-optimized portfolios at scale. SAM is an SEC-Registered Investment Advisor that operates Smartleaf Inc. software to automate unified managed account rebalancing and trade execution services.

 

Our Team

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Jerry Michael

President

Jerry oversees strategy and operations. Jerry also serves as President of Smartleaf Asset Management's parent company, Smartleaf, Inc., which he co-founded in 1999. Smartleaf is the industry leader in the provision of automated, customized, tax-sensitive rebalancing systems, which is currently used to manage over $50B in assets.

B.A., Math, B.A., Computer Science, University of Wisconsin. Series 65.

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Diana Neus

Chief Compliance Officer

Diana joined Smartleaf Asset Management in 2014 and is responsible for managing all compliance functions of the firm.

Before joining the team, Diana spent 7 years with Smartleaf, Inc. the parent company of Smartleaf Asset Management. As a Director of Client Support, her responsibilities included assessing and resolving end-user and partner inquiries, while working to ensure that the core team continued to deliver world-class support to Smartleaf’s dynamic and growing customer base. She began her career at J.P. Morgan Invest, an online subsidiary of J.P. Morgan Chase. For more than 20 years she worked in back-office investment operations and project management capacities.

B.S., Business Management, Simmons College. Certificate in Accountancy, Bentley University. Series 65.

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Stefan Mitropolitsky

Chief Investment Officer

Stefan joined Smartleaf Asset Management, LLC, in 2015. In addition to his duties in SAM, Stefan is responsible for technology and product for Smartleaf, Inc., an investment technology SaaS provider.  Stefan began work at Smartleaf, Inc. in 2008 as a Financial Engineer. Prior to Smartleaf Asset Management, LLC, he developed software platforms for e-commerce and distribution logistics at StoreSpinner, Inc. Stefan also spent time working on portfolio analytics and applications at Fannie Mae and on chemical sensor hardware at the Naval Research Lab.

B.S., Operations Research and Engineering, Cornell. Series 65.

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Mohammad Heidari

Investment Officer

Mohammad joined Smartleaf Asset Management in 2017. His team works on implementation and scalability of the Analytics Engine as well as developing and maintaining risk models associated with portfolio optimization. Prior to joining SAM, Mohammad was co-founder and CTO at Lighthouse Signal Systems, a technology company focusing on indoor geo-location and location-based analytics. Mohammad has also worked as a senior system engineer at Skyhook (acquired by Liberty Media subsidiary, TruePosition) and as a staff member at the Center for Wireless Information Network Studies (CWINS) at Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

Mohammad has designed and deployed highly scalable cloud systems to return updates and provide insights using Machine Learning and Neural Networks on large data sets. Mohammad holds multiple patents and publications for his work on location techniques.

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Wei Zhang

Investment Officer

Wei joined Smartleaf Asset Management in 2015 as a Senior Financial Analyst. She focuses on developing models tracking major indices, using quantitive methods to provide similar risk-factor exposures to the benchmark. Her responsibilities also include monitoring model health, and analyzing model and portfolio after-tax performance. Before joining the team, Wei spent 2 years with Smartleaf, Inc., the parent company of Smartleaf Asset Management, on the Financial Engineering team. 

Prior to Smartleaf Asset Management, Wei worked at Bloomberg L.P., New York, on the team of credit risk and fundamental evaluation. 

Ph.D., Applied Mathematics, M.S., Economics, Brown University. CFA.

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Ben Cutrell

Investment Officer

Ben joined Smartleaf Asset Management, LLC in 2014, has a total of 8 years of market experience, and is a member of the Financial Engineering team at SAM's parent company, Smartleaf, Inc. He is a CFA charterholder and a member of the Boston Security Analysis Society.

Prior to Smartleaf Asset Management, Ben spent two years working for Teach for China in Yunnan province.

B.A Economics, Gettysburg College. CFA

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Kevin Hilsmier

Overlay Program Manager

Kevin joined Smartleaf Asset Management in 2024 with over 30 years of investment experience. Prior to joining Smartleaf Asset Management, Kevin spent 22 years with SEI Investments in various roles including 12 years as the manager of the Overlay Portfolio Management team.

B.S Business Administration, Bowling Green State University. Series-65

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Bob Leaper

Chief Sales Officer

Bob joined Smartleaf in 2020 to lead the go-to-market efforts. Bob has more than 30 years of experience delivering sales and marketing results for FinTech SaaS and services businesses, ranging from working at/consulting for 20+ start-ups, to leadership roles at large firms such as BNY Mellon’s Eagle Investment Systems.

Stanford GSB Executive Program. B.A., Drew University. Series-65.

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Robey NeJame

Account Executive and Sales Operations Manager

Robey first joined Smartleaf Asset Management in 2021 as a business development specialist to coordinate business development activities. He focuses on qualifying leads for our business, assists with marketing campaigns, supports customer acquisition and develops enterprise sales strategies. Outside of the office, he plays left field for a local softball team, is a Dungeon Master for two D&D groups, and co-hosts Smartleaf philosophy nights.

Prior to Smartleaf Asset Management, Robey worked at the Boston Consulting Group on the global operations team. He has also worked for startup accelerator, MassChallenge HealthTech as a startup services coordinator.

B.S., Business Administration, Northeastern University.

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Dan Ritter

Chief Security Officer

Dan handles security policy and technical infrastructure for Smartleaf Asset Management, LLC. He is also the Director of IT / Operations at Smartleaf, Inc.

Prior experiences include Akamai, GTE Internetworking, and BBN.