Chestnut Team
Every Chestnut Advisor has deep experience as a senior investor, investment consultant, and/or distribution executive with leading investment firms.
Amanda Tepper
Managing Partner
Amanda is a Managing Partner, founder and co-owner of Chestnut Advisory Group.
Prior to founding Chestnut, Amanda served as Global Director of AllianceBernstein’s senior portfolio management team, a group that crafted and delivered the firm’s investment insights to institutional and retail clients and consultants. Previously, Amanda developed deep experience in sell-side equity research as Associate Director of Equity Research at Bank of America and as an Institutional Investor All-America Team – ranked equity analyst at JPMorgan.
Before moving to the sell-side Amanda was an investment banker in JPMorgan’s retail industries group. She began her investment career on a corporate bond trading desk.
Amanda holds an MBA from Wharton and a BA from Brown University. Her past Board memberships include the Investment Advisory Committee for the Endowment of the Art Students League of New York, The Global Advisory Council for 100 Women in Finance, Girls Inc. of New York, and the Andover Development Board of Phillips Academy.
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Ravi Venkataraman
Managing Partner
Ravi is a Managing Partner and co-owner of Chestnut Advisory Group.
Prior to joining Chestnut, Ravi was the Global Head of Investment Solutions at MFS Investment Management, where he led a team that delivered bespoke investment advisory and consulting services to clients across all of MFS’s channels globally. His team was also responsible for investment thought leadership and education for MFS’s client facing teams. He was previously responsible for global consultant relations and defined contribution platforms at MFS.
Before moving to MFS, Ravi was the President and Chief Investment Officer of Mercer Investments, having founded Mercer’s OCIO business and served as one of the industry’s earliest leaders in the fiduciary management solutions space. Prior to creating the OCIO business, he was a Worldwide Partner and region head where he served as senior investment consultant to multinational corporate and public retirement plans, sovereign wealth funds and endowments and foundations.
Ravi holds a Masters Degree in Economics from Tufts University and is a CFA charterholder. His past Board memberships include: Chair of MFS’s Retirement Investment Committee; Chair, Steering Committee of the Active Managers Council; and Chair of Generation Citizen, a non-profit organization focused on civic education in middle and high schools in Massachusetts.
Michele Browne
Senior Advisor
Michele brings Chestnut’s clients the experience gained from over 25 years in senior business development, sustainable investing, and marketing roles.
Prior to joining Chestnut, she was Director of US Institutional Management at Jarislowsky Fraser LTD, where she led and developed a strategy for this Canadian asset manager to enter the US institutional marketplace. Michele was also a founding member of the firm’s Sustainable Investment and Diversity & Inclusion Committees.
Previously, Michele was a successful institutional equity salesperson at JPMorgan and Citi. Michele sold research on US and international equities to the world’s leading asset managers. Michele is a former executive at the Skip Barber Racing School, the world’s leading motorsports education company.
Michele holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA from Brown University.
Brad Southern
Senior Advisor
Brad brings over 25 years of asset management mergers and acquisitions advisory, business development and operations experience to Chestnut’s clients.
Brad is currently a Principal of Blueprint Capital Advisors, an RIA platform for institutional investors focused on private credit. Before that he was Principal at Cannon Street Capital, where he sourced and structured minority equity investments in alternative asset managers. Brad has extensive experience in asset manager M&A gained from roles as an investment banker at leading boutiques such as Kudu Advisors and Freeman & CO, as well as at larger firms such as UBS Warburg, Putnam Lovell and Dain Bosworth.
Over the course of his career Brad has advised on over 150 asset manager M&A transactions, and is the author of Hedge Fund Mergers and Acquisitions: How and Why does it Happen?. Immediately following law school, Brad worked with the law firm of Tomotsune, Kimura & Mitomi in Tokyo, Japan, focusing on joint ventures and Eurobond offerings.
Brad holds a JD from Harvard Law school, and an MBA (with honors) and BA (magna cum laude) from Rice University.
Jeff Kiker
Head of Operations
Jeff joined Chestnut with 25 years’ experience managing client service, technology, and operations. He has directed client service, marketing, and e-commerce project management teams for clients such as eBay, PayPal, General Motors, Pitney Bowes, and AT&T. Recently Jeff helped improve educational outcomes for underserved K12 schools as Director of BIS for Achievement First and Director of Program Operations for New Classrooms.
Jeff holds a BS in Industrial Engineering from the University of Florida and an MBA from Wharton.