Eagle’s newest Insurance Accounting Lead, Barbie Connell Spencer, brings a wealth of experience navigating legacy system conversions. She also loves a challenge—a characteristic cultivated during her service in the US Navy, professional career choices and her sense of adventure in pursuing outdoor activities. 

Tell us a little about your background and your journey that lead you to Eagle?
I definitely have a unique background! After my time in the US Navy, I spent time working in IT at Intel as well as several public accounting firms. At the same time, I continued to achieve my secondary education in accounting. These experiences in the early phase of my career were critical in preparing me to consult on the installation of accounting solutions. I eventually accepted a position at MassMutual, where I would then spend the next 18 years of my career. Although I initially started out as a programmer, I gained experience learning all aspects of the insurance accounting industry, and was hooked.

Investment accounting in the insurance vertical is quite different from traditional accounting. Industry-specific rules and regulations create quite a bit of nuance, so substantial experience and a deep understanding of how business users may seek to leverage software is critical to becoming a true subject matter expert.

My ability to gain experience across a range of functions while working for my last employer, MassMutual, proved to be tremendously advantageous in building my skillset. I eventually moved away from IT and transitioned into a role overseeing investment data for the company’s investment accounting system and its corporate ledger. When MassMutual made the decision to move to Eagle, I had the opportunity to learn the Eagle system and become an expert. I served as the data-conversion lead during the implementation, so I’m well-versed in the challenges insurance companies face when transitioning from a legacy system. I also gained an appreciation for the strategy required to navigate an implementation, and have a true passion for this kind of work. After I earned my Master’s Degree, I was excited to return to my consulting roots and begin this new phase of my career at Eagle.  Read More…

In the first quarter of 2018 the Advisory Board of The Journal of Performance Measurement® (JPM) announced that the recipients of the annual Peter O. Dietz Award were Daryl Bradford, CFA, CIPM of Acadian Asset Management and Daniel Siliski, CAIA of Boston Partners Global Investors. The advisory board panel selected “Performance Drawdowns in Asset Management: Extending Drawdown Analysis to Active Returns” as one among a select group of articles chosen to recognize excellence in performance measurement literature. In the paper, the authors explain, active drawdown, or benchmark relative drawdown, is a natural extension of the performance drawdown calculation. The article considers several possible methodologies for calculating active drawdown, proposes one methodology as the most adequate, and applies the methodology to the returns of indices and mutual funds to derive practical results. Investors can use active drawdown to analyze portfolio returns, evaluate investment strategies, and inform the manager selection process.

Mr. Bradford and Mr. Siliksi will present their winning article at PMAR West, on October 17th & 18th in San Diego, California. As a testament to continuous improvement and dedication to deploying industry leading ideas with great velocity, Eagle Performance now includes the algorithm outlined by these award winning authors and will be available for demonstration at Eagle’s booth at PMAR West.

The enhancement is slated for wider release at the beginning of November 2018, along with functional enhancements to the Eagle Performance solution. Read More…

Dan Cavanaugh, Eagle’s new Head of EMEA, shares his thoughts on the region and Eagle’s continued focus on supporting the diverse client needs.

Q: Alongside your appointment as the Head of the EMEA region, it was also announced that Eagle was separating the management of its EMEA and APAC business lines. Can you discuss some of the catalysts behind this decision?

A: The decision to separate the EMEA and APAC business lines simply reflects the growth we’ve experienced in each of these regions. Particularly in EMEA, sales grew by more than 30% year over year in 2017. The number of new EMEA clients last year was also approximately two to three times higher than what is traditionally considered a strong year of new business growth. And we’ve had an increasing number of existing clients who are interested in extending their Eagle relationships by adding new services or capabilities.

There are several drivers, but we believe the momentum stems from a multipronged approach over the past few years to build awareness in the region and work more closely with local consultants. We’ve also found that growth tends to beget more growth. Client references, especially from some of the large, multinational firms that we work with, have gone a long way to build credibility among fund managers and asset owners who initially may be less familiar with Eagle.

Also, our alignment with our parent company has been invaluable. BNY Mellon has a tremendous presence and reputation globally, which has helped increase Eagle’s opportunities. Beyond collaborating in the ongoing development of our solution set, our relationship with BNY Mellon provides clients a continuum of deployment options as well as value-added functions through either managed services or a fully outsourced solution through BNY Mellon. This is a huge differentiator and has especially resonated in the EMEA region.

Q: It’s only been a short time since you assumed the role as Head of EMEA, but could you highlight some of the key differences between this market and other regions, such as APAC and North America?

Read More…