Stuart Graham

Head of Banks Strategy

Prior to founding Autonomous in 2009, Stuart was the head of European banks equity research at Merrill Lynch. Before joining Merrill Lynch in 2002, Stuart worked at JPMorgan and HSBC (both in banks equity research). He began his career at the Bank of England in 1988 in the banking supervision department. Stuart holds an MA in modern history from Cambridge University.

Manus Costello

Global Head of Research

Manus is the Global Head of Research for Autonomous. He also covers the UK Asian banks. Before becoming a founding partner of Autonomous he worked at Merrill Lynch for ten years, in both London and New York. He holds a degree in English from Cambridge University.

Jacob Kruse

Scandinavian Banks, Senior Analyst

Prior to joining Autonomous in 2009, Jacob Kruse had been covering European Banks including French, Nordics, Germans and European as well as US investment banks for seven years at JPMorgan. Jacob is a graduate in Finance from the Stockholm School of Economics.

Britta Schmidt

Spanish & Italian Banks, Senior Analyst

Britta joined Autonomous in 2009 after having worked in the equity research team at Merrill Lynch, covering German and Benelux banks. Prior to joining Merrill Lynch, she spent two years as at Fox-Pitt, Kelton, where she also covered Central and Eastern European banks. Britta started her career in investment banking in 2001, working in Citigroup's Financial Institutions Group. She received a BA (Hons) in European Business from Portsmouth Business School and a Diplom-Betriebswirt (FH) degree from the Fachhochschule Münster in Germany.

Stefan Stalmann

Swiss & French Banks, Senior Analyst

Stefan joined Autonomous in July 2012 and covers Swiss and French banks. Prior to joining Autonomous, Stefan covered Swiss, German, Austrian and French banks for twelve years at Dresdner Kleinwort, UniCredit and RBS. Before moving to a sell-side analyst role in 2000, Stefan spent another nine years at Dresdner Bank in Germany and Canada, working in different roles in retail and corporate banking, credit risk and executive management. Stefan holds an MBA from Nuernberg University, an MA from Wayne State University (Detroit), and he has been a CFA charterholder since 1998.

Ronan Clarke

Head of High Yield Research

Ronan joined Bernstein Autonomous in 2021 and covers companies in the consumer retail sectors. He has over 20 years of experience in sell-side high yield research, most recently for 12 years at Deutsche Bank. Ronan studied economics at Trinity College Dublin and is a CFA charterholder.

Christopher Cant

UK & Irish Banks, Senior Analyst

Chris joined Autonomous in 2011 and covers UK and Irish banks. Prior to joining Autonomous he worked at KPMG in Financial Services audit, focusing on large banks. Chris is a Chartered Accountant and holds a degree in Experimental Psychology from Oxford University.

Andrew Crean

Insurance, Senior Analyst

Andrew Crean has been analysing UK and European insurers since 1982. Prior to founding Autonomous in 2009, Andrew was the head of European insurance equity research at Citigroup. He held this post for five years, leading a team of five analysts. Before joining Citigroup in 2000, Andrew worked as an insurance analyst in Schroder Securities, as a partner in GVGI (a start-up institutional stockbroker) in the 1990s and at Laing & Cruickshank and Capel-Cure Myers in the 1980s. Andrew holds a BA in modern history from Oxford University.

Andrew Ritchie

Insurance, Senior Analyst

Before joining Autonomous in 2010, Andrew spent five years on the buy-side as a European financials analyst most recently with Citadel Investment Group and prior to that with Blackrock. Prior to this, Andrew was on the sell-side as a member of the European insurance equity research team led by Andrew Crean at Citigroup. Before joining Citigroup Andrew worked as a UK and European insurance analyst at Fox-Pitt Kelton. Andrew holds a BA in modern history from Oxford University.

Farquhar Murray

Insurance & Banks, Senior Analyst

Before joining Autonomous in 2009, Farquhar covered the Benelux, Swiss and Nordic insurers at Fox-Pitt, Kelton for two years. Prior to this, Farquhar worked at Morgan Stanley for six years. Farquhar holds a MA Honours degree in Economics from Cambridge University.

Corinne Cunningham

Head of Credit Research

Prior to joining Autonomous at its launch in 2009, Corinne headed the financials fixed income research team at RBS. Prior to joining RBS in 2001, Corinne led a team of insurance analysts at the rating agency Standard & Poor's where she worked for 6 years. Corinne started her career in branch banking at NatWest on a graduate programme which soon specialised on credit and the financial sector. Corinne has a first class honours degree from the Guildhall University and holds the ACIB banking qualification.

Daniel David

Banks Credit Analyst

Dan joined Autonomous in 2019 and covers banks credit. Before joining Autonomous, Dan spent seven years with Barclays, in their Treasury department working in finance and capital markets execution. Dan is a Chartered Accountant and holds a first class master’s degree in Chemistry from Southampton University.

Gabor Kemeny

CEE & Austrian Banks, Senior Analyst

Gabor joined Autonomous in 2013 to cover CEE and Austrian banks. Before joining Autonomous, he spent six years at Concorde Securities in Budapest, where he covered CEE stocks. Gabor holds a Finance degree from the Corvinus University of Budapest and he is a CFA charterholder.

Josh Levin

European Payments & FinTech, Senior Analyst

Josh joined Autonomous in 2019 after 13 years at Citi Research. He previously covered European Payments & Fintech, Frontier Market Banks and US Regional Banks. He earned a BA in History from the University of Chicago and an MBA from NYU. He is also a CFA Charterholder.

Michiel Milanovic

FinTech Analyst

Michiel Milanovic is an associate on the fintech team at Autonomous covering emerging trends in the space. Prior to rejoining Autonomous in 2020, Michiel was a graduate analyst at JP Morgan on the digital transformation team and worked for a year with Autonomous under the NEXT brand. Michiel holds a Bachelor and Master’s degree from University College London where he graduated First Class in Management Science with a minor in Cognitive Systems and Intelligent Technologies.

Leona Li

Banks Strategy Analyst

Leona joined Autonomous in 2012 and works on European banks strategy. Before joining Autonomous, Leona worked in Credit Risk Management in Deutsche Bank. Leona is a CFA charter holder and holds a bachelor’s degree in Economics from the London School of Economics and a master’s degree in Finance from Judge Business School of the University of Cambridge.

Youdish Chicooree

Insurance, Senior Analyst

Youdish joined Autonomous in 2011 and covers Nordic P&C, CEE and UK Motor Insurers. Prior to that he spent five years with KPMG in London, initially in their audit division covering investment banks and subsequently moving to KPMG's corporate finance practice. Youdish is a Chartered Accountant and holds a degree in International Business, Finance and Economics from Manchester University.

Ian White

Diversified Financials

Ian joined Autonomous in 2016 to cover UK banks and speciality financials. Prior to joining Autonomous he worked in the Financial Stability Directorate at the Bank of England, focusing on the design of the stress-testing and capital frameworks for banks. He previously worked for RBS and the Financial Services Authority. Ian has a first class degree in Politics and Economics from the University of Sheffield.

Oliver Troop

Insurance Analyst

Oliver joined Autonomous in 2019, having previously worked on the European Insurance team at Bernstein since 2015. He started his career at Towers Watson, where he qualified as an actuary. Oliver is a CFA charterholder and holds an MA in Physics from Oxford University.

Angeliki Bairaktari

European Asset Managers Analyst

Angeliki joined Autonomous in 2015 and covers the European asset management space. Prior to joining Autonomous, Angeliki was an analyst at the Investment Banking division of Credit Suisse covering Financial Institutions. Angeliki holds a Masters degree in International Finance from HEC Paris and a Bachelor in Finance and Accounting from the Athens University of Economics and Business.

Christian Aust

High Yield, Senior Analyst

Christian joined Bernstein Autonomous in 2021 with a focus on high yield bond issuers from various industrial sectors. Prior to joining Bernstein Autonomous, Christian was head of corporate credit research at UniCredit where he worked for 13 years in senior equity and credit research roles in Munich and London. He started his career covering German automotive suppliers at LBBW in 2006. Christian is a CFA charterholder and holds a double degree (BBA) from DHBW Karlsruhe and the UK’s Open University.

Brian Foran

US Regional Banks, Senior Analyst

Brian co-founded the Autonomous Research US business in 2012 and has since covered all aspects of the banking sector, currently leading coverage of US Regional Banks. Prior to joining Autonomous Brian spent over a decade as banks analyst at Goldman Sachs and Nomura, with a broad range of coverage spanning over 30 stocks across Regional, Large-Cap & Trust Banks as well as Consumer Finance. Brian started his career as a consultant at Oliver Wyman, and holds a BSE in Operations Research and Financial Engineering from Princeton University.

Matt Coad

US Payments and FinTech Analyst

Matt rejoined Autonomous in 2021 and has been working in equity research since 2015. Matt previously worked at firms on both the buy-side (Millennium) and sell-side (Citi) and has experience covering a variety of financials sub-sectors (Capital Markets, Insurance, Payments/FinTech). He received his BA in Accounting/Finance from Canisius College and is a CFA charterholder.

Caroline Conway

Financial Information Sector Analyst

Before joining Autonomous in 2021, Caroline spent several years at AllianceBernstein covering US Broadlines & Hardlines Retail and brings a unique background in consumer research, business analytics, and multinational operations to her current coverage. She has 15+ years of experience in strategy and analytics, including as Sr. Director of Strategy & Analytics at Walmart where she built a 50-member internal consulting team based in India and Costa Rica. She previously held a variety of ESG and operational roles at Walmart and other companies including Alcoa, Steelcase, Deere and Cummins. Caroline has a bachelor’s degree in Industrial Design from Carnegie Mellon University, an MBA and MS from the University of Michigan, and is a Level III CFA candidate.

Craig Maurer

US Payments & FinTech, Senior Analyst

Craig Maurer joined Autonomous in September 2014 following nearly 8 years at CLSA Americas. Craig currently covers the Speciality Finance and Payments sector, and has been on Wall Street since 1997. He began his career at Neuberger Berman as a portfolio analyst before moving to the sell-side in 1999. Craig’s coverage of the payment processing and speciality finance industries began in 2003, prior to which he covered mid-cap banks. In 2006 and 2008, Craig was named to the Wall Street Journal’s “Best on the Street” ranking, and the Financial Times ranking in 2008 and 2013. He earned a BS from Syracuse University.

Patrick Davitt

US Asset Managers, Senior Analyst

Patrick joined Autonomous in 2012 from Bank of America Merrill Lynch, where he spent nine years covering broker-dealers and alternative asset managers. Prior to that, he spent two years in Merrill Lynch's Investment Banking analyst program. Patrick holds a BBA in Finance & Accounting from Southern Methodist University's Cox School of Business.

Geoffrey Elliott

GEM Financials, Senior Analyst

Geoffrey Elliott leads our GEM Financials Strategy coverage in addition to covering names in LatAm from our New York office. Geoff joined the firm at inception in 2009, initially covering Central & Eastern European banks from London, before transferring to New York in 2014 where he covered a number of US banks moving to his current role in 2019. Prior to joining the firm in 2009, Geoff worked at Fox-Pitt, Kelton and Citigroup. He holds an MA in Natural Sciences and Economics from Cambridge University and is a CFA charterholder.”

Ryan Tunis

Property & Casualty Insurance, Senior Analyst

Ryan joined Autonomous in 2018 and has been covering the US Insurance sector since 2012. Prior to joining Autonomous, Ryan was the US Property & Casualty Insurance analyst at Credit Suisse. Institutional Investor recognized him as a Rising Star for US Insurance/Nonlife in 2015 and 2017. He previously worked on the US Life Insurance team. Ryan has a BS in Mathematical Economics from Wake Forest University and is a CFA charterholder.

Erik Bass

US Life Insurance, Senior Analyst

Erik joined Autonomous in 2016 and has been covering the US life insurance sector since 2005. Prior to joining Autonomous, Erik was the US life insurance analyst for Citigroup. Institutional Investor recognized him as a Rising Star for US life insurance in its 2013 and 2014 All-America Research surveys, and he was ranked Runner-Up in the 2016 survey. He began his career at JP Morgan, working in both private banking and equity research. Erik has a BA in Business Economics from Brown University and is a CFA charterholder.

John McDonald

US Large-Cap Banks, Senior Analyst

Prior to transferring to Autonomous Research, John covered large-cap banks for the past decade at Bernstein, where he has been ranked among the top U.S. analysts in various industry polls, including the #1 ranking in Institutional Investor for 2018. Prior to joining Bernstein in 2008, John spent four years as a senior research analyst at Bank of America Securities and six years at UBS, where he covered bank and credit card stocks. John began his career as a regulatory attorney with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. He holds a JD from Harvard Law School and a BS in Industrial & Labor Relations from Cornell University.

Christian Bolu

US Capital Markets, Senior Analyst

Prior to transferring to Autonomous Research, Christian covered US capital markets at Bernstein since 2017. He worked in Credit Suisse's Investment Bank strategy department through the financial crisis before moving to research in 2010. Christian has been recognised as II rising star on several occasions.

Robert Wildhack

US Capital Markets Specialty Financials Analyst

Rob joined Autonomous in 2015, covering the online lending, fintech, and payment sectors. Prior to joining Autonomous, he spent four years at RBC Capital Markets with the Alternative Assets Group. In 2018, Rob was named to the Institutional Investor All-America Research team “Rising Stars” list. He graduated from Syracuse University with degrees in Finance and Economics and is a CFA charterholder.

Ken Suchoski

US Payments & FinTech Senior Research Associate

Ken joined Autonomous in 2016 and has been covering the Payments and Fintech sector. Prior to that, he was an equity research associate at Janney Montgomery Scott covering REITs and an equity analyst at First Eagle Investment Management's family office. He received his Bachelor of Arts with a major in Economics from Middlebury College and is a CFA charterholder.

Ed Allchin

Global Head of Sales

Prior to founding Autonomous in 2009, Ed worked at Merrill Lynch for the top ranked banks team alongside Autonomous co-founders Stuart Graham and Manus Costello. Ed graduated from Nottingham University in 1998 with a degree in History, joining the graduate training program at HSBC / James Capel the same year. Before Merrill Lynch, Ed also worked for successful banks teams at Credit Suisse and JP Morgan.

Andreas Vollmer

European Banks Specialist Sales

Andreas joined Autonomous at its launch in 2009. Prior to this, Andreas worked in the banks team Merrill Lynch, which he joined as a graduate in early 2008. Before joining Merrill Lynch, Andreas graduated from the University of Mannheim in Germany with a top class degree in Business Administration, majoring in Finance.

Dwight Collins

US Financials Specialist Sales

Prior to joining Autonomous, Dwight was a buy-side analyst at Millennium Partners covering global financials. Dwight has previous equity sales experience working at UBS and FBR & Co. Dwight began his career working in the Treasury group at M&T Bank. He holds a BA in History from Brown University and a post-graduate degree in Philosophy/Religious Studies from Oxford University.

Maeshal Abid

US Financials Specialist Sales

Prior to joining Autonomous in 2017, Maeshal was at JPMorgan for 5 years on their corporate development team, where he worked with C-suite management on strategic planning. He began his career at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta in their supervision and regulation department. Maeshal graduated with honors from Emory University with degrees in Philosophy and International Studies, and his senior thesis focused on potential implications of post-crisis capital regulations to the global banking system.

Amy Davies

Financials Subscription Sales

Amy joined Autonomous in Nov 2016 having previously been a Specialist Salesperson in the Technology Sectors for three Investment Banks. Amy looks after Research Product Sales Globally in both the Asset Manager (long-only, hedge fund, wealth management) and Non-Asset Management (Consultants, Corporates) client categories and is a relationship manager.

Brian Finneran

US Financials Specialist Sales

Prior to joining Autonomous in 2016, Brian worked in equity research at Barclays covering emerging technologies across the US and Europe. Brian started his career at KBW as an equity research analyst covering universal and large cap banks. He holds a BA in Finance and Management from Georgetown University.

Greg Regan

US Financials Specialist Sales

Prior to joining Autonomous, Greg was the global financials long/short equity PM at Highbridge Capital. Greg has extensive buy-side experience including stints as sector head/senior analyst at Millennium (Tribe Capital), Cedar Hill Capital, and Avenue Capital on the Events Driven equity team. Greg’s wall street career started in equity research at Goldman Sachs covering financials and telecom services. Greg graduated from the University of Notre Dame with a BA in finance and he holds the Chartered Financial Analyst® designation.

Jan Thomson

GEM Financials Specialist Sales

Jan spent the past five years as an equity salesperson at top-ranked Emerging EMEA investment bank, WOOD & Co. Jan draws upon his vast experience living and working in emerging markets along with first-hand knowledge of the GEM corporate universe to generate ideas.

Stephen Barret

Financials Specialist Sales

Stephen joined Autonomous in September 2019. He has been analysing and investing in Global Financials for close to 20 years, with his experience split equally both between the buy and the sell-side and also between developed and emerging markets. He started his career as an Equity Analyst at Merrill Lynch, covering EMEA Banks, before moving to Nevsky Capital, where he spent over a decade, a period during which he ran a long only book in Latin America, as well as generating long/short ideas for the hedge fund. After Nevsky, Stephen returned to the sell-side, working initially for a research start-up based out of the Fintech community in Level 39, before joining the Specialist Sales desk at UBS. He holds a BSc in Economics from the LSE and a Masters in Finance from LBS.

Rachel Farr

European Financials Specialist Sales

Rachel joined the team after two years working as European Financials Specialist Sales at Deutsche Bank. She graduated with a first class degree from the University of Exeter in Economics, French and Spanish and received Dean’s commendation for academic excellence.

David Kubale

Credit Research Sales

David joined Autonomous in 2019 to lead Credit Research Sales. David joined from Reorg Research and prior to that spent ten years at CreditSights latterly the last five as Head of Sales - EMEA & APAC working with clients globally from both the sell-side and buy-side. David’s experience is across the credit spectrum from deeply distressed/stressed up through High Yield and Investment Grade.

Nicholas Holt

Senior Credit Trading

Nick joined Autonomous in Dec 2019, having started his career at UBS in 2003. There, he spent the last 12 years in credit sales covering Northern European across the UK, Netherlands and Nordic region.

David Kubale

Credit Research Sales

David joined Autonomous in 2019 to lead Credit Research Sales. David joined from Reorg Research and prior to that spent ten years at CreditSights latterly the last five as Head of Sales - EMEA & APAC working with clients globally from both the sell-side and buy-side. David’s experience is across the credit spectrum from deeply distressed/stressed up through High Yield and Investment Grade.

Corinne Cunningham

Head of Credit Research

Prior to joining Autonomous at its launch in 2009, Corinne headed the financials fixed income research team at RBS. Prior to joining RBS in 2001, Corinne led a team of insurance analysts at the rating agency Standard & Poor's where she worked for 6 years. Corinne started her career in branch banking at NatWest on a graduate programme which soon specialised on credit and the financial sector. Corinne has a first class honours degree from the Guildhall University and holds the ACIB banking qualification.

Ronan Clarke

Head of High Yield Research

Ronan joined Bernstein Autonomous in 2021 and covers companies in the consumer retail sectors. He has over 20 years of experience in sell-side high yield research, most recently for 12 years at Deutsche Bank. Ronan studied economics at Trinity College Dublin and is a CFA charterholder.

Daniel David

Banks Credit Analyst

Dan joined Autonomous in 2019 and covers banks credit. Before joining Autonomous, Dan spent seven years with Barclays, in their Treasury department working in finance and capital markets execution. Dan is a Chartered Accountant and holds a first class master’s degree in Chemistry from Southampton University.

Christian Aust

High Yield, Senior Analyst

Christian joined Bernstein Autonomous in 2021 with a focus on high yield bond issuers from various industrial sectors. Prior to joining Bernstein Autonomous, Christian was head of corporate credit research at UniCredit where he worked for 13 years in senior equity and credit research roles in Munich and London. He started his career covering German automotive suppliers at LBBW in 2006. Christian is a CFA charterholder and holds a double degree (BBA) from DHBW Karlsruhe and the UK’s Open University.

Pooma Kimis

Head of Access and Global Thematic Lead

Pooma joined Autonomous in 2019, after almost a decade of building and leading a global macro think tank focused on central banks, sovereign funds and public pension plans. Pooma started her career in private equity focused on investments along the Silk Road, before going into investment banking focused on real estate finance. She is an UCL alumna and holds a postgraduate diploma in Law.

Rachel Griffin

Corporate Marketing Execution Manager

Rachel has been with Autonomous since the company’s beginnings in 2009, initially as office manager before moving to corporate access full time. Prior to joining Autonomous, Rachel spent 10 years at Citi as a research assistant working with the insurance team which would go on to co-found Autonomous. Rachel started her career in 1994 at a small stock brokers in New York, followed by three years at Tate & Lyle supporting the FD.

Andrew Sofia

Event Planner, Investor Access

Andrew joined Autonomous in March 2022 as part of the Corporate Access team. Prior to Autonomous, he worked in corporate event planning as well as live event streaming. He has a BS degree in Hospitality Management from Widener University.

Hayley Houghton

Research Marketing Manager

Prior to joining Autonomous in Jan 2016, Hayley worked at CPPIB in the Fundamental Equities team. Before joining CPPIB Hayley worked at Nomura for five years in the Fixed Income FX Business Management Team. Hayley graduated with honors from the University of Chester with a degree in Biological Sciences.

Charlene Chu

China Macrofinancial, Senior Analyst

Charlene is considered one of the leading experts on shadow finance in China and on the interlinkages between China’s monetary and fiscal policy and the country’s sprawling financial system. Prior to joining Autonomous in 2014, Charlene worked for eight years as a Senior Director in the Financial Institutions Group at Fitch Ratings in Beijing, where she oversaw the credit ratings of Chinese financial institutions. Before joining Fitch Ratings, Charlene served as a Senior Analyst in the Emerging Markets & International Affairs group at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, where she focused on financial sector reform and monetary policy development in China and other Asian countries. Charlene holds both an MBA and an MA in International Relations from Yale University. She is an elected member of the US Conference of Business Economists.

Chen Huang

China Macrofinancial Analyst

Chen joined Autonomous in September 2014. Prior to that, she worked at CLSA for 6.5 years, mainly covering China banks/non-bank financials. Before her equity research career, Chen worked at PricewaterhouseCoopers Beijing as an auditor for 3 years and briefly spent time in Caijing Magazine as a reporter. She received her Bachelor degree in Economics from University of International Business and Economics (UIBE) in China and Master in Public Administration (MPA) from Maxwell School of Syracuse University in the US.

Alastair Warr

China Macrofinancial, Senior Analyst

Alastair joined Autonomous for its Asia launch. Prior to that he was in Asian regional equity sales for four years with CIMB and RBS. Before moving into sales he was an analyst at Cazenove Asia for ten years, covering banks for seven of those and China consumer stocks for three, finishing up as Deputy Head of Research. Alastair holds a first class degree in Chinese from Oxford University.

Fan Zhang

China Macrofinancial Analyst

Fan Zhang is a senior China macro-financial research analyst. He has over 10 years working experience in macroeconomic research. Prior to joining the company in Aug 2017, he was a senior China economist in both RHB and CIMB, covering economics, fixed income and local rates in Greater China between 2014 and 2017. Before joining CIMB, he worked for UOB Kay Hian between 2009 and 2014, as head of China economic research. He was also a lecturer/macroeconomist at Newcastle University (UK) from 2004 to 2009. He was ranked 11th and 13th best China Economist in Asiamoney Brokers Poll 2014 and 2016. Fan holds a Master's degree in Financial Economics from Nottingham University (UK) and is taking a doctorate in Economics at Newcastle University (UK).

Yundi Zhang

China Macrofinancial Analyst

Yundi joined Autonomous in 2014 and has been analysing China macro-financial developments since then. Prior to joining Autonomous, Yundi was an Associate Analyst in the Financial Institutions Group at Fitch Ratings in Beijing, where he has been analysing Chinese financial institutions. Yundi has an MS in Finance from Goldey-Beacom College and an MPA from University of Baltimore.