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 covers UK banks, and is a founding partner of Autonomous. Before joining 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

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 & German Banks

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.

Betty Sanchez Torres

Spanish & German Banks

After spending three years in the Exane BNP Paribas Banks team, Betty joined Autonomous in 2019 to cover Spanish & German banks. Prior to that, Betty worked in Private Equity at Société Générale CIB and in both sell-side and buy-side equity research at HSBC, Rothschild and Morgan Stanley. Betty holds a Master’s degree in Finance from Reims Management School.

Stefan Stalmann

Swiss & French Banks

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.

Christopher Cant

UK & Irish Banks

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

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

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

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

Banks & Insurance 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 Research

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

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

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.

Youdish Chicooree

Insurance

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

UK Banks

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

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

French & Swiss Banks, Greek Banks

Angeliki joined Autonomous in 2015 and covers the French, Swiss and Greek banks. 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.

Brian Foran

US Regional Banks

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.

Craig Maurer

Payments & Financial Technology

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

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.

Matthew Coad

US Asset Managers & Capital Markets

Matt joined Autonomous in 2016 and has covered companies across the Asset Management, Capital Markets, and Insurance sectors. Prior to that, he was an equity research associate at Citi and a portfolio management associate for a small family office. He graduated from Canisius College with degrees in Accounting and Finance and is a CFA charterholder.

Daniel Staff

US Banks

Danny joined Autonomous in 2013 and has previously covered the US banking and auto lending sectors. He has a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of Richmond and is a CFA Charterholder.

Geoffrey Elliott

GEM Financials

Geoffrey Elliott joined our US Research team in 2014, having previously covered Central & Eastern European banks for Autonomous from our London office. Prior to joining the firm in 2009, Geoffrey 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

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

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 Banks/Large Cap

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

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

Speciality Financials

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

Payments & Financial Technology

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.

Donald Betson

European Sales Trading

Don has been at Autonomous on the sales trading desk since May 2011, having previously worked on the pan-European equity desk at Bear Stearns, before a short period at Keefe, Bruyette and Woods and 2 years with an options market-maker. Don went to University in Bath & Warwick.

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.

Erickson Davis

CEO

Prior to joining Autonomous in 2012, Erick worked in equity research and institutional sales at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods (KBW) in the firm’s New York, San Francisco and Boston offices. He was appointed Deputy CEO of Autonomous in early 2016 and succeeded Stuart Graham as CEO in June 2017. Erick earned a BA in Economics and International Relations from Bucknell University and an MBA from St. John's University.

DJ Beil

Financials Specialist Sales

Prior to joining Autonomous, DJ spent four years at Jefferies in equity sales as a specialist responsible for covering financials. Prior to that he spent three years at Bank of America in equity derivative sales with responsibility for covering accounts and writing derivative and cross capital structure strategy notes. DJ is an Undergrad: United States Military Academy (1998) and attended Business School: NYU Stern (2005).

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.

Matteo Gallo

Financials Specialist Sales

Matteo joined Autonomous in 2012. Prior to joining he spent 11 years at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods in New York where he was primarily responsible for coverage of European institutions wishing to trade US stocks. Prior to that he spent two years at Goldman Sachs both in London and New York. Matteo holds a BSBA from Georgetown University's Mcdonough School of Business.

Tony Nash

Global Electronic Trading

Tony joined Autonomous in 2015 to build the global electronic trading business. Prior to joining he was head of execution services at Execution Noble which he had held for 5 years. Before joining Execution Noble, Tony was head of European portfolio and electronic trading at Lehman Brothers and head of European portfolio trading at Deutsche Bank. Tony holds a Joint Honours degree in Mathematics and Statistics and was awarded the Sampford prize for Mathematics from Liverpool University.

Chris Roberts

Specialist Sales

Chris joined Autonomous in 2015, joining from Barclays. At Barclays he spent three years on the insurance equity research team, before joining the sales desk there. Prior to joining Barclays, he spent three years at PwC, where he audited financial services groups and during which time he became a Chartered Accountant, as well as becoming a CFA charterholder. He received a BSc (Hons) in Economics from Warwick University.

Maeshal Abid

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

Subscription Sales

Amy joined Autonomous in Nov 2016 after a City career break to raise a family, recruited to head up and manage the launch of European pay-as-you subscription initiative. Her career previously spanned some 13 years as a top rated specialist sales in Electronics & Electrical Equipment, Telecom and Software & Services at HSBC, UBS and CS marketing Pan-European stocks to a Global client base.

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

Global Emerging Market 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.

John Desgranges

Financials Specialist Sales

John joined Autonomous in April 2015 to help set up European Sales out of New York enabling US investors to access the European product. Prior to joining, he spent seven years in Barclays Investor Relations after graduating from the University of Bath as a Master of Mathematics. He is a qualified Chartered Accountant (ACA).

Barry O'Connell

Head of European Credit Trading

Barry O'Connell joined Autonomous in 2012 to set up the credit trading desk. Prior to Autonomous, Barry started his career with Merrill Lynch in 1999 after completing his MA in Business and Economics from Trinity College Dublin and having studied Quantitative Finance at UCD. At Merrill Lynch Barry traded a variety of credit instruments. From 2009 Barry was one of three founding partners at Sonas Partners, a London based Agency brokerage. In addition Barry has worked as a consultant with Vega Asset Management in Spain and RoseGrove Capital in Boston.

Michael Burton

Credit Sales and Trading

Michael joined Autonomous in October 2013 and has 20 years of fixed income trading experience. Prior to Autonomous, he spent 8 years at HSBC where he was head of European Financials credit trading and deputy head of credit trading and has been focussed on financials credit since 1999. Previously he held prop trading roles at Daiwa and Tokyo-Mitsubishi.

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.

Jonathan Firkins

CFO

Prior to joining Autonomous, Jonathan was an equity research analyst at investment banks including UBS and Cazenove. He began his career as a chartered accountant where he specialised in auditing financial services companies, both in the banking and insurance sectors. Jonathan holds an MEng in Mechanical Engineering from Nottingham.

Olesia Rasiuk

Corporate Marketing

Olesia joined Autonomous in 2016 and has been working in Corporate Access for over two years now. She graduated from the Institute of International Relations at Taras Shevchenko National University in Kiev, with a Master’s degree in Finance.

Samantha Guthrie

Compliance Officer

Samantha (Sam) has been a Compliance professional for over two decades. The majority of her early Compliance career was spent over a ten year period with Merrill Lynch. Sam has also worked at Goldman Sachs, Fox-Pitt, Kelton (FPK) and Execution Noble Limited. Sam held the position of registered Compliance Officer at both Fox-Pitt, Kelton and Execution Noble Limited as well as a Board member at FPK. Most recently she provided compliance consultancy services to multiple clients before joining Autonomous as Compliance Officer/MLRO in January 2015.

Pooma Kimis

Head of European Corporate Marketing

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.

Ginny Woods

Corporate Marketing

Ginny has run US corporate access at Autonomous since 2015. Before that, she was an Asian equity sales specialist at Credit Suisse. She also worked as a hedge fund analyst. Ginny started her career as a journalist and spent 9 years in Tokyo and Beijing working as a foreign correspondent for the Associated Press, TIME and the Wall Street Journal. She has a BA from Princeton University in East Asian Studies and an MFA from Johns Hopkins University in Creative Writing.

Lex Sokolin

Global Director - Fintech Strategy

Lex Sokolin (@lexsokolin) is a futurist and entrepreneur focused on the next generation of financial services. He currently directs Fintech Strategy at Autonomous. Previously, he led product design and corporate development as COO at Vanare, a wealth management platform built on roboadvisor DNA. He was founder and CEO of NestEgg, a roboadvisor that pioneered online wealth management in partnership with financial advisors, and holds a JD/MBA from Columbia University. Lex is a contributor of thought leadership to CNBC, Techonomy, ThinkAdvisor, Investment News, and RIABiz, was named to the InvestmentNews “40 under 40” list of industry leaders and is one of ThinkAdvisor’s IA25 influencers.

Charlene Chu

China Macrofinancial

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, and published research on macro-financial developments in China. 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 a MA in International Relations from Yale University.

Chen Huang

China Macrofinancial

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 & GEM Financials Specialist Sales

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

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

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.

Jian Li

China Insurance

Jian joined Autonomous in May 2015 after having worked in the equity research team at Macquarie for 4.5 years, covering China insurance and broker stocks. Before moving to sell side industry in 2010, Jian spent 5 years at Standard & Poor's Beijing where he was responsible for credit ratings of insurance companies in mainland China and Hong Kong. Jian started his career at China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC) in 2002. Jian is a CFA charterholder. Jian received his Ph.D, MA, and BA degrees in economics and finance from Renmin University of China.