Fixed Income Team

Christine Hurtsellers, CFA

Christine Hurtsellers is Chief Investment Officer of Fixed Income at ING U.S. Investment Management, leading a team of more than 100 investment professionals with over $126 billion in fixed income assets under management. She is a member of the ING Global Investment Leadership Team and board member of Pomona Capital. Before assuming the leadership of Fixed Income and Proprietary Investments, Christine was head of Structured Finance from 2005–08. Her mortgage-backed securities team was responsible for the highly successful track record of ING's proprietary mortgage derivatives portfolios, and she directed portfolio and sector strategy across fixed income asset classes. Prior to joining ING U.S. Investment Management in 2004, Christine developed extensive mortgage portfolio management experience, most notably at the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (“Freddie Mac”), where she led the agency guaranteed retained portfolio team with $650 billion in assets under management. Prior to that role, Christine managed multiple products for Freddie Mac, including mortgage derivatives, adjustable rate mortgages and collateralized mortgage obligations (CMOs); Christine was a key member of the Group that pioneered multiple strategies that today are the market standard, including the use of specified collateral in CMO deals, and the pooling of moderate and high loan balance specified pass-throughs, and the issuance of Reference REMICs. Prior to Freddie Mac, she was a portfolio manager responsible for mortgages and structured products at Alliance Capital Management and Banc One, and a client consultant at Pentalpha Capital group. Christine is on the Board of Councilors for the Carter Center and served on the advisory board for the nationally recognized Kennesaw University Collegiate Recovery Program. Christine earned a B.A. in finance (with high honors) from Indiana University Kelley School of Business and holds the Chartered Financial Analyst® designation.

Jonathan Abshire, CFA

Jonathan Abshire is a Portfolio Manager on the Non-Agency RMBS and ABS Securities Team, focusing on European ABS. Jonathan began his career with ING for the Structured Finance group working on the non-agency RMBS and Credit Card ABS portfolios. After 5 years of working at ING U.S. Investment Management Atlanta, Jonathan was selected for a four year expatriate assignment with the ING European ABS team in The Netherlands. While in Europe, he oversaw a €9 Billion structured finance portfolio with an emphasis on UK RMBS, Credit Cards, European CMBS, Irish RMBS, Australian RMBS, and Dutch RMBS. Jonathan rejoined the Atlanta team in January 2012 to expand the global capabilities of the group. Prior to joining ING, Jonathan worked as an intern for Merrill Lynch and UBS. He received his B.B.A with a concentration in finance from the Goizueta Business School at Emory University and holds the Chartered Financial Analyst® designation.

Tanweer Akram, Ph.D.

Tanweer Akram is vice president and senior economist in the Quantitative Research department of ING U.S. Investment Management. He conducts research on macroeconomic developments in the U.S. and other major advanced economies. Prior to joining ING in September 2006, he worked for Moody’s Economy.com where he was a senior economist responsible for analysis of global macroeconomic developments and foreign direct investment and trade issues. In addition, he covered the international steel industry and the Alaska, Hawaii, and U.S. Virgin Islands economies. He had earlier also worked for the Investment Climate Department of the World Bank, A.T. Kearney’s Global Business Policy Council, and the Asia Department of the International Monetary Fund. He was a Visiting Research Fellow at the Centre for Policy Dialogue in Bangladesh and has taught at Barnard College and Columbia University in the United States. His research papers and reviews have been published in various peer-review journals, including Applied Economics, Applied Economics Letters, Bangladesh Development Studies, Global Journal of Economics and Finance, Journal of Asian Business, Journal of Bangladesh Studies, Journal of Emerging Markets, Journal of Third World Studies, Kyklos, Savings and Development, and Third World Quarterly. Tanweer received his B.A. in economics from Grinnell College, Iowa, his Masters’ degree in economics from the London School of Economics in the U.K., and his Ph.D. in economics from Columbia University in New York.

Cliff Andrus, CFA

Cliff Andrus is an Assistant Portfolio Manager, focusing on the management of investment grade and structured credit products across multiple client mandates. His responsibilities include portfolio construction, security selection, relative value, and credit monitoring. Prior to joining ING in 2006, he was a pension actuary with Watson Wyatt Worldwide in Chicago. Cliff received a Bachelor’s Degree in engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a Master’s Degree in Quantitative & Computational Finance from the Georgia Institute of Technology. Cliff holds the Chartered Financial Analyst® designation.

Sean Banai, CFA

Sean Banai is Head of Portfolio Management for the Fixed Income platform at ING U.S. Investment Management. Prior to his current role, Sean was a Senior Portfolio Manager and before that Head of Quantitative Research for Proprietary Fixed Income. Prior to joining ING Investment Management in 1999, he was a partner in Private Sector. Sean received a B.A. and M.S in actuarial science from Georgia State University and holds the Chartered Financial Analyst® designation.

Todd Bates, CFA

Todd Bates is a Portfolio Manager for ING U.S. Investment Management. He is part of the Money Market team responsible for all of the ING Money Market Funds and several cash management accounts. Prior to joining ING U.S. Investment Management, he was associate director for taxable money market research at Evergreen Institutional Asset Management. He has also held analyst positions with Mariner Post-Acute Network, Inc. and ABN AMRO Bank. Todd received his B.A. in political science from Duke University. He holds the Chartered Financial Analyst® designation.

Jason Blake

Jason Blake is an analyst focusing on risk systems integration and fixed income risk analytics. Prior to his current position Jason worked with the mortgage backed securities/collateralized mortgage obligations team. Jason received his M.B.A. from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Jeremy Brockman

Jeremy Brockman is an Assistant Portfolio Manager, responsible for credit monitoring and analysis for the commercial mortgage-backed securities team. Prior to his current role, Jeremy was responsible for official performance and attribution for the fixed-income general account. Before joining ING Investment Management in June 2012, Jeremy worked at United Parcel Service where he was responsible for Analytics and Investor Relations preparation for Global Forwarding. Jeremy received a B.A. in Economics and Spanish summa cum laude from The University of Georgia and an M.B.A. from Emory University’s Goizueta School of Business.

Paul Buren

Paul Buren is an Assistant Portfolio Manager for ING U.S. Investment Management. He is responsible for assisting in the implementation of the overall portfolio construction of the fixed income stable value strategy. Previous to his current role, Paul was the head of the DIG Analytics team for External Client Fixed Income. Prior to joining ING U.S. Investment Management in 2006, he was a Sr. Client Representative with Wilshire Associates. Paul received a B.A. in computer science from Rutgers University and an M.B.A in finance from Emory University.

Rachael Camargo

Rachael Camargo is a Vice President and Senior Portfolio Specialist for ING U.S. Investment Management. Embedded within the fixed income investment team, she is responsible for driving asset growth and retention activities, across distribution channels, for the firm’s fixed income strategies. In previous roles, Rachael served as a lead portfolio specialist, managing business and commercial aspects of the firm’s multi-asset and fundamental equity teams. Her experience also extends to closed-end funds from conception through launch. Prior to joining ING, Rachael worked at Grey Global Group and Wechsler Ross & Partners. She received a BFA from Carnegie Mellon University and an MBA from New York University’s Stern School of Business. She holds FINRA Series 7 and 66 licenses.

Rao Casturi

Rao Casturi is a Vice President in Risk Management for ING U.S. Investment Management. He is responsible for corporate credit reporting and consolidation for the internal risk reporting. Prior to joining ING U.S. Investment Management in September of 2006, he was with the GE Asset Management where he worked on portfolio management and structured products reporting as a fixed income application architect. Rao received his M.S. in computer science from the Tula State University, Tula, Russia and B.E in Electronics and Communications from Andhra University, AP, India.

Derek Chen, Ph.D.

Derek Chen joined ING U.S. Investment Management as a Senior Portfolio Manager in May 2012. Previously, he was at Barclays Capital, where he was a Director in the Agency MBS Strategy team and was voted #2 in MBS/Prepayment by Institutional Investor’s Poll for All America Fixed Income Research Team in 2009, 2010 and 2011. Prior to that, he held positions at Bank of America. Derek received two undergraduate degrees from China's Xi’an Jiaotong University and a M.S. and Ph.D. in Industrial and Systems Engineering from the University of Florida.

Richard Cumberledge, CFA

Rick Cumberledge is a Senior Portfolio Manager at ING U.S. Investment Management. Prior to joining ING, Rick spent nearly six years working at Federated Investors as a senior high yield credit analyst. Previous experience includes positions with American Capital Strategies, Bank of America and Allied Capital. Rick has a MSc. in finance from The George Washington University and a B.A. in Business Administration from Westminster College. He holds the Chartered Financial Analyst® designation.

Clay Curry, CFA

Clay Curry is a Senior Credit Analyst for ING U.S. Investment Management. He is a member of the high yield fixed income team, responsible for covering the media, cable and satellite, and telecom sectors. Prior to joining ING U.S. Investment Management in 2012, he was a research analyst with 40|86 Advisors covering high yield, investment grade, and leveraged loan securities. He was lead analyst with Valhalla Capital Partners, and a fixed income analyst for Morgan Asset Management. Clay received his B.A in English Literature from Centre College, Danville, KY, and his M.B.A. from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Clay holds the Chartered Financial Analyst® designation.

Ralph Divino

Ralph Divino is a Fixed Income Client Portfolio Manager at ING U.S. Investment Management and Head of the Fixed Income Client Portfolio Management Team. Prior to his current role, Ralph was Head of Discretionary Product Investment Management at UBS Wealth Management and also served as a Senior Fixed Income Portfolio Specialist at BlackRock and UBS Global Asset Management. Prior to this, Ralph was a portfolio specialist at Deutsche Asset Management, where he held responsibility for quantitative investment products. Ralph began his career in fixed income trading and sales at Bankers Trust/Deutsche Bank. Ralph holds an M.B.A. and a B.S. (cum laude) from New York University’s Stern School of Business.

Colin Dugas, CFA

Colin Dugas is a portfolio manager on the commercial mortgage-backed securities team focusing on portfolio management and security selection, as well as credit monitoring and analysis. He received his B.S. in management from the Georgia Institute of Technology. He also holds the Chartered Financial Analyst® designation.

Jeff Dutra, CFA

Jeff Dutra is Senior Portfolio Manager for ING U.S. Investment Management, primarily responsible for the mortgage-backed securities/collateralized mortgage obligation portfolios. Prior to this he ran the operations and accounting groups at ING responsible for financial derivatives and mortgage derivatives. Jeff received a B.A. in mathematics from the University of South Florida, a M.B.A. from the University of Tampa and holds the Chartered Financial Analyst® designation.

John R. Edwards

John Edwards is a portfolio manager on the commercial mortgage-backed securities team focusing on portfolio management and security selection, as well as credit monitoring and analysis. Prior to joining the CMBS team, John worked in ING’s real estate whole loan group in numerous positions including production, risk management, problem loan restructure, and real estate equities management. He holds a B.S. in Finance and Real Estate from Florida State University and an M.B.A. from Georgia State University.

A. Banu Asik Elizondo

A. Banu Asik Elizondo joined ING U.S. Investment Management’s Emerging Markets team as a portfolio manager in October of 2011. Prior to that, she was the senior credit analyst covering infrastructure investments (telecom, cable& satellite, utilities and media) for the investment engine’s high yield team for over four years. Before joining ING U.S. IM, Banu was a sell-side credit analyst with Wachovia Securities (now a Wells Fargo Company). In that role, Banu covered the same infrastructure sectors (telecom, cable & satellite, and media) across the entire credit spectrum (both high yield and investment grade) from 2003 to 2007. Banu acquired a Bachelor of Science in Economics from Duke University in 2003. She is fluent in Turkish, French, English and proficient in Italian.

Scott A. Frost, CFA

Scott Frost is a Senior Credit Analyst for ING U.S. Investment Management. He is a member of the high yield fixed income research team, covering the gaming, lodging, health care, homebuilding, and building materials sectors. Prior to joining ING, he was a sell side high yield analyst at PNC Capital Markets. Scott received a B.S. in business administration from Bowling Green State University with honors and M.S.I.A. from Carnegie Mellon University. He holds the Chartered Financial Analyst® designation.

Aaron Glenn

Aaron Glenn is a Fixed Income Portfolio Specialist for ING U.S. Investment Management. Prior to joining ING, Aaron spent five years with Morgan Stanley as part of an Atlanta-based Private Wealth Advisor team. There, he worked directly with high net worth, endowment, and corporate clients in helping manage discretionary and non-discretionary fixed income portfolios and in conducting ongoing client services activities. Aaron holds a B.A. degree from Vanderbilt University and holds FINRA Series 7, 66 and 31 securities registrations.

Dave Goodson

Dave Goodson is the Senior Portfolio Manager for ING U.S. Investment Management’s non-agency mortgage and ABS investment portfolios. Prior to joining ING U.S. Investment Management, he was a principal at an independent investment bank focused on asset-back commercial paper transactions. Dave also worked as a vice president in Wachovia Securities’ asset backed finance group marketing and executing securitizations for the bank’s corporate clients. He received his B.A. in management from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Ed Groote, CFA

Ed Groote joined ING U.S. Investment Management in 1995 and joined Structured Products in January 2004. Prior to joining the team, Ed worked with various departments on Portfolio Management, Asset Valuation, Analytics, Accounting and Information Technology issues. Ed received a B.A. in economics from the University of Northern Iowa and holds the Chartered Financial Analyst® designation.

Peter Guan, Ph.D.

Peter Guan is a Senior Portfolio Manager, and Head of Mortgage Derivatives Group, which manages a $5 billion mortgage derivative book for ING as well as external clients. Before joining ING U.S. Investment Management in 2004 Peter worked at Citi Alternative Investment group where he managed a portfolio of mortgage products while designing a platform and strategy for a mortgage hedge fund. Prior to Citi he worked at the Clinton Group, a New York-based hedge fund, involved in research, trading and portfolio management, including mortgage derivatives and other mortgage products. Peter earned a B.A. in Mathematics at Ocean University of China, a M.S. in Computational Finance at Carnegie Mellon University and a Ph.D. in Mathematics at the University of South Florida.

Ken Haim

After a brief stint at Drexel Burnham Lambert developing applications for the mortgage trading desk, Ken went to Bloomberg Financial Markets where he developed the CMO cash flow engine which drives the analytics for the industry standard CMO application. In 1993, Ken left Bloomberg to join Salomon Brothers, an industry leader in the MBS market. After spending a year rewriting their CMO software, he joined the CMO trading desk. From 1994 to 2003, he structured new issue agency CMOs and traded secondary flow. In 2003, he left to start an Agency CMO trading desk at Countrywide Securities. His many years on the sell side have led to deep sell side and buy side relationships and a keen understanding of what drives the MBS markets. In 2008, Ken joined the MBS derivative group at ING IM as a senior portfolio manager, adding sell side acumen to a very strong quantitative group. At ING IM, Ken manages the daily trading activity. In addition, he has developed various portfolio risk management tools. Ken has a B.A. in math from Wesleyan University and an M.B.A from the Wharton School of Business.

Albert E. Hancock III

Bud Hancock is Head of Stable Value and Senior Client Portfolio Manager for ING U.S. Investment Management. Prior to his current role, Bud was head of product development at Aeltus Investment Management. Before joining ING in 1997, he was head of fixed income at Banque Indosuez/Credit Agricole. Earlier, he was with Westdeutsche Landesbank with various capital market responsibilities in New York and Duesselforf. He began his career in the international division of Manufacturers Hanover Trust. Bud received a B.A. in economics from the University of Vermont and an M.B.A. from the American Graduate School of International Management.

Andrew H. Higley, CFA

Andrew Higley is the Head of Derivatives & Liquid Trading, responsible for a team that hedges insurance company risk, in rates, equity, and foreign exchange. The team manages both quantitative hedging disciplines and overlay portfolios, executes the replicating transactions that build annuity products, and performs an advisory function within the company for derivatives and hedging. The team also hedges the rate risk of external client portfolios, and is the asset manager for Agency securities. Andrew was also a member of the risk-taking team for a proprietary fund. Prior to joining ING U.S. Investment Management in 2006, he was with the Federal Home Loan (FHL) Bank of Atlanta where he hedged its book of structured loans to member banks, intermediating duration, convexity, and volatility risk transfer between the banking system and rate derivative market. Before FHL Bank he worked in the Technologies Division of America Online, Inc., for three years in applied statistics and operations research. Andrew completed the pre-medical curriculum in hard sciences at the University of Virginia, and earned an M.A. in econometrics from Harvard University. Andrew holds the Chartered Financial Analyst® designation.

Peter-Paul Hoogbruin, FRM

Peter-Paul Hoogbruin is responsible for the credit risk management of Fixed Income and Proprietary Investments. Prior to joining ING U.S. Investment Management in 2007, he was risk integration manager at ING Group Risk Integration and Analytics in Amsterdam. Earlier in his career, he was manager of the credit risk measurement department of ING Group Corporate Credit Risk Management, after working for the portfolio management department of group credit risk management at Deutsche Bank in Frankfurt. He started his career at the controllers department of ING Bank International. Peter-Paul received his Master’s Degree in econometrics and operations research from the Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands. He holds the Financial Risk Manager designation.

Aprille Johnson

Aprille Johnson is a Portfolio Manager with ING U.S. Investment Management. Prior to assuming her current responsibilities, she was head of U.S. equity trading. Before joining ING U.S. Investment Management in 1998, Aprille was with CIBC and Kidder Peabody. She received a B.A. in chemical engineering technology from Trident College.

Bob Kase, CFA

Bob Kase is a Senior Portfolio Manager. Prior to this role he was the co-lead portfolio manager for Proprietary Investments Investment Grade credit. Before joining ING U.S. Investment Management in 2007, he managed corporate, ABS, and CMBS for SunTrust Bank. He began his career as a senior portfolio manager at CL Capital Management, followed by a stint as a senior portfolio manager for American General. Bob received a B.S. from Georgia Tech and an M.B.A. from Georgia State University. He holds the Chartered Financial Analyst® designation.

Anil Katarya, CFA

Anil Katarya is a Senior Portfolio Manager with ING U.S. Investment Management’s investment grade team. He is responsible for managing the Credit allocation for ING’s external client business across multi-sector and credit portfolios. Prior to joining ING in 2000, Anil was a financial analyst for Mirant Inc. He received a B.S. in mechanical engineering from Kurukshetra University, India and an M.B.A. from Georgia State University. He holds the Chartered Financial Analyst® designation.

Travis King, CFA

Travis King is a Senior Portfolio Manager for ING U.S. Investment Management’s investment grade corporate team. Prior to joining ING U.S. Investment Management in 2005, he was a senior fixed income analyst with Reams Asset Management. Travis received his B.B.A. from James Madison University and M.B.A. from Memorial University. He also holds the Chartered Financial Analyst® designation.

Lauren Kircher

Lauren Kircher is a Fixed Income Assistant Portfolio Specialist for ING U.S. Investment Management, with 2 years of investment experience. She has held previous roles in the Operations department at ING, including Portfolio Management Assistant in Middle Office specializing in Mortgage Backed Securities and TBAs. Prior to joining ING in 2011, she was a Consultant with First Pro, Inc. Lauren graduated summa cum laude from Georgia Tech with a B.S. in International Affairs.

Nikhil Killamsetti

Nikhil Killamsetti is a Quantitative Analyst on the Mortgage Derivatives Team. He is responsible for developing various trading tools and helping the team with the daily trading activity. Prior to joining ING, he worked at Oracle India Pvt. Ltd for three years developing various software applications. Nikhil received his bachelor’s degree in Electronics and Communications Engineering from National Institute of Technology, Warangal, India and in December 2012, he received his master’s degree in Computational Finance from Carnegie Mellon’s Tepper School of Business.

Michael Kotzan, CFA

Michael Kotzan joined ING U.S. Investment Management as Assistant Vice President in Risk Management in March 2011, where he is working on investment risk for external accounts, concentrating on multi-strategy fixed income. Michael has extensive background in a variety of markets and asset classes, with a focus on fixed income derivatives. Prior to joining ING, Michael was most recently responsible for development of the market risk management platform for Regions Morgan Keegan, focused on Capital Markets and the broker dealer. He has also worked at Invesco in portfolio construction and implementation for tactical asset allocation overlay strategies via several fund vehicles and separate accounts. Michael received a B.S. in Mathematical Economics from Wake Forest University, and an M.B.A. from Emory University. He holds the Chartered Financial Analyst® designation.

Corinne Krincek, CFA

Corinne Krincek is a Credit Analyst for ING U.S. Investment Management. She follows the telecom, media, and technology sectors. Prior to joining ING U.S. Investment Management in 2006, she held various positions at Moody’s Investors Service, covering the telecommunication sector and conducting market research for syndicated loan ratings. Her experience also includes three years at Mizuho in the Syndication Department supporting trading activity and coordinating credit derivative transactions. Corinne began her career as an economist at Bureau of Economic Analysis in the U.S. Department of Commerce. Corinne received a B.S. in economics from the University of Pennsylvania and a Masters of International Business from the University of South Carolina. She holds the Chartered Financial Analyst® designation.

Kurt Kringelis, CFA, CPA, J.D.

Kurt Kringelis is the firm’s Senior Credit Strategist and a Senior Portfolio Manager with ING U.S. Investment Management. Kurt’s previous roles with the firm include Senior Portfolio Manager positions within the investment grade and high yield credit teams. Prior to joining ING U.S. Investment Management, Kurt was an Associate Portfolio Manager with the high yield group at Equitable Investment Services. He received his B.S. degree in finance, M.B.A., and Juris Doctor from the University of Illinois. Kurt is a Certified Public Accountant and holds the Chartered Financial Analyst® designation.

Naveen Kunam

Naveen Kunam is a Portfolio Manager on the ING IM Global Emerging Markets Debt Team. Naveen has over eight years of experience working in Fixed Income, Emerging Markets Research and Trading. He joined the EMD group in 2010 as a Portfolio Manager based in Hong Kong, and was responsible for managing the Asian debt portfolios. Naveen relocated to Atlanta in August 2011 and focuses on investing in Global Emerging Markets Debt. Prior to joining ING IM, he worked as a Vice President in Santander Investment Securities Inc. New York covering Latin America Fixed Income and Currencies. Previously Naveen held roles as a Fixed Income Research Analyst in Oppenheimer Funds Inc. in New York and as a Consultant in FreddieMac, McLean, VA. Naveen holds a Bachelors degree in Computer Science Engineering from S.V. University, India and a Masters degree in Computational Finance from Oregon Graduate Institute of Science and Technology, USA.

Jake Lowery, CFA

Jake Lowery is a Portfolio Manager on the Global Rates team, focusing on the management of global sovereign debt and derivative positions for ING U.S. Investment Management’s institutional, mutual fund, and proprietary portfolios. His previous work with ING U.S. IM includes time spent as a Portfolio Manager for Non-Agency RMBS and ABS securities and as an analyst focusing on Investment Grade Credit. Jake earned a B.A. in Economics with Honors from Vanderbilt University and holds the Chartered Financial Analyst® designation.

Jun Ma, CFA

Jun Ma is a Senior Associate for ING U.S. Investment Management. He is responsible for Fixed-Income portfolio Market Risk and Credit Risk analysis. Jun began his career with China Harbor Engineering Co. where he was a futures floor trader at Beijing Commodity Exchange. He received his B.A. from Fudan University (Shanghai, China) and an M.B.A. from Emory University. Jun holds the Chartered Financial Analyst® designation.

Raj Makhija

Raj Makhija is a Portfolio Manager for ING U.S. Investment Management. Prior to his role as a Portfolio Manager, he was a Quantitative Analyst responsible for the development of proprietary relative value trading tools for corporates and structured credit products. Before joining ING U.S. Investment Management, Raj was a market risk analyst for SunTrust Capital Markets Inc. Raj received a B.Eng. in computer engineering from the University of Bombay, India and a M.S. in quantitative and computational finance from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Wes Mannan, CFA

Wes Mannan is a Senior Credit Analyst for ING U.S. Investment Management’s Investment Grade Credit team with 9 years of finance and investment experience. His coverage responsibilities at ING include U.S. insurers and European and Japanese banks. Prior to joining ING, Wes was a senior analyst with PIMCO in Newport Beach with a primary focus on U.S. and European Banks. Previously, he worked in the Financial Institution Supervision Group of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York covering large U.S. banks, and the Department of Treasury as an analyst covering regional banks. Wes began his career as a portfolio analyst with Lincoln National. He received an M.B.A with a concentration in finance and accounting from Loyola University in Maryland and a B.S. in Finance from the University of Maryland. He holds the Chartered Financial Analyst® designation.

Michael A. Mata

Michael Mata is Head of Global Rates which includes our U.S. core, core plus and global bond strategies. Michael is also a senior portfolio manager for our U.S.-based global bond strategies. Prior to this position he was the Head of Quantitative Research and Portfolio Analytics for the ING U.S. Investment Management fixed income group, responsible for the design and development of quantitative models and their application in the portfolio construction process. He joined ING U.S. Investment Management in 2004 from Putnam Investments, where he was the senior risk manager for fixed income portfolios. His previous experience includes risk management for fixed income derivative and bond arbitrage trading at Lehman Brothers. Michael received a B.S. in finance from Florida International University and an M.B.A. from DePaul University.

Tim McCrady, CFA

Tim McCrady is a Portfolio Manager for ING U.S. Investment Management. Since joining ING U.S. Investment Management in 1998, he has managed collateralized debt obligations, asset-backed securities, and commercial mortgage-backed securities and has also been involved in Product Development. Previously, he was a portfolio manager at Banc One Capital Corporation and an asset-backed securities analyst at Banc One Corporation. Tim received his B.S. in business administration from The Ohio State University. He holds the Chartered Financial Analyst® designation.

Tracy McCullough, CFA

Tracy McCullough joined ING U.S. Investment Management in 1996 as an analyst in the Structured Products area. She has experience in financial data analysis and reporting. Prior to joining ING, Tracy was a financial reporting analyst for MetLife’s Separate Account-Pension division. Tracy has a B.B.A. in finance from Georgia State University and holds the Chartered Financial Analyst® designation.

Justin McWhorter, CFA, CPA

Justin McWhorter is a Portfolio Manager for the mortgage-backed securities/collateralized mortgage obligation portfolios. Justin has eight years of investment experience and manages the mortgage financing desk. Justin received his Master's in Accountancy from the University of Georgia, and holds both Chartered Financial Analyst® and Certified Public Accountant designations.

Ryan Mitchell

Ryan Mitchell is an analyst covering banks and finance, with six years of investment experience. Prior to joining ING U.S. Investment Management in 2011, he held various capital market-related positions at SunTrust, Robinson Humphrey, and Bank of America. Ryan received his B.S from The University of South Carolina and M.B.A. in finance from Emory University. He holds the Chartered Financial Analyst® (CFA) designation.

Jeffrey Nicholson

Jeff Nicholson is a Senior Credit Analyst for ING U.S. Investment Management’s high yield fixed income research team covering the metal, paper, energy, mining, packaging and transportation sectors. Prior to joining ING U.S. Investment Management in 2001, he was a high yield analyst at PNC Capital. Jeff received a B.S. in management from West Virginia Wesleyan College and an M.B.A. from Pennsylvania State University.

George Palmer

George K. Palmer is a Senior Trader for ING U.S. Investment Management. He is responsible for trading derivatives and cash duration to hedge external client and insurance company risks. Prior to joining ING U.S. Investment Management in October 2012, he spent seven years as Capital Markets Funding Specialist hedging interest rate risk for the Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta. His prior experience with the Federal Home Loan Bank includes various positions in relationship management and credit and collateral analysis. George is a graduate of the University of Tennessee where he received a B.S. in General Business and an M.B.A. in Finance/Real Estate and Urban Development.

Randall Parrish, CFA

Randy has served as Head of High Yield since 2010 and as Senior Portfolio Manager since 2007, after serving six years as a high yield analyst focused on the media and retail/consumer sectors. Prior to joining ING U.S. Investment Management in 2001, he was a corporate banker in leveraged finance with SunTrust Bank and predecessors to Bank of America. Randy received a B.B.A. in business administration from the University of Georgia and holds the Chartered Financial Analyst® designation.

Spencer Phua, CFA

Spencer Phua is a Senior Credit Analyst in ING U.S. Investment Management. He started his career in investment banking with Merrill Lynch's Financial Institutions Group in 2000, covering Asian banks and asset managers. Prior to joining ING, Spencer also worked in High Grade research at Lehman Brothers and Prudential Fixed Income, covering US banks, brokers and finance. His coverage responsibilities at ING include banks, finance companies and brokers, autos and building materials. Spencer received an M.B.A. in finance and accounting from the Kellogg School of Management and an M.A. in economics from Oxford University in the UK and a Bachelor of Laws from the University of London in the UK. He holds the Chartered Financial Analyst® designation.

Mark Probst

Mark Probst is a Credit Analyst for ING U.S. Investment Management. He is a member of the U.S. investment grade fixed income research team and follows the industrial sector. Mark joined ING U.S. Investment Management in 2012 after five years of experience as a Senior Credit Analyst at Deutsche Asset Management in New York covering the energy, metals & mining, paper, and REIT sectors. Mark received a B.A. degree in Business Administration from Asbury College and an M.B.A. from The Ohio State University.

Anthony Routh

Anthony Routh is an Assistant Portfolio Manager for ING U.S. Investment Management’s Structured Finance group. Previously, he was a member of the Non-Agency MBS trading desk as an Analyst. Prior to joining ING U.S. Investment Management, he completed internships at ING Americas and Smith Barney, Citigroup. Anthony holds a B.B.A. in Finance from the University of Georgia.

Steve Ruth, CFA

Steve Ruth is a Client Portfolio Manager for ING U.S. Investment Management. Prior to joining ING U.S. Investment Management he was a lead fixed income portfolio manager with BlackRock managing over $4 billion in fixed income assets. Steve also served as a fixed income portfolio specialist at Merrill Lynch Investment Managers. He received an M.B.A. in quantitative methods from Drexel University and a B.A. in economics from Gettysburg College. Steve holds the Chartered Financial Analyst® designation.

Amir Sahibzada

Amir Sahibzada, Head of Investment Risk, Fixed Income, oversees all market, credit and counterparty risk management activities across ING U.S. investment portfolios. Amir was most recently Managing Director & Global Head of Risk Management with D.B. Zwirn & Co. (now Fortress Investment Group), a multi-strategy New York-based hedge fund. Prior to joining D.B. Zwirn, Amir was with ABN AMRO Bank since 1993, holding various risk management positions covering both market and credit risk areas. His last position with ABN AMRO bank was as the Group Vice President and Chief Risk Officer for the Trading and Sales Platform for ABN AMRO Bank North America and its subsidiaries. Amir has a B.A. in Physics and Mathematics from Wabash College in Indiana and an M.B.A. from The University of Chicago, Graduate School of Business.

Shivanker Saxena, CFA

Shivanker Saxena is a Senior Credit Analyst for ING U.S. Investment Management. He is a member of the U.S. investment grade fixed income research team and is responsible for all the energy and commodity related sectors, including MLPs and chemicals. Before joining ING in November 2009, Shivanker was an analyst within the credit research team at Barclays Capital in New York, with a primary focus on energy related sectors. Prior experience includes four years in corporate banking with ICICI Bank (India) and three years in corporate audit at PricewaterhouseCoopers. Shivanker has an M.B.A. from the Stern School of Business at NYU and Bachelor of Commerce (Hons.) from University of Delhi. He holds the Chartered Financial Analyst® designation and is a Chartered Accountant (India).

Todd Schomberg, CFA

Todd Schomberg is a Portfolio Manager for ING U.S. Investment Management's investment grade team. Prior to joining ING U.S. Investment Management, Todd worked as a Senior Fixed Income Investment Analyst for Wells Capital Management. Todd received a B.S. degree in Finance and Economics from the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse and an M.B.A. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He holds the Chartered Financial Analyst® designation.

Anuranjan Sharma

Anuranjan Sharma is a Quantitative Research Analyst for ING U.S. Investment Management. He received a B.Tech. in Chemical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi, India and an M.B.A. in Investment Strategy from Carnegie Mellon University with University Honors.

Abhishek Sinha

Abhishek Sinha is a Risk Analyst supporting Credit Risk division for Fixed Income at ING U.S. Investment Management, responsible for credit risk analysis of Institutional and Retail Accounts. Abhishek has a Masters and Bachelors Degree in Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay and a M.S. in Management from Georgia Institute of Technology. Abhishek has research experience in quantitative finance, accounting, and engineering. He has been a visiting researcher for Cambridge University, UK, and research assistant at IIT Bombay and Georgia Tech. Abhishek’s industry experience comprises of automated trading, quantitative modeling, fundamental, and technical analysis.

Robert Stiles, CFA

Robert Stiles is a Senior Credit Analyst with ING U.S. Investment Management’s High Yield Team. His coverage responsibilities include Chemicals, Metals, Retail and other consumer non-cyclicals. Prior to joining ING U.S. Investment Management, Robert worked for FTN Financial as a desk analyst for both their high yield and investment grade trading desks. Previous experience includes positions with Principal Global Investors in their private placement group and Pacholder Associates as a high yield analyst. In addition to his financial experience, Robert was a production engineer for five years with Cargill, Inc. in Dayton, Ohio. Robert received an M.B.A. with a finance concentration from Wright State University and a B.S. in chemical engineering from the Ohio State University. He also holds the Chartered Financial Analyst® designation.

Jai Tanwar, CFA, FRM

Jai Tanwar joined ING U.S. Investment Management as a Senior Risk Analyst in February, 2008. He is responsible for managing all aspects of risk management within a portfolio context for all strategies. Prior to joining ING U.S. Investment Management, Jai was a senior analyst with UBS AG where he was responsible for business analysis for interest rates and credit derivatives products. Prior to that role, Jai was with BNP Paribas, Singapore where he was an analyst for a broad range of interest rates sensitive products. He received a Bachelor of Technology from Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi and a Master of Applied Finance from Singapore Management University. Jai holds the Chartered Financial Analyst® designation, as well as the Certified Financial Risk Manager (FRM) qualification.

Brad Taylor, FSA, CFA

Brad Taylor is Senior Vice President in the Risk Management Fixed Income Risk Analytics group. Prior to his current position, he most recently spent 5 years as a member of the MBS asset management team focusing on the Proprietary Investments portfolios. Brad began his career with ING in 1999 with the Interest Rate Risk Management department where he focused on asset modeling and ALM projections. From 2001 to 2003, Brad was on assignment at ING Group’s headquarters in Amsterdam where he worked in the Corporate Insurance Risk Management department monitoring the insurance risk in ING insurance company portfolios worldwide. Prior to his career with ING, Brad spent over 13 years with an insurance company in a variety of actuarial roles, including extensive ALM work and product pricing functions. Brad received his B.S. in Statistics from the University of Michigan, holds the Chartered Financial Analyst® designation, and is a Fellow in the Society of Actuaries.

Brian Timberlake, CFA, Ph.D.

Brian Timberlake is the Head of Fixed Income Research at ING U.S. Investment Management. Prior to this position he was Head of Quantitative Research and before that a Senior Quantitative Analyst. Brian received a B.S. in chemical engineering from the University of Maryland, a M.S. in quantitative and computational finance from the Georgia Institute of Technology and a Ph.D. in chemical engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology. He holds the Chartered Financial Analyst® designation.

Matt Toms, CFA

Matt Toms is Head of Public Fixed Income. In this role, Matt directly oversees the investment teams responsible for investment grade corporate, high yield corporate, structured product and money market strategies for the General Account and External Client business, as well as ensures coordination of credit strategies across developed and emerging markets. Matt joins us most recently from Calamos Investments, where he established and grew their Fixed Income business. He also has prior experience with Northern Trust and Lincoln National. He received a B.B.A. from the University of Michigan and holds the Chartered Financial Analyst® designation.

Rob Turner

Rob Turner is an Assistant Portfolio Manager for the Proprietary Investment Grade Portfolio. Rob began his career as a credit analyst with Freddie Mac, where he analyzed mortgage purchase agreements. Rob received a B.S. in political science from the University of Arizona and a M.B.A. from Georgia State University.

Esther Yang, FSA, CFA

Esther Yang joined ING U.S. Investment Management in 2006. Her current responsibilities include derivatives trade executions, researches, and providing services to other groups that need derivative expertise. During 2004-2006, she worked as a consultant on the liability side. Her responsibilities included developing economic scenarios for valuing Guarantee Minimum Benefit in life annuity products, and developing risk management (hedging) strategies. Prior to working in consulting practice, Esther worked for Allstate Investments where she managed interest rate derivative portfolio for certain life and P&C products. Esther holds a Bachelor Degree in biology from Beijing University, and a Masters Degree in actuarial science from the University of Waterloo. She is a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries and holds the Chartered Financial Analyst® designation.

David Yealy

David Yealy is a Senior Portfolio Manager for ING U.S. Investment Management. He is responsible for managing the ING money market mutual funds and cash management accounts. Prior to joining ING U.S. Investment Management in 2004, he was a managing director and fixed income portfolio manager with Trusco Capital Management where he was responsible for managing over $9 billion of assets under management. He received a B.A. in economics from Wake Forest University.

Ali Zaidi

Ali Raza Zaidi is a Portfolio Manager for ING U.S. Investment Management. He is responsible for the Foreign Exchange (FX) asset class. Prior to joining ING in 2012, he was an FX Trader/Portfolio Manager with JPMorgan Chase in New York City. Ali Raza began his career with AMS in its Global Financial Markets Group and moved to JPMorgan Chase after two years. His responsibilities in the Chief Investment Office at JPMorgan Chase included FX Trading and Portfolio Management in G-10 and Emerging Market space. He traded globally in emerging market currencies, including Latin America, Central Europe and Non-Japan Asia. From investment decisions in major countries and managing risks to macro-economic, fundamental, geo-political and foreign policy analysis were major parts of his job. Due to his global perspective in trading and investments, he also pays significant attention to global interest rates, equities and commodities markets as well. Ali holds a B.S and M.S. from the University of Florida in decision sciences and a minor in economics. He holds a M.S degree in economics as well from New York University, concentrating in financial economics. He is also currently enrolled in a graduate degree from Harvard University in financial management.

Yingli Zhu, Ph.D., CFA

Yingli Zhu is a Quantitative Analyst on the Mortgage Derivatives Team, responsible for conducting quantitative research and analyzing new investment opportunities. Yingli joined ING U.S. Investment Management in 2004 as part of the Quantitative Risk Management Team, where she participated in the development of ING’s proprietary risk system and various relative value tools. She received a B.S. in nuclear engineering from the Xi’an Jiaotong University of China and Ph.D. in nuclear engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a focus on risk analysis and a minor in financial technology. Yingli holds the Chartered Financial Analyst® designation.