Broker Village Bios

Stuart J. Speckman, CFA, CFP
Chairman
Stu is the "math guy" of the group. He created the math algorithms for our products. He is a popular public speaker and the main writer of our promotional pieces.

Stu has a broad background. He was an insurance agent, stockbroker's assistant, fund wholesaler, and corporate director at several major financial firms. Like Mike (below), he has a solid understanding of portfolio theory and the financial sales process. But after far too many long commutes to lower Manhattan, he packed it in. At the height of the dot-com craze, he helped found a dot-com: Broker Village. The next day, the Nasdaq hit its all-time high.

From 1997 to early 2000, he was the Director of Fee-Based Programs at Oppenheimer Funds. From 1990-1997, Stu was with Prudential Securities. For much of his tenure, he was the Director of Marketing, Wrap-Fee Programs, before becoming a top wrap-fee wholesaler. He also worked for Shearson Lehman Brothers and Metropolitan Life, where he was a producing agent.

Stu received a B.A. in Chemistry from Cornell University and an MBA in Marketing from Syracuse University. He is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA), Certified Financial Planner (CFP), and a member of the CFA Institute and New York Society of Securities Analysts.

Tidbit: Stu likes the outdoors, though he looks nothing like Grizzly Adams. He has lived for three days in an igloo, paddled his kayak around the Statue of Liberty, and endured a 100-hour fast (four days and four hours) while hiking 25 miles out of the Rockies. 

Send Stu an Email

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Michael S. Rosen, CFA
Director of Strategic Development
Mike helped found Broker Village in 2000. In the early days, he headed strategic development and led many of our sales meetings. Today he helps with high level strategy decisions, research, and securing resources for us.

Mike may be well known to many advisors, particularly those who live in the New York tri-state area. From 1983 - 2000, he was associated with The Rochester Funds, a hugely successful, multi-billion dollar investment management firm. Their specialty is investing in municipal bonds. He was a Managing Director and fixed income portfolio manager for almost that entire time. He was President of Rochester Fund Distributors and then President of the Rochester Division of Oppenheimer Funds, as a result of their January 1996 acquisition by Oppenheimer.

Mike has a lot of credentials to his credit, including being named "Best Bond Fund Manager" by BusinessWeek in 1992. Further, from Lipper Analytical Services, he received a Performance Achievement Certificate for his #1 Rank for the five Years ending in 1995 and five years ending in 1996.

He is now Chairman and Chief Investment Officer of Context Capital Management, a San Diego-based hedge fund that specializes in convertible arbitrage. He is a board member of a wireless technology firm, the Jewish Federation of San Diego, and Black Cat Decisions.

Mike has a BA in economics, and an MBA in finance and marketing, from the University of Rochester. He is a Chartered Financial Analyst. He is a member of the CFA Institute and the New York and San Diego Societies of Securities Analysts.

Tidbit: The first names of everyone in Mike's family start with the letter "m." There are four kids and two adults. For you baseball fans, can you make the Vern Law connection? 

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Steve Bowers

Senior Programmer

Steve is our senior programmer. He joined us in mid-2005. He does much of our math-related coding and some design work. He works on new projects and is in charge of maintaining and polishing our entire suite of decision-making tools.

Steve also is the president of Encore Web Works, Inc. Encore is an internet development and consulting firm. Prior to founding Encore, Steve was the IT Manager for Datacore Marketing, a successful, fast growing firm. He supervised a team of 15 programmers and database specialists. 

Steve has thirteen years of IT industry experience. He’s worked with internet technologies since the early days of the modern world wide web. Since entering the tech arena, he's worked his way up from the help desk, to programmer, to Senior Programmer, to Manager, to Business Owner (where he started all over on the help desk). 

Tidbit: When not working with technology, Steve plays bass guitar and tours with regional recording artist Jodi Austin (who also happens to be married to him). See www.JodiAustin.com.

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The Programming Crew
Several people handle programming for Broker Village. Each person has a discreet skill-set and applies it to different products. For example, our early tools were written in Flash. Later ones were HTML-based and required fancy graph-work. Recently, we needed database work for the Share Class Analyzer. So, different folks headed the projects.

 

The technology backgrounds of our folks is fairly varied. One person was a Chief Technology Officer at large investment firms and taught college courses. Other folks have experience at large international banks, sometimes overseas. Other folks specialize in database work and in creating "micro sites." It's all good, as each person brings a unique talent to bear on our projects. 

The programmers for our projects:

Sid: He's our hard working, never-say-no programmer. He single-handedly created our newest tool: the Share Class Analyzer. Sid logged long hours without ever complaining. He's also the most polite person we've ever met. Sid achieved his Masters degree in software engineering. He lives in Brooklyn, NY.

Chu: The Chu Master is a phenomenally talented programmer and graphic designer. His coding abilities are par excellence. A math maven, he can create very complex formulas in JavaScript from scratch. He is solely responsible for our Mortgage Calculator, Stu's favorite of the ten completed to date. Chu lives in CT and holds several industry certifications.

Joe: When all else fails, hand it to Joe. Arguably our fastest programmer, Joe writes very elegant code. Joe has many years of senior programming experience, almost exclusively at major Wall Street firms. Joe and his family live in New Jersey.

Pooja: Pooja joined us in early 2005. She worked on many of our tools, handling programming, and branding. After completing her undergraduate work, she helped develop various banking and insurance software programs for large firms. She completed her Master's in software engineering from Fairfield University. She received a BS in computer engineering from Fairfield, as well. She lives in Fairfield CT.

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Steven S. Cohen, CFP, CPA 
Senior Marketing Consultant
Steve is an advisor to Broker Village, focused on business development and marketing. He is currently CEO of Gold Coast Advisors, a NY-based independent registered investment advisory firm focused on family wealth management.

Steve has twenty years of experience building wealth management businesses. As President and co-founder of eFrontiers, Steve built a pioneering online wealth management platform for institutional and high net worth investors. Prior to eFrontiers, Steve was a executive with Morgan Stanley Institutional, responsible for global products and marketing. He was a member of the management team at Prudential Investments and Lehman Brothers. 

Steve is a frequent speaker on the impact of technology in the investment and wealth management industry. He holds a BS from the University of Buffalo and an MBA from New York University.

Tidbit: Steve is a very friendly and positive guy. Curiously, his favorite word is "but" and his favorite phrase is "the only problem is." Here's what he would say: "Yes, that super model is interested in me...but I still wouldn't date her. The only problem is that her IQ is only 140, not 150, which is not enough for Mensa." 

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Mike Mikytuck

Senior Salesman and Head of Investor Relations
Mike has been with Broker Village since day one. He leads our overall sales strategy and is the main contact on behalf of the Broker Village investors. From assisting with sales calls to coordinating the business of running an investor-owned firm, Mike has been very capable at the helm. His particular emphasis has been on our share class suitability work.

Mike has twenty years of senior sales experience on Wall Street. He and Stu have worked together since 1996. Mike's specialty is coordinating the sales activities of institutional sales folks. His products cover hedge funds, private equity, sub-advisory, managed accounts, and mutual funds. The deals Mike works on tend to be very large. Hence, his resume lists some very large firms where he was in a senior sales capacity: Fiduciary Trust and Bear Stearns among them.

Mike has a dual degree from Rider University in finance and economics. He has an MBA from NYU in finance and international business. Mike and his family live in New Jersey.

Tidbit: Can you say "Speed Racer"?  Mike drives formula cars in races across the country. His big hope is to win the French Grand Prix. Keep your eyes peeled to the Speed channel on cable.

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Christopher Prajzner
Software Developer
Chris is the architect of the original Broker Village HTML calculators. He was a full-timer during our first few years. Now he is a consultant to us, assisting our current programmers with understanding the complexities of our code. 

Chris's interest in software development began when he worked as a software salesperson. After selling software and software related services for four years, he switched gears and began anew as a technical instructor. He taught everything from Windows to Visual Basic, and everyone from administrators to CEOs. Technical training led to  a decision to turn toward full-time software development. Working for himself and for firms both large and small, Chris has developed a wide range of software programs. 

Chris received a BA in marketing from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.  He has achieved several certifications from Microsoft and has taught at the University of California, San Diego Extension program.

Chris resides with his wife and two children in Carlsbad, CA. 

Tidbit: By watching enough of the Golf Channel, he hopes to one day qualify for the Senior Tour. If you've ever seen him play, you'll know why Tiger Woods has nothing to fear. 

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Brant Johnson
Graphic Designer
Brant has been designing for Broker Village since 2001. He designed and/or updated our logos, PowerPoint presentations, marketing folders, business cards, and promotional materials. Only the calculators escaped his touch.

 

Brant is very accomplished and, unlike most "designers," actually received a degree in design. He graduated with a BFA in graphic design from Paier College of Art in Hamden, CT. Soon after, he was designing everything from t-shirts to catalogs to national marketing plans for Starter Sportswear. Nine years later Brant joined Ryan Partnership as a senior art director. Currently, he is a full-time freelance designer. Visit him at: www.brantjohnson.com.

Brant resides with his wife and two daughters in Wallingford, CT.

Tidbit: Brant is a huge American motorcycle fan. He built a website dedicated to the creative folks who build motorcycles. Maybe we'll see a Broker Village chopper built on the Discovery Channel one day. The closest thing to one in his garage, however, are his daughters' bicycles.  

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Alicia L. Kennedy
Marketing Consultant
Alicia has 20 years of experience in the consumer goods area. She has worked with several Fortune 500 companies, including GE, Macy*s, and Unilever. She also has worked for several very prestigious sales and promotions firms. Until recently, she was a Vice President at Ryan Partnership, a very well-known promotions agency that is based in Westport, CT. After nearly ten years at Ryan, she went out on her own to start her own firm. 

Her expertise is in helping companies raise sales by increasing consumer traffic in retail outlets and the amount of the average purchase. She has a particularly acute knowledge of the consumer's buying process at the point of sale. She applies the proven strategies and tactics of the packaged goods world to the Broker Village effort.

Alicia is very involved in the promotional aspects of Broker Village, and its parent, Black Cat Decisions. Those aspects cover the areas of design, sales promotions, and advertising. She also is very involved in helping to develop Broker Village's marketing strategy. 

Alicia received a BA in marketing from West Liberty Sate College and an MBA in marketing from Syracuse University.

Tidbit: Alicia plays ice hockey in a coed hockey league. We are unaware of any other senior executive -- who's a woman -- who can take a slap shot and a hip check...and then report for work at 8 am the next morning.

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The Rest of the Crew
Lots of CPAs and Lots of Lawyers
At Broker Village, we love math. That's no surprise. We also love tax and law. Almost every day we work with a CPA or lawyer. These folks are rightfully considered part of the team. They have logged over a thousand hours on our projects, and for those of a separate company, Decision Wisdom (which handles 529 work). 

We work with our CPAs on lots of very tax-intensive issues. For example, we tackle issues like the state income taxation of a mortgage refi. We also codified the federal taxation of UGMA accounts (which was exceptionally complex). On the legal side, our lawyers help us with everything from contracts to issuing opinion letters. For example, Patricia issued the legal opinion on the algorithms that underlie our Share Class Calculator. Then there are all the copyright, trademark, service mark, and patent applications. That's mainly Andrew and Mike.

Nate and Miriam handle most of the auditing of our code from a tax and math perspective. Many of our tools are audited. Clients receive an AICPA-compliant Attestation Letter. It states that our code does exactly what it claims to do. Nate and Miriam work at Capossela, Cohen, LLC  (www.capossela.com) in Southport, CT. They're a 30+ person, very high-end CPA and consulting firm. Capossela is part of one of the biggest accounting and consulting firms in the world: BDO Siedman. BDO is currently ranked number five.

No less than four law firms represent us. The firms are among the largest and most respected in the country. For intellectual property work, formation, and litigation, we use Fulbright & Jaworski: www.fulbright.com. For contracts and investor issues we use Foley & Lardner: www.foley.com. For the legal opinion on the Share Class Tool, we use Patricia Foster of private practice. For 529 work, we use the renowned IP firm Fross Zelnick Lehrman & Zissu: www.frosszelnick.com.

Tidbit: We make our lawyers go gray...really fast. We make our CPAs lose their hair...well, almost. Every document they write, every opinion they issue, and every financial statement they create, we review with a fine tooth comb. If it's written in legalese, we re-write it in English. If a lawyer makes a typo, we catch it and correct it. If a CPA makes a math error, we'll find it. And, yes, we all get along swimmingly.  

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