Washington Crossing Advisors, LLC (WCA) is registered as an investment adviser with the Securities and Exchange Commission. WCA is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Stifel Financial Corp., a financial services holding company whose stock is publicly-traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol SF. The WCA team has been successful in helping individual and institutional investors build wealth for over 25 years.

Kevin R. Caron, CFA

Senior Portfolio Manager

Mr. Caron is a Senior Portfolio Manager and co-founder of Washington Crossing Advisors (WCA). Kevin’s experience as an analyst, strategist, and portfolio manager spans over 30 years. Kevin is a popular speaker on markets and economy-related issues and comments regularly for various local and nationally syndicated media outlets. Such outlets include CNBC, PBS, Fox Business, Bloomberg, The Wall Street Journal, Reuters, Forbes, CBS Radio, and Dow Jones.

Kevin began his investing career at Gruntal & Company in 1992 as a sell-side research associate covering electric utilities. In 1994, he joined Sterling Advisors, an investment advisory unit of Gruntal & Co., as an analyst. In 1997, Kevin left Sterling to help form Gruntal’s strategy team as a market strategist. In this role, he was instrumental in developing and communicating the firm’s views on the economy and financial markets. Today, Mr. Caron is responsible for developing investment strategies, identifying opportunities, and communicating WCA’s market and investment views with advisors, clients, and the public.

Kevin earned his Bachelor’s of Science degree in Economics from Seton Hall University in 1991. He is a CFA charterholder and New York Society of Securities Analysts member. Kevin lives in Chatham, NJ, with his wife, Tara, and their two children.

Chad A. Morganlander

Senior Portfolio Manager

Mr. Morganlander serves as a Senior Portfolio Manager and co-founder of Washington Crossing Advisors. He shares responsibility as co-portfolio manager across each of the group’s investment advisory programs. Mr. Morganlander has held several investment advisory and analyst positions for Stifel and predecessor firms, including Ryan, Beck & Company and Gruntal & Company. He began his career in 1992 at Lehman Brothers.

Mr. Morganlander brings nearly 30 years of financial market, investment advisory, and portfolio management experience to the WCA platform. The WCA multi-disciplinary investment platform has assets over $8 billion under management and advisement.

Chad regularly comments on the global economy and financial markets on various media outlets, including CNBC, Dow Jones, BNN, Bloomberg, CBS radio, Fox News, The Wall Street Journal, and Reuters.

Mr. Morganlander graduated from Ramapo College, where he received his Bachelor of Arts Degree in International Business.

Matthew J. Battipaglia

Portfolio Manager

Mr. Battipaglia serves as a Portfolio Manager for Washington Crossing Advisors. In addition to co-managing portfolios across each of the group’s investment advisory programs, Mr. Battipaglia also supports the group’s trading and marketing efforts. 

Mr. Battipaglia began his career in 2005 as an Operations Analyst at SEI Investments Company. In 2007, Mr. Battipaglia was hired by Janney Montgomery Scott to help start the Cost Basis/Tax Reporting department. He was hired by Washington Crossing Advisors in 2011. 

In 2005, Mr. Battipaglia earned his Bachelor of Arts Degree in Economics from Dartmouth College and, in 2011, earned his Master of Business Administration from Drexel University. He holds the series 65 license. 

Matthew lives in Doylestown, PA, with his wife, Kelly, and their daughters.

Steven J. Lerit, CFA

Head of Portfolio Risk

Mr. Lerit is the Head of Portfolio Risk for Washington Crossing Advisors. He collaborates with advisors to help design and explain portfolio solutions that meet specific needs of private client, high net worth, and institutional investors for equity, fixed income, and multi-asset portfolios.

Steve was formerly Head of Quantitative Risk for UBS Wealth Management, Asset Manager for US Trust/Bank of America, Investment Analyst for New York Life Investment Management LLC and Market Risk Analyst for JP Morgan Chase. He has extensive experience applying advanced statistical methods, data science and operations research to portfolio construction, risk management and investment manager selection and performance evaluation.

Steve is the Co-Chair of the Performance and Risk Group and a former Director at CFA NY, where he has taught courses for CFA and CIPM exam preparation. He was a founding and longstanding member of the Education Committee of GARP, which awards the Financial Risk Manager (FRM) designation. Steve is an advisory board member, contributor and top reviewer for The Journal of Performance Measurement. He has served as a subject matter expert on stress testing for regulatory purposes and a manuscript reviewer for textbooks on data science and applied financial statistics. Steve has a BA from Rutgers and an MBA from NYU Stern School of Business. He holds series 7 and series 63 licenses.

Thomas J. Serzan

Senior Financial Analyst

Mr. Serzan is a Senior Analyst of Washington Crossing Advisors (WCA), where his primary focus is to analyze and research portfolio holdings throughout the group’s investment advisory programs.

Tom brings diverse financial research and accounting experience to the WCA team. In his most recent role, Tom headed the utility and energy financial research team in the Market Intelligence division of S&P Global. He began his career in the 1980’s in New Jersey utility regulation working extensively on accounting issues during the onset of competition issues in the telecommunications sector. Mr. Serzan spent a large part of his career at Gruntal & Co as a senior sell-side equity analyst covering electric utility equities and he also worked as a buy-side analyst at Merrill Lynch Investment Advisors.

Tom has been active in industry financial awareness and education, and has been a speaker/contributor for various financial media outlets. He has taught various courses to financial professionals on competitive changes in the utility sector and implications for financial results. Tom has a BS from Seton Hall University in accounting and has held series 7 and 63 licenses. He lives in New Jersey with his two children.

Baiba McGibben

Operations Director

Ms. McGibben oversees operations and daily trading for Washington Crossing Advisors. She joined the firm’s parent company, Stifel Financial, in 2007 where she worked in operations, trade support and reporting for multiple asset management affiliates including Montibus Asset Management and Thomas Weisel Fixed Income Group. Prior to the joining Stifel, Baiba worked for Thomas Weisel Partners, where she held multiple positions in corporate finance and institutional trading groups. Earlier in her career, Ms. McGibben worked as unit cost and risk analyst at Bank of New York.

Baiba received a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Economics and Finance from Seton Hall University in South Orange, NJ. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her family.

Mike Spero

Chief Compliance Officer

Mr. Spero joined the firm’s parent company, Stifel Financial, in April 2021 where he serves as a Director of Advisory Compliance. Prior to joining Stifel Financial, Mike was a Compliance & Risk Control Manager with Freddie Mac. Mike has more than 20 years of experience in financial services compliance, including compliance positions with UBS, KBC Financial Products, JPMorgan, New Mountain Capital, Tiger Legatus Capital Management as Chief Compliance Officer, and FrontLine Compliance.

Mike received his BA in History from Boston University and is an Investment Adviser Certified Compliance Professional (IACCP®).

Suzanne Ashley

Relationship Manager

Suzanne Ashley serves as a junior analyst for Washington Crossing Advisors, an in-house advisory program offered through Stifel’s private client group, running the sales and marketing effort for the financial advisors at Stifel.

Suzanne began her career in 1988 at Manufacturers’ Hanover Trust Co. in New York City as a corporate trust officer which then led to an Institutional Fixed Income sales position at Chase Securities Inc.

Suzanne graduated from Boston College in 1988 with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Economics and Philosophy.

Suzanne lives in Verona, NJ with her husband Mark.

Eric Needham

Director, Sales and Marketing

Eric Needham joined WCA in 2020 as Director of Sales and Marketing. Prior to joining WCA, he was Director of Sales and Marketing for the Central United States at Ziegler Capital Management, LLC (“ZCM”) from 2015 to 2020. Prior to joining ZCM in 2015, Eric held similar roles at Keeley Asset Management and DWS Investments. Eric is currently responsible for business development and client service within the Broker/Dealer, RIA, and Family Office communities. He has over 13 years of experience in the investment management industry.

Eric graduated from University of Northern Colorado with a degree in Business Finance and a minor in Computer Information Systems. Eric lives in Chicago with his wife, Luanne, and their daughter.

Jeffrey Battipaglia

Client Portfolio Manager

Jeff Battipaglia joined Washington Crossing Advisors in 2021 after working with the Corporate Strategy team at Bank of New York Mellon. At WCA, his primary areas of focus include portfolio research and analysis, business development and client service efforts. Prior to beginning his career in financial services, Jeff spent 7 years in the Marine Corps serving in Okinawa, Japan and San Diego, California.

Jeff graduated from the US Naval Academy and earned his MBA from NYU’s Stern School of Business. He lives in Westfield, NJ with his wife, Emily, and their son.