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 serves as a Senior Portfolio Manager and co-founder of Washington Crossing Advisors. Kevin’s experience as an analyst, strategist, and portfolio manager spans more than 25 years. Kevin is a popular speaker on markets and economy-related issues and comments regularly for a variety of 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 career as a research associate 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.
In 2002, Ryan Beck & Co. acquired Gruntal. At Ryan Beck, Kevin continued in his role as a strategist while laying the groundwork for the Washington Crossing Advisors investment program. Since Ryan Beck’s acquisition in 2007 by Stifel, Washington Crossing Advisors has grown to a multi-disciplinary investment practice with assets over $3 billion.
Kevin earned his Bachelor’s of Science degree in Economics from Seton Hall University in 1991. He is a CFA charterholder and is a member of the New York Society of Securities Analysts. 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 25 years of financial market, investment advisory, and portfolio management experience to the WCA platform. The WCA multi-disciplinary investment platform has assets over $2 billion under 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 Client Portfolio Manager 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 performance evaluation.
Steve was a longstanding member of the Education Committee of GARP, which awards the Financial Risk Manager (FRM) designation. He is an advisory board member, contributor and top reviewer for The Journal of Performance Measurement. Steve has been a frequent speaker at industry conferences and is a former Director at CFA Society NY where he has taught courses for CFA exam preparation. 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 Stern School of Business. He holds series 7 and series 63 licenses.
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 three daughters.
Eric Needham
Director, Sales & 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.
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