Carol started in the futures industry as a CTA/CPO (commodity trading advisor/commodity pool operator) in 1979 and then, in1982, built a back office accounting system that ultimately became InvesTier® –  the preeminent international hedge fund and fund-of-funds multi-currency investor accounting software that was ultimately acquired by SunGard in 2002.

 

In parallel, from 1998-1999 she was a Y2K consultant to Chase, doing diligence on over 125 third party firms with whom the alternatives group did business.  Because of her vast array of skill sets, her expertise spans from front office to back office, from investor relations to operational risk management and everything in between, short of creating the actual trading systems themselves. 

 

In the alternatives industry, Carol's former clients included firms like Bridgewater, Moore Capital, Dubin & Swieca (now Highbridge), Richard Dennis, Mesirow, Cargill, Bank of Montreal, DLJ, Ivy Asset Management, HedgeServ, SEI, PFPC, Viteos, Advent, Gottex and dozens of other high profile companies, representing many types of industry participants.  This afforded her the opportunity to both understand the complexities of various types of entities as well as the ability to draw upon her high level contacts to make meaningful introductions between firms, when warranted.

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Most recently, Ms. Kaufman has focused her efforts on operational excellence.  She consults to small businesses and entrepreneurs of all kinds, including emerging managers, hedge funds and various other types of financial industry participants.  Using her proprietary "Roadmap", she performs high level operational due diligence, identifying the gaps a firm has and then strategically advises and orchestrates ways to mitigate the risks –  educating firms on “best practices”.  When warranted, she introduces firms to the right technology solutions/service firms.  In the right circumstances, she will also take on the role of part time Chief Operating Officer and Chief Human Resource Officer.

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In addition to consulting, Carol speaks at conferences, writes articles and creates and conducts customized webinars, for both business owners and current and prospective industry participants.  

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If you or someone you know wants (and/or needs) to raise their firm’s level of professionalism, scale their business with the right operational infrastructure to be properly poised for growth and be prepared for both regulatory and investor scrutiny, perhaps a brief, no-cost consultation with Carol would be in order.