Melanie Chen
Research Analyst, Wellington Management
As a research analyst in the Investment Data Science Team at Wellington Management, Melanie focuses on natural language processing and machine learning, especially with applications on big data. Prior to joining Wellington Management, Melanie was a researcher and practitioner in deep learning and natural language understanding (NLU). She built the NLU system and product line for her previous company, Bombora Inc., and mentored the Data Science Team. An avid educator, Melanie was an Adjunct Lecturer at New York University, teaching a Natural Language Understanding with Distributed Representations course, and is actively working on improving Machine Learning literacy at Wellington through lectures and talks. Melanie earned her MS in data science from New York University (2016) and her BS in finance and psychology from Guanghua School of Management, Peking University (2014).
Sherry Marcus
Managing Director and Co-head of AI Labs, BlackRock, Inc
Sherry Marcus is Managing Director and Co-head of AI Labs. The AI Labs spearheads an initiative to accelerate how BlackRock uses artificial intelligence and associated disciplines - machine learning, data science, natural language processing - to improve outcomes and drive progress for investors, clients, and the firm. Prior to BlackRock, Sherry Marcus was Chief Data Analytics Office at Millennium Partners where she led the development of integration of the AWS public cloud initiative that integrated, and resolved position, reference, and e-communication data sets in the delivery of next-gen analytic artifacts to the business. Prior to MLP, Sherry Marcus was Global Head of Big Data Analytics and created solutions that merged private banking, communication, and news data for client analytics, and developed solution in supports of prime services. In her previous positions, Sherry Marcus held mission critical roles in the intelligence community and DoD while leading a series of highly successful scalable analytics solution in support of national missions in counter-terrorism, counter-narcotics, counter-intelligence, and naval surface warfare. She has received the technical medal of excellence from the Central Intelligence Agency for her work with the US Government. Sherry Marcus is a founding member of the science board at the National Counter Terrorism Center. Sherry Marcus sits on the Advisory Board for the Carnegie Mellon Computational Finance Department and is a member of the board of the MIT Club of NY. She has authored over 40 papers in nationally recognized journals and is a recognized expert in large scale graph analytics, graph analytics and learning. Sherry Marcus holds a Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Mathematics and an AB from Cornell University.
Marina Niessner, PhD
Vice President of Global Stock Selection, AQR Capital Management
Marina Niessner, PhD, is a Vice President on AQR’s Global Stock Selection Team. Prior to joining AQR in August, 2018, she was an Assistant Professor of Finance at the Yale School of Management. Her academic research has been published in the Journal of Finance and the Review of Financial Studies, among others, as well as featured in the Financial Times and the Wall Street Journal. She holds a BA in Economics and Statistics and a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Chicago.
Rudina Seseri
Founder and Managing Partner, Glasswing Ventures
Rudina Seseri is Founder and Managing Partner of Glasswing Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm dedicated to investing in the next generation of AI-powered technology companies. With over 17 years of investing and transactional experience, Rudina has led technology investments and acquisitions in startup companies in enterprise SaaS, IT software and data, marketing technologies and robotics. Rudina’s portfolio of investments include Celtra, CHAOSSEARCH, CrowdTwist, Inrupt, Plannuh, SocialFlow, Talla, Verusen, and Zylotech. Rudina is a Harvard Business School Rock Venture Capital Partner and Entrepreneur-In-Residence, serving for 5 consecutive years. She is also a Member of the Business Leadership Council of Wellesley College. Rudina serves as a member of the advisory board for GSK Consumer and the Philanthropy Board for Boston Children’s Hospital. She has been named a 2017 Boston Business Journal Power 50: Newsmaker, a 2014 Women to Watch honoree by Mass High Tech and a 2011 Boston Business Journal 40-under-40 honoree for her professional accomplishments and community involvement. She graduated magna cum laude from Wellesley College with a BA in Economics and International Relations and with an MBA from the Harvard Business School (HBS). She is a member of Phi Beta Kappa and Omicron Delta Epsilon honor societies.
Michael Masdea
Head of Investment Science, Wellington Management
Michael is the head of our Investment Science Group, which is focused on bringing scientific tools and techniques to the art of investing across the investment platform, from idea generation to implementation to investor development. Investment Science includes the Quantitative Investment, Global Risk and Analytics, Investment Data Science, Trading and Market Strategies, Global Derivatives, and Investor Development teams. Michael is also an equity portfolio manager, managing the Global Innovation approach on behalf of our clients and drawing on research from the firm’s global industry analysts. Michael holds both a bachelor’s and master’s degree in materials science and engineering through a joint bachelor’s/master’s program (1997) from Northwestern University’s McCormick School of Engineering, where he received the school's highest honors.
