Contango provides our partner banks with a full array of wealth-management services.
Prior to Contango, Mr. Feiger served in a number of senior positions in the financial services sector. He was a senior advisor to the Monitor Group, Global Head of Onshore Private Banking for UBS, Global Head of Investment Banking at SBC Warburg and was a senior partner at McKinsey & Co. During his time in Europe, Mr. Feiger led the merger integration of the corporate finance businesses of Swiss Bank Corp. and SG Warburg, and oversaw the consolidation of SBC Warburg's sales and trading businesses. Mr. Feiger was also a partner at Capco, a financial services consulting firm.
Mr. Feiger holds a PhD in Economics from Harvard University and was an associate professor of Finance at Stanford University's Graduate School of Business.
David Magee, President
David Magee is responsible for the ongoing management of Contango activities. He brings to the firm both entrepreneurial expertise and substantial experience at some of the world's most effective private banking companies.
Mr. Magee, who joined Contango upon its acquisition of Panoptic Solutions, Inc., a company he founded in 2000, is a former executive director and head of private banking in San Francisco for UBS. Earlier, he served as a principal at Montgomery Securities, where he specialized in advising high net-worth individuals
Mr. Magee also worked at Oppenheimer & Co. as a capital market specialist, developing and implementing hedging, arbitrage and portfolio management strategies. He holds a BA in International Affairs from George Washington University, an MA in International Journalism from Baylor University and a JD from Tulane Law School.
Milton Balbuena, Investment Strategist
Milton Balbuena oversees the development of investment strategies and products. Mr. Balbuena brings to Contango a decade of high-profile investment management experience at institutions including Prime Capital Corp., a New York-based family office where he served as vice president of investment strategies. Prior to Prime Capital, Mr. Balbuena was research manager at Charles Schwab, where he developed portfolio strategies and supervised fund selection. He is the co-author of several research studies examining portfolio construction strategies.
Mr. Balbuena holds an MBA from the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley. He received his BS from Rensselear Polytechnic Institute.
Perry Piazza, Investment Strategist
Perry Piazza develops and implements both return-oriented and hedge-related trading strategies. Mr. Piazza brings significant US and international trading and financial market experience to Contango. Prior to joining the firm, Mr. Piazza worked at First New York Securities, a proprietary trading firm in New York. Earlier, Mr. Piazza was a derivatives trader for Citigroup in New York and London, and was co-manager of the London trading desk. At Citigroup, he specialized in the commodities markets, analyzing and developing customer and proprietary trading strategies across the energy and metals sectors. He also traded on the interest-rate and foreign-exchange markets. In addition, Mr. Piazza served as an international equity arbitrage analyst at Bear Stearns and a fixed-income analyst at Morgan Stanley.
Mr. Piazza holds an MBA from the Yale School of Management and a BS from the University of Delaware.
Kevin Mikan, Head of Contango's Wealth Planning Group, President of Western National Trust Company
Kevin Mikan supervises the design of integrated financial solutions for the firm's clientele. Mr. Mikan brings to Contango substantial experience leading wealth management operations for major financial institutions. Most recently, he served as head of the UBS Wealth Management division covering the western United States. In this capacity, he led the firm's comprehensive estate, tax, philanthropic and business succession advisory team. After UBS acquired PaineWebber, Mr. Mikan helped integrate the combined firm's products and services. Earlier Mr. Mikan held positions at major public accounting firms including Arthur Andersen and PricewaterhouseCoopers, where he provided tax and estate-planning advice to high net-worth clients.
Mr. Mikan holds a JD from University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law, and received a BA from Loyola Marymount University.
Brian Bichler, Chief Information Officer
Brian Bichler is responsible for the operations, portfolio management and information technology departments within Contango and its affiliate Western National Trust Company. Prior to joining Contango, Mr. Bichler worked at Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. He also served as the director of a project management office and the operations/advisor-relations department of a donor-advised fund.
Mr. Bichler has designed and implemented client/advisor service models, intranet portals, and other projects to maximize operational efficiencies. He has held Series 7, 9, 10, 24 and 63 licenses.
Mr. Bichler received a BA in Finance from the University of Utah.
Travis Grimm, Chief Administration Officer
Travis Grimm manages strategic and tactical projects and initiatives for Contango’s senior management team. Prior to that he was at Morgan Stanley, where he served as manager of VIP and active trading, responsible for servicing all high-net-worth and active trading clients of the firm’s online unit. While there, Mr. Grimm also served as employee trading manager and IPO syndicate manager.
Mr. Grimm holds a BS in Finance and an MBA in Information Systems, both from the University of Utah.
