William G. Ferrell, President & Chief Investment Officer

Starting on the trading floor at First National City Bank in January 1973, William Ferrell has been trading securities and derivatives and managing traders for over three decades. Mr. Ferrell came to New York with a B.A. in Economics and History from Hampden-Sydney College and a five year game plan that evolved into a life long career in Financial Risk Management. After 11 years at Citibank as a trader, underwriter, salesman and financial engineer, Bill was invited to join Kidder Peabody as the manager of their Municipal Securities Group and serve on their Board of Directors. While managing one of the three largest trading operations in the industry, Mr. Ferrell participated in the firm’s management process as a member of the Operating and Inventory (capital and risk allocation) Committees, and ultimately the Management Committee of the firm.

Mr. Ferrell has developed a number of practical risk evaluation tools to provide a foundation for portfolio management and has published numerous articles on portfolio performance optimization. He regularly speaks before major institutional investors and audiences on topics including risk management and allocation, absolute return investment management and qualitative and quantitative due diligence. Today, Ferrell Capital Management stands out as an investment manager with a unique set of tools and applications to manage proprietary capital for large commercial bank clients. Combining the trading culture of maintaining a constant level of investment risk with the knowledge of the interaction with traditional portfolios, Mr. Ferrell has been able to assist institutions in improving the reliability of their investment portfolios.

Mr. Ferrell resides in Greenwich, Conn. with his family and is an avid sportsman and musician. In addition to serving as a trustee at his alma mater, he has been involved with several philanthropic organizations, including serving on the Advisory Board of Outward Bound USA. He is an active member of the Greenwich Roundtable and the Economic Club of New York.

Kelley S. Gasparino, Chief Operating Officer

Ms. Gasparino has been with Ferrell Capital Management for seventeen years. Over her tenure, she has been integrally involved in the development of the firm’s execution capabilities. Her experience in fund accounting, compliance and legal matters has enabled the firm to implement solutions for clients, and establish and manage the Ferrell Concert, Ltd. Fund.

Ms. Gasparino oversees the firm’s administration, including accounting, compliance, company operations and facilities management. She also manages the documentation process for all the firm’s hedge fund investments and acts as liaison with the firm’s offshore administrator, custodian and auditor.

Prior to joining Ferrell, Ms. Gasparino was an assistant trader in the government area with The First Boston Corporation and Vouté Coats Stuart & O’Grady LP. She was also a fixed income portfolio analyst at Salomon Brothers. Ms. Gasparino received a B.S. in economics from Southern Connecticut State University.

John D. Podewils, Director of Research

Mr. Podewils contributes to a wide range of activities including manager research and evaluation, quantitative analysis, product development, risk management and economic analysis. He has been the chief analyst for the Ferrell Absolute Return Program since its inception in January 2001 responsible for hedge fund evaluation, monitoring, and performance analysis.

As the co-author of FCM’s approach to Portable Alpha, Mr. Podewils has participated in the design of many of the firm’s cutting-edge portfolio analytics.  

Mr. Podewils conducts case studies on client portfolios in traditional as well as hedge fund investments. He is primarily responsible for the risk allocation and performance management process for Ferrell Concert, Ltd. He regularly conducts due diligence on existing and prospective hedge fund managers and monitors their performance against expectations and peers in each strategy.

Prior to joining Ferrell Capital, Mr. Podewils was Vice President of Robert N. Pyle & Associates in Washington, D.C. 

He received a B.A. in political science and economics from the University of Vermont, and prior to joining FCM in 2000, earned an M.A. in international economics from Columbia University.

Robert "Rab" W. Ker III, Director of Marketing

Mr. Ker joined Ferrell Capital Management in 2005 and currently focuses his efforts on potential new investments and client relationship management.

In a nearly twenty year Wall Street career at Lehman Brothers and Credit Suisse First Boston. Mr. Ker held a wide variety of capital markets managerial, client coverage, business and product development roles in New York and London. Mr. Ker’s new business development responsibilities included heading CSFB’s Short Term Products Group, establishment and oversight of international trading operations and development of a variety of alternate liquidity/bridge financing instruments. 

Mr. Ker earned an M.B.A. in finance and marketing from the J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University. Mr. Ker also holds a B.A. in political science from the University of Vermont with minors in economics and history, including a year reading medieval history at the University of St. Andrew’s (Scotland), where he served on the US Advisory Board from 1999 to 2001.  Mr. Ker is Series 3, 7, 24 and 63 registered in the United States, and CF21 FSA approved in the United Kingdom.

Erin L. Britton Torrens, Analyst

Ms. Britton joined Ferrell Capital Management in early 2006 as a research analyst. She is responsible for the development and dissemination of the firm’s Standard Deviations research pieces and serves as editor of the firm’s monthly newsletter. Ms. Britton is also responsible for the development of the firm’s website and ongoing analysis of comparative investment performance.

Her industry experience began in 2000, working in investor relationship management at Fidelity Investments for four years. Prior to joining Ferrell she worked at the California University of Pennsylvania Office of Public Affairs.

Ms. Britton attended the University of Pittsburgh and graduated Summa Cum Laude with a B.A. from California University of Pennsylvania.

Barbara A. Vigorito, Analyst

Barbara Vigorito is an executive assistant to Mr. Ferrell and an analyst at Ferrell Capital. In this capacity, she assists Mr. Ferrell with research and Bloomberg analytics, and in writing and creating materials for presentations and articles. She contributes to the firm’s documentation process for legal and regulatory filings and due diligence. Ms. Vigorito assists with compliance issues and client reporting.

Prior to joining FCM, she held operational and compliance roles at Bank of America in Greenwich and Boston. She was their Compliance Officer for the New York Metro Region specializing in Patriot Act compliance.

Ms. Vigorito graduated with honors from Suffolk University of Boston.