Leadership

CircleBlack’s leadership team has decades of experience delivering industry leading technology for the wealthtech ecosystem. We have a rich history of building strong, collaborative relationships with our clients. We believe that our success is directly tied to the success of our clients and the communities they serve. With a team of experienced and innovative leaders, we are constantly pushing the boundaries of what’s possible and delivering solutions that help our clients achieve their goals. Thank you for considering us as your partner in success.

Lincoln Ross

President and CEO

Lincoln Ross has been an innovative leader in the wealth management space for over 20 years. Prior to CircleBlack, Lincoln served as Envestnet’s Chief of Business Operations where he led several operating functions including product management, operations, client experience and communications. Prior to Envestnet, Lincoln served as CEO at FundQuest, a turnkey asset management platform, where he helped significantly grow the business and led FundQuest through the successful acquisition by Envestnet. Lincoln serves as a strategic advisor to several businesses leveraging his unique combination of strategic and operating experience.

Lincoln enjoys spending time with his wife and three children, golfing, squash and maritime adventures.

Neil Kirdahy

Head of Marketing

Neil brings a wealth of experience in developing and executing successful marketing strategies that prioritize the needs and preferences of customers. He and the leadership team at CircleBlack have established themselves as trusted partners to clients by delivering innovative solutions that address their pain points and drive business outcomes. Prior to joining CircleBlack, Neil was Head of Marketing for North America at Lightspeed (Ticker: LSPD).

In his free time, Neil enjoys traveling and boating with his friends and family.

Rob Baxter

Chief Technology Officer

Rob has two decades of experience in technology leadership in the fintech space. He brings a wealth of experience delivering technology that helps institutional investors and advisors achieve a client focused outcome. Prior to joining CircleBlack, Rob was a Director at SS&C Eze, where he was a member of the leadership team for both the Execution Management System and cloud-native Eclipse investment management platform.

Outside of work, Rob enjoys surfing east coast novelty waves.

Abhi Deshmukh

Chief Data Architect

Abhi comes with a strong background in the data space. He has extensive experience in the capital market industry, building performant data warehouses for the reporting purposes for (hedge fund) clients, regulatory, compliance teams and analytics for senior management. Before CircleBlack, Abhi was heading the Data Analytics for Prime Services at Credit Suisse.

Abhi is a foodie and enjoys (experimenting with) cooking for friends and family. Abhi is also involved with livelihood improvement initiatives for the underprivileged.

Shizu Nair

VP Product Management

Shizu uses her two decades of experience in financial services – the latter half almost entirely in the RIA space – to build products and services that truly deliver value to clients. As someone with front line experience, she can really empathize with clients and strives always to build solutions that make life easier for her clients. Prior to joining CircleBlack, Shizu was a Product Manager at Envestnet | Tamarac and prior to that spent 12 years in various roles at Charles Schwab.

When not at work, Shizu contemplates getting back into running as she explores the best bakeries and pie shops in her homebase of Seattle.

Rob Keller

Chief Product Officer
Rob has over 20 years of experience in the capital market fintech space building client-centric products for the financial services industry. He has deep experience building highly effective teams, creating innovative product strategy, and partnering with clients. Before joining CircleBlack, Rob was CPO at ComplySci, a leading compliance technology platform. Before that, he was Head of Product at Clearwater Analytics, a provider of a web-based investment portfolio, accounting, reporting, and reconciliation services. Previously, he was Executive Managing Director, Product Management and Development for Eze Software, leading strategy for the firm’s software development efforts.

Matt Valkovic

Head of Customer Success
Matt joined CircleBlack in 2014 as the company’s 4th full-time employee and 1st customer-facing employee. He built out CircleBlack’s customer service operations and led the rollout of our RBC BLACK product. Matt now leads our Customer Success team, overseeing all onboarding, training, service and customer life-cycle functions for our RIA customers and RBC BLACK users. Previously, Matt served as an Army officer in Iraq and ran field operations in Afghanistan for the NGO, Spirit of America.

When not helping our customers succeed on CircleBlack, Matt enjoys spending time with his wife and coaching his two boys’ baseball teams.

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