I created Maxwell Consulting in 2010 because I enjoy solving problems and helping people. I also sought to challenge myself to determine how much value I can add to the world as a freelance advisor, problem solver, and teacher. I am the only full-time contributor to Maxwell Consulting, but I do team with a network of talented colleagues when this action best suits a client's needs.
My original background is in physics, mathematics, and engineering. I came to the financial world 30 years ago beginning as a "pure quant" to calculate counterparty credit exposure in derivative transactions for a large US bank. The learning experience was tremendous. The financial field and culture were new to me but the work was similar in some ways to that of applied physics. Most quants ("quantitative analysts") remain quants, but my goal has always been to broaden skills and continue climbing learning curves in new areas. Hence, in subsequent positions over the years I've become expert in structured financial products, corporate and municipal bonds, bank loans, financial guaranty insurance, municipal GICs, banking, investments, and derivatives for fixed income, currency, and credit. These roles have been both on the risk side (up to the executive level) and the business side (creating and running a credit derivative business for a large bank). See this interview.
One of the favorite projects in my financial life was serving as a lead investigator for the Examiner appointed by the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy court. Confronted with huge volumes of data, information, and witness testimony, my colleagues and I sifted and sorted and derived conclusions in relatively straightforward terms. (See the Examiner's final report issued in March 2010 and this 60 Minutes segment of April 2012.) Ironically, the root cause of Lehman's downfall was elementary - really it's just a five-minute story.
