Chris Carsley, CFA, CAIA
Chief Investment Officer & Managing Partner
Chris Carsley brings over 25 years of investment industry expertise specializing in corporate and venture finance, business valuation, business operations efficiency, regulatory compliance practices, securities research, portfolio management, arbitrage trading and hedging.
Previously, Chris was Managing Director of Bluewater Global Ltd., an international holding company where he performed corporate analysis and invested in a variety of direct and indirect venture capital projects.
Prior to entering venture capital investments, Chris was responsible for the creation of the business risk and operational due diligence program as a senior member of the investment research and analysis team at Benchmark Plus Management. He was also the head execution trader of futures, options and OTC based trades for the Benchmark Funds. Chris was a trader for Paloma Securities where he negotiated and structured ISDAs, securities lending, and financing agreements that targeted global arbitrage opportunities primarily for Canadian and European markets. Chris was also a senior member of the hedge fund security finance team performing due diligence for the Paloma hedge funds to assist in enhanced finance/margin treatment and short coverage costs.
Chris started his professional investment career as a portfolio manager for Key Asset Management managing institutional and private client discretionary accounts and was responsible for sales, asset research/valuation and portfolio management.
Chris was a member of the Charles Wright Academy Endowment Committee, serving on the Committee since March 2017. He co-founded the Seattle Alternative Investment Association in 2004 and is Co-Head of the executive board of the Seattle CAIA chapter launched in 2017. He earned his Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation in 1998, Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst in 2011, and holds a BBA from the University of Portland.