Abbott J. Keller, CFA, Chief Investment Officer
Prior to founding Kestrel, Abbott was a strategist and member of the Investment Decision Group at Concord Capital Management for twelve years and also was a Senior Investment Strategist for seven years at American National Bank of Chicago. He earned his B.S. in Finance from the University of Oregon, where he received the 1972 Wall Street Journal Finance Award. He received an M.B.A. from the University of California at Berkeley in 1973, graduating in the top ten percent of his class. Abbott has a Chartered Financial Analyst designation.
Abbott’s areas of specific expertise include transportation, media, utilities, and forest products. He has had analytical responsibility for all these sectors for over thirty years. This background has given him considerable insight into the dynamics of regulated industries. His experience as a strategist and portfolio manager has allowed him to broaden his knowledge to include numerous other areas. Abbott has served on the Board of Trustees at the University of Oregon Foundation.
David J. Steirman, President
David has been the President of Kestrel since its inception. For the previous twelve years, he was at Concord Capital Management where his responsibilities included theme development, investment research, and management of finance, operations, systems and trading. Prior to Concord, David was Director of Investment Systems at American National Bank of Chicago. He was also associated with the Harris Bank’s Management Sciences area in Chicago. David graduated magna cum laude from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 1976 and received his M.B.A. from the University of Chicago in 1979. David serves on the Board of Directors of several non-profit organizations.
Lee Kaplan, CFA, CPA, Vice President, Equity Research
Lee started his professional career as a public accountant where he gained deep knowledge of the banking, insurance, asset management and real estate industries, and honed his skill in complex financial modeling. He joined Kestrel in 2004 as an equity analyst. His expert knowledge of accounting, financial reporting and financial industry practices provide the foundation for deep fundamental company research at Kestrel. He works with the CIO to identify the drivers of revenue and expense for each company being considered for portfolio inclusion, along with the risk factors to each of those drivers. His role contributes to managing and minimizing unintended risk in the portfolio.
In addition to fundamental research, Lee’s responsibilities include performance attribution and analysis, providing quarterly performance commentaries, responding to investment-related inquiries from current and prospective clients, and meeting with institutional consultants and high-net-worth clients. Lee also applies his accounting expertise to ensure compliance with tax regulation and accounting standards for Kestrel Investment Fund LP, as well as corporate level accounting/tax issues at Kestrel. In addition, he supervises investment and finance special projects as needed.
Lee earned a B.S. in Accounting (cum laude) in 1993 and Master of Business Taxation in 1995 from the University of Southern California. He also earned an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago in 2003. Lee holds the CFA® designation, is licensed as a Certified Public Accountant and Accredited in Business Valuation (ABV®) by the AICPA.
Gregg S. Uyekubo, CFA, Vice President, Trading
Gregg joined Kestrel in 1998. Prior to joining Kestrel, Gregg was an Equity Analyst at Crescent Capital Management Company. He received his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California, Davis in 1987 and earned his M.B.A. from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas in 1996. Gregg was awarded the Chartered Financial Analyst designation in 2001.