Michael brings a wealth of experience in bridging the gap between technology and business. As a highly entrepreneurial leader, he has a remarkable track record of building and transforming organizations, driving innovation, and leading customer-focused teams to achieve outstanding results. His diverse technical background, extensive hands-on business experience, and Harvard Business School education make him an exceptionally dynamic and high-performing individual.

Richard Itri is Chief Innovation Officer at ECI. Rich has over 22 years of IT executive experience, spending his entire career managing IT within the financial services industry. Prior to joining ECI Rich was Managing Director and Chief Technology Officer for PJT Partners, a boutique investment bank, Principal and Chief Information Officer for Sky Road and held Chief Information Officer positions at Arrowhawk Capital Partners and Arbalet Capital Partners. Over the years, Rich has developed and managed innovative, business aligned platforms, that drive revenue and operational efficiencies. Rich holds positions on several Advisory Boards and volunteers his time to help non-profits leverage technology.

Lee Schare, a founding partner of FinServ Consulting, is a thought leader and expert on systems and processes at investment firms. He has spent his career providing guidance and hands-on expertise to hedge funds, private equity firms, investment banks, and asset management firms. Mr. Schare has a strong combination of accounting, business, and technical knowledge, as well as broad exposure to most vendors that interact within the alternative and traditional asset management community. With over 20 years of experience as a Controller, he possesses deep knowledge of fund and management company accounting. In addition, Mr. Schare has led many projects across the front and back office, and can therefore offer clients guidance on improving efficiencies. Mr. Schare is an avid sports fan and loves attending events with his son, who has followed his passion for the Mets, Knicks, and Steelers. He has a goal of visiting a different stadium every year. His wife and daughter are fully supportive of this objective. Prior to establishing FinServ, Mr. Schare was a Director of Consulting Services for CGI-AMS, and a Vice President in Deutsche Bank’s CFO organization, where he led a global general ledger project. Earlier in his career, Mr. Schare worked as a Manager for Ernst & Young, where he led large teams within their SAP practice.

Howard Weinstein is the founder of FinServ Consulting. He established FinServ with the mission to provide alternative asset management firms with the most advanced systems, best practices insight and a structured, methodological approach to systems integrations and development projects. Throughout his career, Mr. Weinstein has provided consulting on systems, business processes and technical architectures to some of the world’s top alternative asset managers. He has over two decades of experience providing consulting services to the financial services industry, with a focus on building scalable, first-class operating environments. Howard is an avid inline skater and loves to push himself to his limits. Howard completed the Athens to Atlanta 86 mile skate marathon 10 times, most recently in 2011 because he wanted to share this passion with his children. One of the things he loves about speed skating is the adrenaline rush of speeding down a hill, he says he often “feels the need for speed!” Prior to establishing FinServ, Mr. Weinstein served as a Senior Manager at BearingPoint (formerly KPMG Consulting), where he provided business and systems consulting to major investment banks and alternative asset management businesses. Earlier in his career, Mr. Weinstein was a consultant in the Performance Improvement Practice of Ernst & Young Consulting. Mr. Weinstein is a frequent speaker at industry conferences and an active participant on financial services technology steering committees. Mr. Weinstein sits on the Dean’s Advisory Board of the University of Albany’s School of Business. Mr. Weinstein has a B.S. in Business Administration with a Concentration in Management Information Systems and an English minor from the University at Albany.