The Team
David Kang, MBA, Chairman and CEO
Mr. Kang is Chairman and CEO and is a member of the Executive Committee, leading and driving the strategic vision of the firm globally. He leads business development with the President and leads strategic initiatives with the Senior Advisors. He is Managing Partner of RSMD Investco LLC, the primary shareholder of Ducenta Squared Asset Management and is the CEO and President of the RIA R Squared Inc., an affiliate of RSMD Investco LLC. Mr. Kang has 20+ years experience in the financial markets, investments, and commercial real estate, having managed over $3 billion of assets. Prior to founding RSMD Investco LLC, Mr. Kang ran his family business while creating and managing his family office. Mr. Kang began his career in private wealth at Morgan Stanley Dean Witter. Mr. Kang received his Bachelor of Science degree in Pre-Med at University of California, Irvine and his executive Master of Business Administration degree from University of California, Irvine. He is currently an Advisory Board Member at Merage School of Business i) Center for Real Estate and ii) the Center for Investment and Wealth located at the University of California, Irvine. Mr. Kang has published in the Journal of Medicine and Genetics v.12, No. 4.
Tim Torline, CFA, President of Investments
Mr. Torline has 20 years of investment experience on both buy-side & sell-side trading desks. Most recently, Mr. Torline served as CIO and co-founder of a multi-asset class, systematic hedge-fund that delivered absolute returns based on a proprietary algorithmic trading strategy that he developed in-house. Prior to founding the hedge-fund, he was a Senior Trader for TCW on the global bond desk, helping to manage the duration, volatility, and FX risk for over $150 billion in assets, including $5bln in absolute return funds, as well as enhanced commodity overlay funds. Mr. Torline was directly involved in TCW’s launch of a systematic global macro fund, aimed at employing artificial intelligence trading strategies. Prior to TCW, Mr. Torline worked as a trader for Payden & Rygel and co-managed a $1 billion absolute return fund focused on FX & interest rate derivatives. Prior to TCW, Mr. Torline was at Bear Stearns (later JPMorgan) where he initially worked in the F.A.S.T. group, reverse-engineering securitized bond deals (CDO, RMBS, ABS) and later moved to the MBS trading desk where he ran a profitable 30-year MBS passthrough trading book on the dealer desk. Prior experiences include data analyst positions at various other investment houses on the buy side. Mr. Torline earned a Bachelors of Arts degree in Business from the University of Southern California. Mr. Torline is a CFA® charterholder and previously held NASD Series 3, 7, and 63 licenses.
Joel Damiani, CFA, Chief Investment Officer
Mr. Damiani has over 35 years of investment management experience and was a founding partner of DoubleLine Capital LP in Los Angeles. At DoubleLine, Mr. Damiani was an Executive Vice President, Portfolio Manager and Limited Partner and participated in the Executive Management Committee, Structured Product Committee and Fixed Income Asset Allocation Committee. Mr. Damiani was a senior member of the Mortgage-backed Securities Group and helped oversee management of $53 billion in mortgage-backed securities and $90 billion in Structured Products. Prior to joining-DoubleLine in 2009, Mr. Damiani was a Managing Director and Senior Portfolio Manager at the TCW Group in Los Angeles since 1999. At TCW, Mr. Damiani helped manage over $35 billion in residential mortgage-backed securities and expanded TCW's Asian presence with the addition of $5 billion in asset growth. Previously, Mr. Damiani was a Senior Vice President, Portfolio Manager and head of residential mortgage investments and quantitative research at Back Bay Advisor in Boston. Before that, he was an Assistant Vice President and Portfolio Manager for The Putnam Group. Mr. Damiani holds both a Bachelor of Science degree in Molecular Biology and a Master of Science degree in Finance from the University of Wisconsin. Mr. Damiani is a CFA charterholder.
Steven Ludwig, Chief Compliance Officer
Steven Ludwig is a Senior Principal Consultant with ACA Global serving as an outsourced Chief Compliance Officer for registered investment advisers. In this role he supports firms managing a variety of products including retail mutual funds, ETFs, cryptocurrency and private funds. He has over twenty years of compliance experience. He began his career with J.P. Morgan working in the development and marketing of products supporting the financial needs of state and local governments, including public and private schools. He was tapped by J.P. Morgan to assist in building out a corporate compliance program. He later moved on to join Lazard as a Vice President and Senior Compliance Officer within the investment banking and asset management divisions. He later joined Pershing as a Chief Compliance Officer, before moving on to serve as a Chief Compliance Officer of PIMCO and more recently the Chief Ethics Officer of Fidelity Investments.
Dr. Emilio T. Gonzalez PhD, Senior Advisor to Executive Committee:
Dr. Gonzalez serves as Chairman of Ducenta's Advisory Board and Senior Advisor to Ducenta’s Executive Committee on all local, state, national and international matters as it pertains to developing diversity initiatives. Prior to DSAM, Dr. Gonzalez served as City Manager of the City of Miami, where he led the City's 4400 employees and was responsible for its $1.7 B operating and capital budgets. During his leadership, Miami experienced upgraded municipality credit ratings, $3 Billion in additional infrastructure investment, and settled long-standing municipal union contract issues. Dr. Gonzalez brings consistent leadership and experience having served as Director and CEO of Miami International Airport (MIA), Undersecretary of US Citizenship and Immigration Service with the Department of Homeland Security and Director for Western hemisphere Affairs at the National Security Council at the White House and is a Retired Army Intelligence Officer. He holds a Ph.D. in International Relations from the University of Miami, a Master's degree in National Security and Strategic Studies from the United Sates Navel War College, a Master's degree from Tulane University in Latin American Studies and a Bachelor's degree in International Studies from the University of South Florida. Dr. Gonzalez is active in his home state of Florida where he served on University of South Florida's Advisory Council and Florida's City National Bank Board of Directors. Dr. Gonzalez is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Mark Torline, MBA, Senior Advisor to Executive Committee
Mark has over 40 years of experience in the financial markets and new venture development. In his most recent role Mark served as the Director of the FirePoint Applied Innovation Center (AIC). The AIC is a dedicated prototyping, collaboration, and evaluation facility located in Huntsville Alabama focused on accelerating innovation and technology adoption within the U.S. Army and other branches of the military. The primary mission of the ACI is to identify, develop, and integrate cutting-edge technologies and solutions into the Army's operational capabilities. Prior to his role in FirePoint Mark served as the Director of Wichita State University's Center for Entrepreneurship and Director of Wichita State University's Center for Entrepreneurship and Director of WSU Ventures. In this role Mark was responsible for the creation and advancement of an innovation ecosystem to support the development of early-stage startups founded by local entrepreneurs as well as technology owned by the university. Mark is an experienced innovation manager with demonstrated expertise in both entrepreneurial and large corporate environments. Before coming to Wichita State, Mark served as President of TriLinc Global helping to launch the firm and its flagship TriLinc Global Impact Fund, currently a $750 million social impact investment fund. Prior to TriLinc Mark co-founded Allegiance Capital in 1989, a private investment firm that grew to manage over $5.5 billion for institutional and private wealth clients. In 2008 he negotiated the sale of Allegiance Capital to Macquarie Bank and served as a Managing Director and board member of the Macquarie Funds Group for three years following the sale. Prior to forming Allegiance Capital, Mark held various positions with Govaars & Associates, a botique institutional investment firm, and with Security Pacific Bank. He has extensive financial services industry background in investment portfolio management and administration, asset management, mutual funds, credit oversight and private equity management. Mark holds a B.A. with a major in Marketing from Wichita State University and an MBA in Finance from Northwestern University, Kellog School of Management. Mark is a Member of the National Advisory Council at Wichita State University and served two terms on the Investment Committee for the Wichita State University Foundation.
Dave Gallagher, Senior Advisor, Aerospace and Defense Specialist
Mr. Gallagher is the Associate Director of Strategic Integration at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, responsible for developing and articulating JPL's overall strategy within the aerospace space. He manages JPL's investment budget and Space Technology Office, oversees all legislative affairs, leads strategic partnerships with domestic and international space agencies, and supervises new business formulation - notably, JPL's Innovation Foundry. Mr. Gallagher has over 35 years of experience in the industry, where he budgeted $500 million across 20 program offices, teams, and offices while completely restructuring JPL's National Security Program Office in 2015 and their Exoplanet Program in 2013. Throughout his career, Mr. Gallagher has led teams of JPL staff and Caltech scientists to manage a multitude of initiatives, including a $500 million advanced mirror development project to deliver a first-of-a-kind telescope testbed, a $1.6 billion precision astrometry and exoplanet mission, a $700 million project constructing the Spitzer Space Telescope as part of NASA's Great Observatories program, a $10 million infrared radiometer for the Mars Climate Orbiter, and a drop physics module experimenting on the STS-73. NASA has recognized Mr. Gallagher for his work on multiple occasions, awarding him with an Exceptional Achievement Medal in 1994 and two Outstanding Leadership Medals in 2004 and 2006. Mr. Gallagher began his career with JPL in 1989 as an Integration and Test Manager, where he led the team that built and launched the Wide Field Planetary Camera on the Hubble Space Telescope responsible for correcting the spherical aberration of the telescope that subsequently yielded the highest-ever resolution astronomical images from space.
Mr. Gallagher earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from Purdue University. He is an Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and a Fellow of the American Astronomical Society. Mr. Gallagher currently serves as an Elected Member of the International Academy of Astronautics. He has also published multiple works as an author and was a member of the James Webb Space Telescope Independent Review (Sen. Mikulski Panel). Recently, Mr. Gallagher was nominated to the Board of Advisors of the National Security Space Association.
Brian Kim, CFA, Hold Co. Member
Mr. Kim is a partner at RSMD Investco LLC, the primary shareholder of Ducenta Squared Asset Management, responsible for strategic initiatives and acquisitions. Mr. Kim has over 28 years of fixed income experience with expertise in interest rates and foreign exchange derivatives, structured credit, liability management and debt restructuring. Prior to joining RSMD, he worked at Greylock Capital Management where he was responsible for Investments in Greece and non-performing loans. Prior to Greylock, Mr. Kim was a senior advisor to the Minister of Finance in Greece in 2015. Previously, Mr. Kim was a Managing Director at Lehman Brothers International Europe in London where he led the recovery of assets and negotiating creditors claims post-bankruptcy and where he helped build the derivative and debt capital markets group pre-bankruptcy. Prior to Lehman, he held various positions in derivatives origination, emerging markets debt capital markets and liability management at HSBC (London), JPMorgan (New York) and Bear Stearns (New York). Mr. Kim earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in History from Williams College and is a CFA® charterholder. Mr. Kim previously held NASD Series 7 and 63 licenses and was an Approved Person by the FSA (UK).
Ryan O'Malley, CFA, MBA, Senior Portfolio Manager
Mr. Is a Senior Portfolio Manager and serves as the Head of Credit. He is the lead portfolio manager for credit focused strategies at DSAM and is a member of the Investment Policy Committee. He is a key member of the investment teams for Core Plus, Core, and Gov/Credit strategies in addition to his role as head of credit strategies.
Mr. O'Malley has over 20 years of experience in the investment management industry working as a trader, analyst, and PM within at both long-only and hedge fund firms. Prior to Ducenta Squared, Mr. O'Malley has had progressive roles in portfolio management across several firms including Oaktree Capital Management, Payden & Rygel, and Sage Advisory Services. Prior to working at Payden, Mr. O'Malley was a partner and Portfolio Manager at Origin Capital Management, a long/short equity hedge fund focused on the Healthcare sector founded by members of Soros Fund Management.
Mr. O'Malley has managed portfolios for large seperate accounts mandates as well as wrap accounts on major platforms. In his role at Sage Advisory, Mr. O'Malley developed, marketed , and managed a credit-focused Exchange Traded Fund (ETF). Mr. O'Malley holds a B.A. with a major in Economics from Columbia University, where he as a memeber of the football team. He obtained an MBA in Finance from the UCLA Anderson School of Management with a concentration in Finance. Mr. O'Malley is a is a CFA charter holder.
Mark Sun, MS, Securitized Products
Mr. Sun serves as Senior Portfolio Strategist, focusing on Asset Backed Securities (ABS). His responsibilities include evaluating the broader trends in the ABS market within the existing and projected macroeconomic backdrops, conducting data and statistical analysis of the financial market performance, and working with the investment team on providing top-down ABS strategy. Mr. Sun has over 26 years of fixed income experience. Prior to Ducenta, Mr. Sun was a Vice President at Santander Consumer USA Inc. for seven years, managing a team of five bankers, and overseeing $15 billion+ of syndicated and bilateral warehouse and private term credit facilities backed by retail/auto loan/lease portfolio with 12+ banking and financial institutions. Prior to Santander, Mr. Sun held various positions including Managing Director at Brean Capital LLC and Gleacher & Company Securities focusing on both structured and capital raising solutions and growth stage and midcap specialty finance companies and Executive Director at J.P. Morgan Securities Inc. where he was head of ABCP/Term Securitization Asia (ex Japan). Mr. Sun began his career at Fitch Ratings where he was responsible for rating new ABS issuance. Mr. Sun holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in in Economics with a Minor in Mathematics and from the University of Rochester, New York and a Master of International Affairs with a specialization in International Business from Columbia University, School of International Affairs.
Michael Leung, Senior Portfolio Strategist
Mr. Leung serves as Senior Portfolio Strategist, focusing on Structured Products where he advises on tactical opportunities. He has over two decades of experience in the financial services industry, predominantly in structured finance where he originated, structured, restructured and traded over a trillion dollars of such par faced notional bonds. Prior to heading back to receive his MSc, Mr. Leung was a Director who headed the ABS and MBS trading unit of Deutsche Bank AG (DB) in Singapore, managing structuring and trading of those products in Asia, ex-Japan. Prior to his DB Singapore work, Mr. Leung worked in New York for UBS Securities LLC as an Executive Director and Citigroup Global Markets Inc. as a Director where he headed the structuring groups which created structured products. He served as head structuring agent at both firms for a wide variety of structured products from MBS and ABS to CMBS, REITs, CDO’s, CLO’s, CLN’s, and NIM Securities. On top of structuring responsibilities, Mr. Leung also worked on the restructuring of debt and corporations. At UBS, Mr. Leung also spear-headed proprietary and technological developments (e.g. product development, Special Situations, and Investment Banking Division mandates). Prior to UBS, and Citigroup, Mr. Leung also held various roles at Merrill Lynch, Moody’s Investors Services, and KPMG. Mr. Leung earned his MSc in Economics and Business Administration from the Norwegian School of Economics in Bergen, Norway in August, 2012 and earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Operations Research from Columbia University in the City of New York in May, 1993.
Mike Sanchez, MBA, Securitized Products
Mr. Sanchez is Senior Portfolio Manager – Head of Securitized Products, responsible for managing and trading of residential mortgage, commercial mortgage and asset-backed securities. Mr. Sanchez has more than 30 years of investment industry experience including most recently as director of fixed income trading at CastleOak Securities. Prior to that, he was vice president, institutional mortgage/ABS sales at RBC Capital, senior vice president and proprietary trader at Countrywide Securities, portfolio manager at Hotchkis and Wiley and senior vice president/portfolio manager at Provident Investment Counsel. He was also portfolio manager/analyst for Arco Investment Management Co. Mr. Sanchez's portfolio management experience includes oversight and investment of both structured products and credit sectors, including investment grade credit and municipal securities. Mr. Sanchez holds a Bachelor of Science in Applied Chemistry degree from Harvey Mudd College and a Masters of Business Administration from University of Chicago Booth School of Business. Mr. Sanchez previously held NASD Series 3, 7, and 63 licenses.
John Heitkemper, CFA, MBA, Credit Strategist
Mr. Heitkemper is a strategist focusning on high yield bonds and leveraged loans. Mr. Heitkemper joined Bradford & Marzec, now part of Ducenta Squared Asset Management, initially in 2004 and again in 2011. Mr. Heitkemper has more than 20 years of investment industry experience. Prior to joining Bradford & Marzec, he held investment grade and high yield fixed income research positions with Macquarie Group/Four Corners, Franklin Templeton Investments and Hotchkis & Wiley. He began his career as a research assistant in the International Finance division within the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics from Pomona College and a Master of Business Administration with concentrations in finance and economics from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business where he graduated with honors and was nominated to Beta Gamma Sigma. He is a CFA charterholder.
John Wlodek, MBA, Research Analyst
Mr. Wlodek serves as Head of Research and is responsible for maintaining the firm’s credit research process and supervising the credit research analyst team. He is also responsible for conducting credit analysis and investment recommendations across various corporate industries and issuers within the leveraged loan, high yield and investment grade markets. Mr. Wlodek joined Bradford & Marzec, now part of Ducenta Squared Asset Management, in 2003. Previously, Mr. Wlodek worked as a senior vice president with Imperial Capital, where he gained significant experience in the research and trading of high yield bonds, bank loans and special situation investments, and the formulation of investment recommendations regarding distressed and bankrupt issuers. He also has experience as an M&A advisor with Barrington Associates, a banker with the Industrial Bank of Japan, and a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) with Deloitte Haskins & Sells and McGladrey, Hendrickson & Pullen. Mr. Wlodek's previous industry sector exposure as an M&A advisor, banker and CPA included aerospace, airlines, business services, consumer products, food and beverage, hospitality and leisure, paper and forest products, real estate, retailing, technology, and telecommunications. Mr. Wlodek earned a Bachelor of Science in accounting from Indiana
Han Bae, Research Analyst
Han Bae has 7 years of experience in the financial services industry, predominantly in Financial Institutions Coverage where he participated in new business development and relationship management with various Financial Institutions in South Korea, including Banks, Securities Firms, Pensions and Insurance Companies. During his time at R Squared ML Company, Mr. Bae has assisted in developing new business relationships with Financial Institutions in South Korea and led to execution of new Global Master Securities Lending Agreement (GMSLA) deals with top Securities Firms in South Korea. Prior to R Squared ML Company, Mr. Bae was a Junior Relationship Manager at BNP Paribas Seoul Branch, supporting Senior Relationship Managers in variety of financial services such as FX, Derivatives and M&A. Mr. Bae began his career at Project Financing Department in SK Securities, where he participated in Renewable Energy Financing Projects. Mr. Bae earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Global Economics from Sungkyunkwan University.
David Cabral, Research Analyst
Mr. Cabral is a junior research analyst and is responsible for conducting fundamental credit analysis and providing investment recommendations across a variety of industries under the supervision of the Co-Heads of Research. Prior to joining Ducenta, Mr. Cabral was an investment analyst at the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians where he conducted due diligence on the tribe's investment opportunities and led analysis of the gaming industry. Mr. Cabral began his career as an analyst at Pismo Ventures where he conducted due diligence on early-stage investment opportunities. Mr. Cabral holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from the University of California Riverside and a Master of finance from the University of California at Irvine's Paul Merage School of Business.
Mark Kavolius CIMA Client Relations
Mr. Kavolius is a Client Management Portfolio Manager and supports the firm’s relationships with clients, prospects, institutional consultants and financial advisors. Mr. Kavolius joined Bradford & Marzec, now part of Ducenta Squared Asset Management, in 2010. Mr. Kavolius has more than 28 years of industry experience and previously served as Director of Sales and Marketing for Stonebridge Advisors. He also worked in senior sales and marketing positions at Mellon Financial, Dreyfus Investments and Liberty Financial. Mr. Kavolius holds a Bachelor of Science degree in business management from the University of Massachusetts. He has earned the CIMA designation from the Wharton School of Business through IMCA. He is also a member of the editorial board for the IMCA publication “Investments and Wealth Monitor.”
Kenneth Ro, Client Relations
Kenneth Ro is a Private Wealth/Institutional Client Relationship Manager with 20 years of industry experience. His duties include supporting business development and client management of existing and new clients in private wealth and on the institutional level. Prior to joining Ducenta Squared Asset Management, he was with the Private Client Services division of Deutsche Bank Alex. Brown, a Vice President at Morgan Stanley Private Wealth Management and a Vice President at UBS Private Client Group. In addition to Wealth Management, he is also experienced in Alternative Investments as a former Director of Business Development with Group 11 (Palo Alto/Beverly Hills based VC Fund) and Vice President/Private Equity for ZT Corporate. Ken received a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration, emphasis in Finance, from the University of Southern California (Marshall School of Business). Series 65.
Caleigh Clark, Client Relations
Ms. Clark joined Ducenta Squared Asset Management in 2022 as the assistant to the Executive Committee. Her responsibilities include overall office duties, graphic design projects, coordination of office administration and procedures, Executive Committee planning and follow up, and assisting the Client Relations department. Ms. Clark was on the golf team at the California State University, Los Angeles where she finished her Degree, Bachelor of Arts, with a focus in Graphic Design.
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Byung Chun Kim, CFA, CFP, Operations
Mr. Kim is a Deputy Operations Manager and is responsible for overseeing several key areas of the middle and back office functions for the firm. Those functions include trade communication and settlement, reconciliation, and corporate action monitoring and processing. Prior to joining Ducenta Squared, he worked at Beach Point Capital, a Hedge Fund located in Los Angeles, as a senior analyst where he performed various operational tasks, including performance, cash and collateral management, trade support, and corporate actions analysis. Prior to Beach Point, he was a leader of the corporate actions team at the TCW Group. He also worked as an equity trader at Wedbush Securities, where he investigated arbitrage trading opportunities for the institutional clients in Korea. Mr. Kim holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Finance and Real Estate from Georgia State University. He is a CFA® charterholder and CFP® practitioner.
Leonard Shonka, Operations
Mr. Shonka is a Junior Operations Analyst with Ducenta Squared. He is responsible for assisting the Deputy Office Manager in several back-office functions for the firm; those include trade communication, settlement, and corporate action monitoring. Prior to joining Ducenta Squared, Mr. Shonka worked on a title insurance desk at Doma Title Company where he helped issue title insurance for commercial and residential real estate transactions. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Business Economics and History from the University of California, Santa Barbara.