Brian Thompson, PhD, CAIA
Chief Risk Officer and Founder
Brian Thompson is Alambic’s President and Chief Risk Officer. A perpetual academic, Brian routinely immerses himself in novel areas of study and pursues them to mastery. He is adept at relating complex concepts to the uninitiated and his multi-disciplinary background allows him to find insights inaccessible to others. While pursuing his PhD at MIT, Brian completed a concentration in statistics and was a tenured professor before pursing a career in industry. He began his research in finance by deriving the Black-Scholes Model for derivative pricing and modeling the demand-driven mispricing of pari-mutuel betting spreads. An accomplished oboist, Brian finds symmetry between music and quantitative finance, as excellence in both disciplines is found at the intersection of predictable rhythm and emotion.
From 1998 to 2002, Mr. Thompson was a Distinguished Member of Technical Staff and then Senior Member of Technical Staff at Lucent Technologies, Agere Systems and Legerity, Inc., successively. For the 10 years prior to 1998, he was a Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of Kansas (tenured in 1993), and, from 1986 to 1988, he was a Member of Technical Staff at Analog Devices.
Mr. Thompson received his B.S. degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Kansas in 1981, an M.S. degree in Chemical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1983, and a Ph.D. degree in Chemical Engineering, with a minor in Statistics, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1986. He was awarded the Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA) designation in 2008.
Albert Richards, PhD, CFA
CEO and Founder
Albert Richards is a 20-year veteran of the financial services industry. Before starting Alambic Investment Management to develop systematic stock selection strategies, he perfected the art of tearing apart financial statements to find value and opportunity. As a sell-side analyst and head of research within two large global investment banks, Bert became adept at identifying and quantifying the key drivers of equity valuation and company quality as well as the behavioral pitfalls that create market opportunities.
As Alambic’s primary strategy architect, Bert brings his insight in equity research to the development of innovative stock selection models and his management expertise to the leadership of the firm.
Prior to becoming a founding partner of Alambic, Bert was Managing Director and Head of European Equity Research (1994-2000) for Citigroup (previously Salomon Brothers), European Internet and Global Technology strategist (2000-2003) and Small and Mid-Cap strategist (2003-2006). From 1986 to 1994 Mr. Richards worked in equity research for Credit Suisse First Boston in New York and London.
Mr. Richards received his B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Iowa State University in 1981, an M.S. in Chemical Engineering from MIT in 1983, a Ph.D. degree in Chemical Engineering from MIT in 1986, and an M.B.A. from the Sloan School of Management (MIT), also in 1986. He was awarded the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation in 1990.