Zack Ellison

As Managing General Partner and Chief Investment Officer of Applied Real Intelligence (“A.R.I.”), Zack Ellison is responsible for leading the firm’s management and investment activities, including sourcing, due diligence, structuring and execution, and portfolio management.

Previously, Mr. Ellison was Director, U.S. Fixed Income at Sun Life Financial, one of the world’s largest asset managers with more than $800 billion in assets under management. At Sun Life, he was responsible, with the team, for managing in excess of $25 billion of fixed income assets across more than 70 portfolios with varying mandates while contributing to the firm’s credit investment strategy, portfolio management, trading, and risk management practices. Primary sector coverage included financial institutions (banks, insurance, asset managers, specialty lenders, Business Development Companies), consumer products, food & beverage, utilities, REITs, transportation (autos, airlines, rails), aerospace & defense, and industrials. Secondary coverage included telecommunications, technology, media, energy, basic materials, healthcare, and pharma.

Prior to joining Sun Life, Mr. Ellison worked on the Global Credit Trading desk in the top-ranked Fixed Income division of Deutsche Bank, the largest bank in the world at the time with $2.8 trillion in assets. At Deutsche Bank, he traded crossover-rated corporate bonds, credit default swaps, hybrid securities, and preferred stock across financials, energy, utilities, autos, and diversified industrials.

Preceding Deutsche Bank, and during the Global Financial Crisis, he was a banker focused on leveraged loans within the media and telecom sectors at Scotia Bank where he oversaw $2 billion of the team’s $6 billion loan portfolio. During this tumultuous period, Scotia Bank, Canada’s third largest bank with greater than $500 billion in total assets, was one of the world’s top performing global financial institutions in terms of fewest loan losses.

Mr. Ellison began his career in the financial services industry in New York at Thomson Reuters within the firm’s Corporate Advisory Services division, where he served the majority of Fortune 500 energy and utility companies as an investor relations advisor.

Currently, Mr. Ellison is a Board Member of the CFA Society of Los Angeles, a Board Member of the Southern California Chapter of the CAIA Association, and the West Coast Regional Director of the Hedge Fund Association. Additionally, he is the Chair of the CIO Advisory Council and Chair of the University Relations Committee with CFA Society Los Angeles. He is also a member of the Milken Institute’s Young Leaders Circle (YLC) and sits on various leadership sub-committees of Tech Coast Angels (TCA), the largest angel investing group in the United States.

Mr. Ellison holds an MBA with concentrations in Analytic Finance and Economics from The University of Chicago Booth School of Business along with an MS in Risk Management from New York University’s Stern School of Business. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Swarthmore College while majoring in Economics. Additionally, he holds the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA) designations and previously held FINRA Series 7, 55, and 63 licenses.