Mike Kothakota

Mike Kothakota joined CFP Board as Head of Research in May 2022, where he leads the organization’s research enterprise and develops and executes CFP Board’s research agenda.

Mike develops and conducts studies to examine client outcomes for the public, creates research to identify industry trends, leads business intelligence at CFP Board and develops new research and resources for CFP® practitioners.

Before his appointment at CFP Board, Mike was a financial planning practitioner for 17 years, working at a large regional firm for three years and then his own firm for 14. Mike has provided consulting services to financial technology companies Bento, Inc., IncomeLab™ and Pefin. He was also a partner in the data science firm DataTactix, where he provided data science consulting to government organizations, nonprofits and small businesses. In addition, he has taught financial planning and wealth management courses at Kansas State University, the University of Georgia and Columbia University.

Mike is a Tillman Scholar. He holds a Master of Science degree in Predictive Analytics from Northwestern University and a Ph.D. in Financial Planning from Kansas State University.