The Short, Short Version
My life’s work is to change people’s relationship with money… for the better. Currently, I’m starting a company that will create a body of language to permit transparent communication of portfolio performance. I’m a lover of Learning and autobot for life. As my father put it, I’m not the smartest person you’ll ever meet, but I might be the most resilient.
You can find me on GitHub, LinkedIn, Google+ and pretty much any other site under the handle @benjaminMgross.
The Not-So-Short Version
28 was a big turning point for me… it was the first time I took my life philosophy of “if it hurts, keep going,” and applied it to learning. Up until that point, I had always just tried to memorize everything. I had pushed myself in just about every other area of life: backpacking around the world for a year, life-threatening Outward Bound trips, extreme skiing, alcohol, competitive sports, deeply profound relationships, meditation, consumption in excess — the list goes on. But I never really took advantage of that unique capacity the human mind has to internalize an abstract concept. Sure I graduated Beta Gamma Sigma from the Goizueta School of Business at Emory University in 2002. But that was by hours upon hours of …. you guessed it … memorization.
So in 2006, when I attended a week-long investment management seminar for advisors at the Wharton School of Business and saw all kinds of mathematics I had never seen before (mainly because I took “B-Calc” in undergrad to avoid Calculus I… so when I say “all kinds of mathematics I had never seen before,” I’m really just referring to any mathematics at all), I decided to embark on the last and most exciting growing pain of my life, one that will fulfill for me the remainder of my years — learning.
In 2011 I completed a MS in Computational Finance from Carnegie Mellon University. Then worked as Managing Director of Quantitative Strategies and Product Development for a strategy construction firm (run by one of my all-time favorite people and great friend) and now I’m starting my own company to change the way investors and financial advisors are able to understand and discuss the impacts of portfolio allocation decisions.