CHAD CUNNINGHAM, CHIEF INVESTMENT OFFICER
A proven bottom-up Portfolio Manager with experience on both the buy and sell side.
A CFA Charterholder he holds over ten years experience in the finance and asset management sectors. Chad began his career at Morgan Stanley in New York, working in the Private Wealth Management division. Chad moved to the Galleon Group, a large hedge fund focused on the technology sector, where he worked on the equities trading desk for nearly three years as an assistant trader. Next, Chad spent time as the primary trader for Schachter Capital, another hedge fund focused on the technology space.
Chad left Schachter to attend the Owen Graduate School of Management at Vanderbilt University where he was awarded an MBA and induction into Beta Gamma Sigma, the international honors society for business school students. During Chad's time at Owen, he worked during his summers as an equity research Associate for Morgan Keegan performing research on companies and trends in the Homeland Security sector.
Additionally, Chad achieved the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation. Upon graduation, Chad began working at Dunavant Capital Management in Memphis, TN, a division of private cotton merchant Dunavant Enterprises, helping to manage an institutional-class portfolio of hedge funds, private equity funds, and direct investments. He also managed an index hedge overlay strategy for DCM. Chad has been quoted in The New York Times, Forbes, CNN Money, The Street.com and other publications. Chad co-founded IronHorse Capital with Kerr Tigrett and David Waddell.
DAVID WADDELL, CHIEF MACRO STRATEGIST
A macro-minded specialist with strategic operational focus.
After graduating from the University of the South with a BA in Economics, David began his career with Charles Schwab & Co., Inc. in Phoenix, AZ, where he also earned his NASD Series 7 (Registered Representative) and Series 63 (Blue Sky) licenses. After being recognized for his outstanding business development record, David was promoted to the San Francisco-based Institutional Strategic Accounts Team, which interfaced with the Big 5 accounting firms and Schwab's largest customers.
David left Schwab to continue his education at the graduate level in Boston.While earning his MBA degree with a concentration in finance and investments at the F.W. Olin School at Babson College, he was appointed by the college Trustees to manage a team of seven portfolio managers overseeing the student-managed portion of Babson's endowment fund.
After earning his MBA and his experience at Schwab he took over his family business, Waddell & Associates. W&A is a client service oriented wealth management firm located in Memphis, TN. Since David took over at the helm he has grown the business from managing just under $150 Million to having assets that now exceed $550 Million. After years at W&A, David saw an opportunity for a complementary product based financial business to start and co-founded IronHorse Capital Management.
A civic leader in Memphis, David acted as founding President for Mpact Memphis. He was Chairman for The Leadership Academy and Chairman of the RISE Foundation. David sits on boards for MIFA and the President's Council of Memphis Symphony Orchestra, and was a member of the 2004 class of Leadership Memphis. He has also been recognized as one of Memphis' "Top 40 under 40" by the Memphis Business Journal, and was a finalist for "Executive of the Year" in 2007. He has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Investment News, Institutional Investor News along with other publications and on television for CNBC, Fox News, Fox Business, CBS News Channel 3 and ABC news Channel.
Kerr Tigrett, President
A driven, goal-oriented operator with strong business development skills.
He began his career working on Capitol Hill during his summers off from attending the University of Virginia. In Washington, he worked from a page to an intern for Sen. George Mitchell (D-ME), Sen. Robert Dole (R- KS), and Sen. Bill Frist (R-TN). After school and politics he shifted his focus to finance. He joined an event-driven based hedge fund in Los Angeles named Strome Investment Management. Kerr began at Strome as an Associate in the Sales and Marketing department and through the years worked his way up to Managing Director of Sales and Marketing. While there he raised just under half of the assets for the firm and gained the Strome funds access onto Société General’s, Lyxor platform. After he left Strome, Kerr moved to Tennessee to look for a more entrepreneurial opportunity. He found it with JALP Global, a product sourcing and logistics conglomerate, owned by Justin Timberlake and family. As President, he ran the business between JALP’s offices in Tennessee and Hong Kong, China, developing products for clients such as MGM, Live Nation and Target. After leaving JALP, he moved back to finance and co-founded IronHorse Capital where he earned his NASD Series 65 designation (Registered Investment Advisor).
In the civic arena Kerr sits on the boards of Memphis in May International Festival, The University of Memphis Advisory Athletic Board, The Smithsonian’s Rock and Soul Museum, and The Leadership Academy and is a former board member of Mpact Memphis, The Rise Foundation and The Phoenix Club. He has been honored as one of Business TN Magazine’s Top 30 under 30 and The Memphis Business Journal’s Top 40 under 40.
