Raymond C. Stewart
Raymond C. Stewart, the founder and Chief Investment Officer of RASARA Strategies, Inc., has been in the investment business for over 25 years. 

He began his career at Salomon Brothers, Inc., the investment banking and securities brokerage firm. Starting as a part time employee at the firm in 1979 while attending graduate school, Mr. Stewart was responsible for developing banking industry statistical databases. Upon obtaining his MBA degree from the Columbia Graduate School of Business in 1980, he accepted a full-time position at Salomon Brothers as a securities research analyst, specializing in banking industry companies. Instrumental in refining and adding coverage to the research department’s banking industry product line, Mr. Stewart was a pioneer in applying new valuation techniques to bank stocks. 

In 1983, he joined Warren Marcus, a former Partner at Salomon Brothers, and helped form the investment management firm WRM Equity Management, Inc. Mr. Stewart continues to act as a co-manager at this investment management firm that follows a higher risk/higher return bank stock investment strategy than RASARA. 

Mr. Stewart founded RASARA Strategies, Inc. in 1992.

His views on bank stock investing have appeared in Barron’s, Business Week, Black Enterprise Magazine and Gendai Monthly, a Japanese business publication. 

Mr. Stewart also holds a B.S. degree from Cornell University, where he majored in Economics and Public Policy.

Warren R. Marcus 
Warren R. Marcus serves as Senior Advisor to RASARA Strategies, Inc. He has spent his 45 year career in various aspects of the investment business — from sell side research analyst to investment banking partner to portfolio manager. 

Mr. Marcus began on Wall Street in 1959 as a research trainee with Merrill Lynch. In 1960, he joined M.A. Schapiro & Co., a leading investment firm specializing in bank securities, and became that firm’s senior bank analyst within a year. In 1964, Mr. Marcus joined the newly established bank research operation at Salomon Brothers. In 1966, he was appointed manager of the firm’s Bank Stock Research Department, and was subsequently made General Partner in 1972. In 1983, Mr. Marcus formed WRM Equity Management, Inc., an investment advisory boutique specializing in regional banking and selected thrift institutions. 

During the years he spent at Salomon Brothers, Mr. Marcus was widely recognized as one of the investment community’s leading experts on banking. He was twice cited as the outstanding bank analyst in the U.S. in the annual research surveys conducted by Institutional Investor magazine. In addition to his research responsibilities, he played a major role in Salomon Brothers’ successful effort to establish a broad base of investment banking relationships with major U.S. commercial banks. 

Mr. Marcus is a past President and Director of the Bank and Financial Analysts Association of New York, and has served as an advisor to various bank regulatory agencies.