Catherine Nicholas, Managing Partner & Chief Investment Officer
Catherine Nicholas is Managing Partner/Chief Investment Officer and co-founder of Nicholas Investment Partners. She is the lead portfolio manager for US Small Cap and US Growth Equity. She is also the back-up portfolio manager for Convertibles/Convertibles Arbitrage.
She previously served as the Global Chief Investment Officer of Nicholas-Applegate until the firm’s sale to Allianz in January 2001. While at Nicholas-Applegate, Catherine led the firm’s investment teams including U.S., International, Emerging Markets, Quantitative equity, Convertibles and High Yield and was the architect of its Global Equity, Global Select, Global Small Cap, Global Healthcare and Global Tech portfolio management strategies. As CIO, Catherine applied quantitative tools and techniques to assist with the firm’s fundamental stock research. After the firm’s sale, Catherine served on the Nicholas-Applegate Executive Committee and the Allianz Dresdner Asset Management US Equity Committee.
Before assuming the position of Global Chief Investment Officer in 1997, Catherine served six years as Lead Portfolio Manager of all US Equities. While in this role, she developed international and emerging market strategies applying the firm’s philosophy and approach that had been successfully used in capturing opportunity in US markets. After joining Nicholas-Applegate in 1987 as an analyst, Catherine was quickly promoted to Lead Portfolio Manager of US Small and Mini Cap Growth products which she managed until 1997.
Previously, Catherine was Vice President at Professional Asset Securities, where she focused on analyzing financial institutions, and served as a research analyst at Pacific Century Advisors.
Catherine currently serves on the advisory board of the USC Marshall School of Business and Rady Children's Hospital. She previously served on the investment boards of Francis Parker School, Kids Korp., Scripps Hospital and the YMCA. She earned her B.S. in Business Administration, cum laude, and her M.B.A. in Finance from the University of Southern California. Catherine has 27 years of investment experience.
John Wylie, Partner/Portfolio Manager
John Wylie is a Partner and Portfolio Manager.He is the lead portfolio manager for Convertibles and Convertible Arbitrage and is Catherine’s back-up portfolio for US Small Cap and US Growth Equity.
Prior to joining Nicholas Investment Partners in 2007, John was co-founder and Co-Chief Investment Officer of CapitalWorks Investment Partners where he was the lead portfolio manager for Convertible Arbitrage and Micro Cap strategies. Previously, John was President of Nicholas-Applegate Mutual Funds and Chief Investment Officer of their Investor Services Group. Prior to 1998, he was the Lead Portfolio Manager of the Growth & Income team and was directly involved in the management of convertibles, convertible arbitrage, fixed income, and balanced portfolios.
Before joining Nicholas-Applegate in 1987, he worked with Metropolitan Life Insurance Company for six years. John earned his B.A. in American Studies, cum laude, from Amherst College. He currently serves as a trustee and chair of the investment committee for the San Diego Foundation. John has over 30 years of investment experience.
Arthur Nicholas, Senior Partner
Art Nicholas is a Senior Partner and co-founder of Nicholas Investment Partners. Art serves as an advisor to the portfolio management and research process as well as the firm’s business management. Although he does not have day-to-day responsibilities in managing portfolios for all the firm’s offered strategies, he does provide the senior members of the investment team with additional equity market research support.
Previously, he co-founded Nicholas-Applegate in 1984, and served as Chairman and CEO until the firm’s sale to Allianz in January 2001. An innovator throughout his career, Art applied his early discovery/change at the margin investment philosophy to establish many asset classes now common today such as Micro Cap, Mid Cap and Global equity. He also successfully extended this philosophy to the high yield, convertible and non-US markets. Among his contributions to investment disciplines, Art systematized the process of using dynamic quantitative models to find value-added performance. After the firm’s sale, Art served on the Nicholas-Applegate Executive Committee and was a member of the Allianz Dresdner Asset Management Executive Committee.
Before founding Nicholas-Applegate, Art was Managing Director and Chief Investment Officer at Pacific Century Advisors, an investment subsidiary of Security Pacific Corporation. In addition, he was First Vice President and Manager of the institutional accounts division at Security Pacific Bank.Previously, he was a Senior Portfolio Manager at San Diego Trust & Savings Bank.
He currently serves on the board and investment committee of the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum. He earned his B.S. in Finance from San Diego State University and has over 40 years of investment experience.
Alex Reison, Trader
Alex Reison is lead equity trader.He joined Nicholas Investment Partners in July 2006 as an analyst and assistant trader.He was promoted to lead equity trader in 2009. In addition, Alex also prepares and analyzes risk measurement and attribution.He earned his B.A. in Economics, cum laude, with certificates in Finance and Political Economy from Princeton University. He has over 5 years of investment experience and is a CFA Level III candidate.
Cathy Newcomb Burdick, Senior Analyst/Assistant Trader
Cathy is a senior analyst and assistant trader. She joined Nicholas Investment Partners in November 2011. She supports portfolio management, operations and trading. Her primary responsibility is trade processing, portfolio analysis and account monitoring, and serving as assistant trader. She also works closely with COO/CCO Chris Siriani.
Cathy started her career at Nicholas-Applegate Capital Management (NACM) where she spent 15 years making key contributions to the firm in operations, investment management support and trading. Her responsibilities included account implementation and management, reviewing firm and regulatory guidelines and trading OTC and listed securities. After leaving NACM in 2002, she spent four years at CapitalWorks as Operations Manager and Head Trader for equities and convertibles and three years with Freeman Associates (and its predecessor firm). Cathy earned her BA in Finance and Banking from National University. She has 22 years of institutional investment experience.