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Russell PaulsonRP
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Russell Paulson

@russellpaulson

Senior financial advice and wealth-tech leader with a focus on wealth management, financial planning, and product strategy.

South Africa
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I’m a financial advice and wealth-tech leader with 13+ years of experience in financial services, including 7+ years designing and implementing scalable financial planning and portfolio management solutions.

My work sits at the intersection of wealth management, technology, and product strategy. I’ve led the delivery of innovative client and advisor facing software, integrated third-party technologies, influenced product strategy, and built high-performing analytical teams.

As a CFA charterholder, I’m passionate about bringing together deep wealth management expertise, analytical thinking, behavioral finance, and experimentation with AI to improve investor outcomes.

Highlights from my current role as a Senior Manager of Vanguard’s Financial Advice Methodology & Solutions organization

  • Expanded Vanguard’s advice capabilities by translating investment thought leadership into scalable and configurable advice solutions to serve our 800,000 advised clients. These proprietary digital products span a wide range of functionality, including the delivery of personalized financial plans, tax-efficient strategies, and ongoing portfolio management.

  • Consistently delivered strategic initiatives by thoughtfully designing repeatable workflows centered on the client’s need. Team processes led to clearly defined problem statements, validated scope, robust development requirements, and comprehensive testing.

  • Strengthened our ability to attract and retain ultra-high net worth clients by closing key capability gaps through integration with three third-party solutions. Led the methodology workstream responsible for evaluating and selecting each vendor. Then supported the integration and rollout of these new solutions into our advisor and client experience.

  • Shaped executive decisions on the future of Vanguard’s advice strategy by developing a roadmap to further differentiate our ultra-high net worth offer across financial planning, private markets, and risk-based portfolio management.

Experience

Work history, roles, and key accomplishments

Vanguard logoVA
Current

Snr Manager, Adv Methodology & Solutions

Mar 2024 - Present (2 years 6 months)

Expanded Vanguard’s advice capabilities by translating investment thought leadership into scalable and configurable advice solutions to serve our 800,000 advised clients.
These proprietary digital products span a wide range of functionality, including the delivery of personalized financial plans, tax-efficient strategies, and ongoing portfolio management.

Vanguard logoVA

Manager, Adv Methodology & Solutions

Mar 2022 - Mar 2024 (2 years)

Consistently delivered on wealth management initiatives by thoughtfully designing repeatable workflows centered on the client’s need. Team processes led to clearly defined problem statements, validated scope, robust development requirements, and comprehensive testing.

Vanguard logoVA

Senior Advice Methodology Analyst

Jan 2021 - Mar 2022 (1 year 2 months)

Attracted and retained new advice clients by leading the methodology design for new solution delivery and feature enhancements. Leveraged key product metrics and competitive analysis to influence Vanguard’s financial planning product strategy.

Vanguard logoVA

Advice Methodology Analyst

Oct 2019 - Jan 2021 (1 year 3 months)

Doubled client adoption and improved satisfaction for a new capability focused on optimizing planning across multiple financial goals. Led development of a lightweight prototype integrating several RESTful APIs to demonstrate new visualizations aimed at improving explainability. Partnered with client experience designers to deliver these new visuals into the digital experience.

Vanguard logoVA

Business Analyst, Advice Solutions

Aug 2018 - Oct 2019 (1 year 2 months)

Established a Business Health Scorecard for a newly formed group. Learned Tableau to create eight unique visualizations monitoring the productivity, health, and impact of the department.

Improved agile development team efficiency across several SDLC metrics by identifying traits of top- performing teams and sharing recommendations with delivery managers and scrum masters.

Vanguard logoVA

Senior Auditor, Internal Audit

Nov 2015 - Aug 2018 (2 years 9 months)

Developed effective relationships with Investment Strategists, Portfolio Managers, Traders, and Risk Analysts across our investment management division. This included delivering a comprehensive view of their risk environment and highlighting areas of unmitigated risk through both written and verbal communications.

Vanguard logoVA

Staff Auditor

Sep 2014 - Nov 2015 (1 year 2 months)

Worked as Staff Auditor at Vanguard.

Vanguard logoVA

Rotational Development Program

Aug 2013 - Sep 2014 (1 year 1 month)

Acceleration into Financial Professional Program at Vanguard.

Built foundational skillsets to quickly acclimate to new teams and responsibilities across four 13-week rotations.

Education

Degrees, certifications, and relevant coursework

CI

CFA Institute

Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA)

Sep 2019

VU

Villanova University

Bachelor of Business Administration - BBA, Finance and Economics

2009 - 2013

Grade: 3.72

Activities and societies: Varsity Swim Team - Division 1 program, team captain in Senior year.

Dean’s List Every Semester

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