FINANCIALTEAM - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Pa Rtner / Chief Investment Officer ( CIO )
Chris Cannon is proud to be a sixth-generation Floridian. As the son of public school teachers, he grew up with a keen understanding of the importance of education, hard work, deep community roots and a strong internal compass.
Mr. Cannon graduated in the early 1990s from Centre College in Danville, Kentucky, where he double-majored in government and economics. After graduation, he moved to Charlottesville, Virginia to attend graduate school, but the plan suddenly changed when he was recruited by one of the nation's oldest Wall Street mutual fund complexes in Richmond.
That's when it all began. With his foot securely in the door of the industry, Chris soon returned home to Florida to become a stock trader for an institutional equity trading desk, eventually handling such complex matters as hedging risks, arbitrage strategies and structuring derivative contracts.
Over time, Chris found that he gravitated more toward the field of pension consulting and portfolio management, and decided to engage in the difficult, multi-year journey to obtain the investment industry's highly regarded Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation. In 2001, he accepted a Private Wealth Manager position at FirsTrust where he could work hand-in-hand with individual investors to custom design their investment portfolios. He was promoted to Chief Investment Officer in 2005 and became a Partner in the firm.
Mr. Cannon's investment approach involves stepping into the shoes of each client and making prudent, cost-effective, tax efficient investment decisions as if he were making these decisions for his own money.
After nearly three decades of successful, hands-on experience, Chris has learned that the simplest solutions are often the best, and that each investment decision comes with a pragmatic cost-benefit analysis that must be weighed before anything is ever purchased or sold. This often means deciding not to buy or sell when everybody else seems to be doing the opposite. Chris also knows that buying high and selling low is a predicable investor instinct, and he is always willing to help clients understand the counterintuitive psychology that often accompanies sound decision makin g.
One of Mr. Cannon's greatest joys is solving the puzzle that comes in the door with every new client, each with unique circumstances and financial objectives, investments with different cost basis and accounts with different tax considerations. All these pieces must be assembled, enhanced, and sometimes discarded, to allow the client's big picture to take shape.
Melody was raised in the small town of Clifton, Virginia, just outside Washington, D.C., where she held various data processing positions throughout college as the new Information Age evolved. As Melody completed her Information Technology degree, the "World Wide Web" had just been launched to facilitate information sharing between scientists at universities and major institutes. Little did she know how the web would influence the day-to-day lives of individuals and businesses across the globe.
Job Titles:
- Chairman of the Advisory Committee
Those who know her best regard Michelle Cannon among the most competent and internally driven people they've ever known. And anyone who spends even a few minutes speaking with her will quickly appreciate how someone so extraordinarily bright can also be so genuinely down-to-earth.
Personal Note: Shelly is also a Certified Personal Trainer and holds world records in powerlifting.