About Us

About Us

Aternatives TLC�s material has been created and is presented by Carol R. Kaufman. Ms. Kaufman�s formal education in this industry began in 1979, when she became the Sr. Vice President of a commodity trading advisory company, Kaufman Commodities Research and Management (KCRM). She was responsible for all executions of the firm�s futures trades, daily back office reconciliations with 11 different brokerage firms (Futures Commission Merchants) and the preparation of all marketing and offering documents. It was on-the-job training at its finest. In 1982, Ms. Kaufman founded Organizer Systems, Inc., an investment accounting software firm, based on the portfolio software she had designed at KCRM. The focus was initially portfolio accounting, but, ultimately, investor accounting functionality was added and clients spanned the gamut in the alternatives industry, servicing small, emerging commodity trading advisors (CTAs) to medium-sized hedge fund managers to major institutions, internationally.

Ms. Kaufman grew the company from 2 to 25 people, eventually rewriting the investor accounting software from Fortran into a web-based, Microsoft platform and incorporating fund-of-funds functionality; theirs being the first system to specifically have done that. The product was renamed InvesTier�. The industry slowly, but surely, embraced the new technology with its robust functionality and, in 2002, Organizer Systems, Inc. was acquired by SunGard� . Ms. Kaufman worked for SunGard as President of the InvesTier business unit until December, 2004. Her responsibilities included the executive management of the unit, overseeing marketing, training, systems and new product development. Highlights of Ms. Kaufman�s career, in addition to growing a successful business, have been:

Chairperson of the conference committee of the Managed Fund Association (MFA)
Member of the membership committee of the Managed Fund Association (MFA)
Co-Author of the Alternatives Industry Resource Guide, published in Febrary, 2007
Active industry lecturer and an author of many articles on such topics as growing a successful business, back office operations, transparency, outsourcing, shadow accounting
Consultant to firms, interviewing the key people in each department, writing up a complete description and assessment of the tools and procedures being used for the tasks being performed and recommended ways to streamline their operations, with the result being used as the foundation for procedural manuals.
Consultant to a major brokerage firm for 6 months, as their interim head of fund accounting (in addition to running OSI)
Y2K consultant to a major investment bank, evaluating over 120 of the third party firms with whom they did business, to ensure that the firms were ready for Y2K, including their having proper project and business continuity plans (also in addition to running OSI).

The breadth and depth of Ms. Kaufman�s years and experience in the industry have provided her with the skillsets and the contacts to help firms evaluate and grow their products and offerings through strategic business consulting. She is fluent in the areas of both training and compliance, with the ability to analyze, customize, lead and drive training sessions based on the content-specific need and skill level of participants. She has been called an industry visionary, but also has the proven, practical ability to take complicated concepts and break them down to their most basic components to bridge the gap between clients and programmers and between industry professionals and laypeople.

Ms. Kaufman holds both undergraduate and graduate degrees from The University of Michigan in the areas of special education (emotionally impaired and learning disabled adolescents) and consulting which, interestingly, provided a great foundation and a transferable set of skills for the alternatives industry - almost 33 years ago!