The Zacks Advantage Investment Management Team
Jeff Haskin
President of Zacks Advantage
Jeff Haskin is the managing director for the Private Client Group at Zacks Investment Management. His interests in the investment management and financial planning industry began nearly 15 years ago. He started working in the industry at UBS in 2007, where he quickly learned about the conflicts of interest that are inherent in the investment brokerage and mutual fund industry. In part from these revelations, Jeff chose to join Zacks Investment Management because of their decisive thinking and quantitative investing models derived from independent research. By working directly with Mitch Zacks, and our Investment Committee, he was able to provide an exclusive opportunity for his clients and deliver them a truly personalized investment solution. Zacks has been the sole manager for his clients’ assets while in his advisor role and was promoted to the Managing Director position in 2019. Jeff has a diverse background with an understanding of financial planning, separately managed accounts, insurance products, fixed income, mutual funds and annuities. Jeff was born, raised and educated in Michigan, where he received a degree in Policy and Applied Economics from Michigan State University. Prior to joining Zacks, Jeff spent time in the construction industry where he managed a division office in San Diego, CA. He and his wife, Christine, relocated to the Midwest to be closer to family and for Christine to attend culinary school. In his time off Jeff enjoys trying new recipes on the grill, photography and traveling with his lovely wife.
Prasanth Sankar, PhD
Assistant Portfolio Manager
Prasanth has worked as a portfolio manager and quantitative analyst at Zacks Investment Management for more than five years. Prasanth co-manages several of Zacks’ investment strategies and also develops and refines many of our proprietary models. Prasanth applies his mathematical background to the investment process through sophisticated and in-depth quantitative analysis, where he seeks to identify investment anomalies and develop investment models to profit from them.
Prasanth has a Ph.D. in Theoretical Physics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and a B.A. degree from the Indian Institute of Technology.
Tony Zhang, PhD
Quantitative Analyst
Tony is a quantitative analyst at Zacks Investment Management. His primary research interests relate to the use of massive financial data in markets, portfolio management, and investment strategies. Tony has a Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. He is also pursuing his MBA at Booth School of Business, University of Chicago with a concentration in analytical finance. Prior to joining Zacks Investment Management, he was a Visiting Research Assistant Professor of State University of New York at Binghamton, and a research scientist at Lemko Corporation. In his research career, he has been awarded three Best Paper Awards and has published over 20 papers in top international journals and conferences.
Mitch Zacks
CEO, Senior Portfolio Manager
Mitch Zacks is the CEO and Senior Portfolio Manager of the firm and primary expert on quantitative investing. He has personally developed many of the proprietary models we use in the management of our strategies. Mitch has written two books on quantitative investment strategies, Ahead of The Market, which details the Zacks method for spotting stocks early in any economy, and The Little Book of Stock Market Profits: The Best Strategies of All Time Made Better, which was published in 2011 and was one of the top selling investment books at that time. Prior to joining Zacks, Mitch was a financial writer for the Chicago Sun Times and also was an investment banking analyst with Lazard Frères in New York. He has a B.A. in Economics from Yale University and an M.B.A in Analytic Finance from the University of Chicago.
Atanu Ghosh
CFA, Assistant Portfolio Manager
Atanu Ghosh has over ten years of finance experience serving as a quantitative and fundamental research analyst and an equity portfolio manager. Prior to joining Zacks Investment Management, Atanu was a Senior Research Analyst at Fiduciary Asset Management, working on their Large Cap Core and quantitative strategy teams.
Atanu develops quantitative models that we utilize in the management of our investment strategies, and is constantly analyzing industry trends and research to ensure we remain on the cutting edge of portfolio management. Atanu received his M.B.A. from Washington University, St. Louis, and his B.A. degree in Computer Science from Jadavpur University, Calcutta, India. Atanu is a Chartered Financial Analyst.
Jane Ji
Quantitative Analyst
Jane works as a quantitative analyst and alpha model builder. She works with the portfolio managers at Zacks in the design, development and implementation of various trading models. She also develops and back-tests new statistical arbitrage trading algorithms and strategies. Jane holds a Master of Finance from the Illinois Institute of Technology, and is a Ph.D. Candidate in Management Science of Finance at the Illinois Institute of Technology.
Manish Jain
Fixed Income Portfolio Manager
Manish Jain brings in-depth knowledge of high yielding investments. He is an expert on corporate, government and municipal bonds as well as preferred stocks, MLPs and other income producing investments. Prior to joining Zacks, Manish was an Investment Manager for a regional bank, and served as a Portfolio Manager in a regional bank Trust Department. Manish has a BA in Finance from Michigan State University.
About Zacks Investment Management
Zacks Investment Management, a wealth management boutique formed in 1992, is a leading expert on earnings and using earnings estimates in the investment process. We are a wholly owned subsidiary of our parent company, Zacks Investment Research, one of the largest providers of independent research in the U.S.
In 1978, Len Zacks published a seminal article which first documented the value of using earnings estimate revisions to select stocks. A few years later we originated the concept of the EPS surprise which has now become widely used in the investment industry. This work led, in 1982, to the development of the Zacks Rank, a proven, proprietary stock-ranking model which is the core of the Zacks Investment Philosophy. At Zacks, a staff of PhDs develops and refines our own proprietary quantitative models and reviews hundreds of academic investment research articles each year in order to uncover new insights into making investment decisions.
Over the past 30 years, the core of our investment management process remains unchanged. The most important fundamental factor affecting stock prices is earnings. The changes in stock values, over time, have always been attributable to earnings. Our studies of analyst estimate revisions have proven to be the most powerful leading indicator in forecasting and predicting material changes in earnings. The end result is an active management approach that has generated which we believe to be exceptional results and we will continue to adhere to this discipline in all market cycles.