6210 Ardrey Kell Road
Suite 300, Charlotte, NC 28277
6210 Ardrey Kell Road
Suite 300, Charlotte, NC 28277
Robbie Cannon is the president and CEO of Horizon Investments, LLC, which specializes in active asset allocation, risk mitigation and retirement income. During his tenure, which began in 1999, Horizon has grown from a small retail RIA firm to a billion dollar third-party investment management group with a national footprint of independent broker dealers and institutional clients. His career in finance began in 1994, and has encompassed various aspects of portfolio management including asset allocation, equity analysis and risk management. He graduated from Furman University and lives in Charlotte, NC.
Mr. Cannon is a national speaker on topics from asset allocation and risk management to market dynamics. He has led the firm to be nationally recognized for revenue growth.
With nearly 30 years of investment management experience, Ron Saba is the Chairman of Horizon’s Investment Committee and is responsible for the management of all investment products at Horizon.
Prior to joining Horizon in 2009, Mr. Saba was Managing Partner and Chief Investment Officer of Charlotte Capital, LLC where he was lead portfolio manager for the firm?s two institutional investment products. Prior to Charlotte Capital, Mr. Saba was a Portfolio Manager with Pioneer Investments. Before Pioneer he served as a Portfolio Manager and Analyst with Heartland Advisors, where the co-managed Heartland Value Plus Fund was recognized as highly ranked in 1997.
Mr. Saba regularly contributes to the financial media. He has appeared on CNBC and was featured in Barron?s magazine. Mr. Saba holds a MBA from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business and a BS in Business Administration from The Ohio State University
Joining Horizon in 2001 as one of the original developers of Horizon’s investment process, Mr. Blocker specializes in quantitative analysis and portfolio construction using traditional and alternative investment strategies. As a member of the firm’s Investment Committee, Mr. Blocker is responsible for screening investment opportunities and portfolio optimization.
Mr. Ladner provides trading, risk management and quantitative expertise to several of the firm’s strategies, with a particular emphasis on building Horizon’s Risk Management suite of products, as well as its capabilities within the alternative and absolute return investment space. Prior to joining Horizon in 2010, Mr. Ladner was a founder of Charlotte Global Advisors and Principal Guard, LLC. Mr. Ladner helped to launch an equity index volatility and dispersion trading unit at PE?K6 Investments in Chicago, a proprietary listed option trading firm. Previously at First Union/Wachovia, Mr. Ladner founded and ran the $4 billion equity swap and forwards portfolio while also managing equity option and volatility portfolios. He also co-founded and managed the Risk Arbitrage and Special Situations portfolio. Mr. Ladner then managed the $300 billion notional swaption and cap/floor portion of the bank’s interest rate derivatives portfolio.
Dr. Clark is an Associate Professor of Finance at UNC Charlotte where he conducts research in the areas of mathematical finance, derivative securities, asset pricing, and financial econometrics. As a consultant since 2007, his work at Horizon focuses on volatility forecasting models, dynamic factor models, and other quantitative methods with an emphasis toward the Quantitative investment team and toward the firm?s Risk Management suite of products. He has a Ph.D. in Mathematical Sciences (with a concentration in applied probability and stochastic modeling) and a Ph.D. in Applied Economics (with a concentration in financial economics), both from Clemson University. He has been published in numerous scholarly journals including Review of Derivatives Research, Review of Futures Markets, Journal of Risk and Insurance, and Journal of Asset Management.
Mr. Fitch joined Horizon Investments in January 2011. As Managing Director of Consulting Solutions, he helps clients think creatively about investment solutions while helping advisors innovate and scale their businesses to grow their enterprise value effectively. With areas of portfolio and practice management expertise, Mr. Fitch advises clients on several topics to deliver a comprehensive consulting offering.
Before this role, Mr. Fitch was Head of the Portfolio Strategy Group, managing a team of analysts that provided customized portfolio solutions to many of Horizon’s clients. He has also served as a research analyst at Horizon, providing fundamental research to the Investment Management team and supporting the firm’s trading operations and performance measurement functions.
He has also worked on Horizon’s retirement platform offerings and supported the firm’s product development initiatives.
Mr. Fitch holds an MBA with a concentration in Finance from the University of Tennessee and a B.S. in Mathematics and a B.A. in Finance from Wofford College. He is a CFA® Charterholder.
Dr. Dickson serves as the Head of Research and Product Development. He leads Horizon’s systematic strategy and process design for all investment strategies managed by the firm. He also oversees the team’s research efforts focused on quantitative methods to support Horizon’s investment process, risk management, and new product development. Additionally, Dr. Dickson is a Portfolio Manager for several mutual funds and ETFs. He joined Horizon in 2015, and his previous roles included Head of Portfolio Management and Director of Structured Financial Solutions.
Dr. Dickson specializes in systematic index design, portfolio construction, and risk mitigation. During and after his Ph.D. studies, he taught undergraduate and graduate school finance and portfolio management coursework at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Before earning his Ph.D., he worked in financial analysis support roles at Premier, Inc., and Global Compliance.
Dr. Dickson received his B.S. in Chemistry from Winthrop University, an M.S. in Economics, and a Ph.D. in Finance from UNC Charlotte.
Mr. Hill serves as the Head of Portfolio Management at Horizon Investments. He oversees the implementation and communication of all investment strategies managed by Horizon. Before this role, Mr. Hill served as Global Macro Strategist, where he focused on providing investment insights on asset allocation decisions from a global macro perspective.
Before joining Horizon, Mr. Hill held senior roles with Cold Spring Asset Management in New York and in the
Foreign Exchange division of Wachovia/Wells Fargo.
Mr. Hill received a B.A. in Economics and a B.A. in Physics from the University of Virginia. He is also a CFA® Charterholder.
Mr. Drahzal is the President, Chief Executive Officer, and a member of the firm’s Executive Committee and Board of Directors. He oversees the company’s growth and acquisition initiatives and all aspects of the company’s operations, which include investment management, consulting, sales, marketing, technology, finance, and legal.
Mr. Drahzal joined Horizon in 2017 and previously served as President, overseeing all aspects of the firm’s distribution strategy, including sales, marketing, and strategic account management.
Before Horizon, Mr. Drahzal served as President of Reich & Tang, an investment affiliate of Natixis Global Asset Management, leading their growth initiatives. Before that, he held various leadership roles at Prudential Investments, eventually named Head of Distribution, responsible for the firm’s mutual fund and separately managed account business. Mr. Drahzal began his career at Victory Asset Management and was part of the leadership team that launched the firm’s mutual fund business.
Mr. Drahzal is a graduate of Skidmore College with a B.S. in Business Administration and of Case Western Reserve University with an M.B.A. in Finance. He holds FINRA Series 7, 63, and 24 licenses.
Mr. Ladner serves as Chief Investment Officer and Chair of the Investment Committee for Horizon. In these capacities, he oversees all aspects of the Investment Management division for the firm. He also provides the Investment Management division with macro analysis and interpretation of global derivatives, credit, foreign exchange, equity, and funding markets. His previous roles at Horizon included Head of Risk and Director of Quantitative & Alternative Strategies.
Before joining Horizon in 2010, Mr. Ladner was a founder of Charlotte Global Advisors and Principal Guard, LLC. Mr. Ladner helped to launch an equity index volatility and dispersion trading unit at PEAK6 Investments in Chicago, a proprietary listed option and volatility trading firm. Previously at First Union/Wachovia, Mr. Ladner founded and ran the equity swap and forwards portfolio while managing equity option and volatility portfolios. He also co-founded and managed the Risk Arbitrage and Special Situations portfolio. Mr. Ladner then managed the swaption and cap/floor portion of the bank’s interest rate derivatives portfolio.
Mr. Ladner received his B.A. in Economics and Russian Language & Literature from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
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