Meet the Verbank Advisors team of financial advisors and consultants. We are committed to making the smartest investments for our client portfolios.
Jorge Daniel (JD) Usandivaras
JD Usandivaras is Verbank’s Founding Partner and has twenty-six years of experience in Latin American financial markets, including trading, investment banking, and asset management. Usandivaras has designed and executed Verbank’s investment strategy since its inception in 2008. Previous leadership roles include: Managing Director at JPMorgan, Managing Director at Deutsch Bank, Senior Executive with Banco Itau, and Managing Director at Merrill Lynch. Usandivaras holds degrees from Harvard Law School and Harvard Kennedy School of Government with a joint Master’s Degree in fiscal policy and international taxation.
Paulo Vieira da Cunha, PhD.
An Advisor and Founding Partner of Verbank, Paulo has worked as a macroeconomist in fixed income markets since 1998, first on the sell side at Lehman Brothers and HSBC, where he was the head of Latin American research overseeing teams in New York, Buenos Aires, Mexico City and São Paulo, and then on the buy side at Tandem Global Partners and at ICE Canyon LLC. In between the sell and buy sides, he was for nearly three years a Deputy Governor at the Central Bank of Brazil and member of the Monetary Policy Committee (COPOM). Prior to his immersion in financial markets, he spent two decades as a researcher, policy advisor and senior manager at the World Bank, where his last position was Deputy Director for Mexico Country Operations based in Mexico City; the Secretary of Planning and Budget of the State of São Paulo, where he was also part of the management team at PRODESP, a state enterprise; the Institute for Applied Economic Research (IPEA/INPES) where he was also Editor-in-Chief of Pesquisa e Planejamento Econômico, the preeminent Brazilian journal in economics. Over the years he has been a consultant to several public and multinational institutions, including the Brazilian Ministry of Finance; the International Monetary Fund; the Interamerican Development Bank (IDB); the Bank for International Settlements (BIS); Fundação Dom Cabral; Fundação Getúlio Vargas, and others. He taught at the Universities of São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and at Columbia University. He earned his PhD from the University of California at Berkeley.
Christine Kaming Tomas
Christine has nearly 30 years global financial market and investment experience. She joined Verbank in 2016, after 20 years as a Managing Director and trusted CIO level advisor at Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan Private Bank in both London and New York. At Verbank, Christine designs custom investment strategies and provides financial advice and solutions to Ultra High Net Worth families, family offices, endowments and foundations. She is a bilingual Spanish speaker who is also fluent in French and German. In addition to her passion for investing, Christine loves to travel with her family, run marathons, lift weights and read history and biography. Christine received her M.B.A. in from the MIT Sloan School of Management in 1997, her B.A. Magna cum Laude from Harvard College in 1992, and her Diploma with High Honors from Phillips Exeter Academy in 1988.
Nirav Shah
Nirav Shah joined Verbank in 2016, bringing 15 years of global investment experience across asset classes with him, specially in Emerging Markets. Prior to joining Verbank, Mr. Shah was a Portfolio Manger at a midsize Hedge Fund specializing in macro and emerging market investments. Mr. Shah started his successful career at Lehman Brothers global Foreign Exchange division in 2001 where he helped clients with liquidity in currencies and interest rate products as well as managed proprietary investments. He was recruited by Lehman Brothers from Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad where he obtained his MBA. He also holds a Bachelors in Electrical Engineering.