Roger Hartley

Ensemble Work

My career journey in financial services has taken me around the world many times over. It has also given me the opportunity to develop expertise in a core group of skill sets—credit management, relationship development, and mergers and acquisitions (M&A)—to leverage my passions for mentoring, team building, and business transformation and to gain an invaluable global network of clients, peers, and friends.

I spent the first third of my career with large international banks, Standard Chartered and Union Bank. During this time, I learned the nuts and bolts of the global financial system and also developed a keen interest in commercial credit origination, underwriting and management, as well as merchant and investment banking. I had the good fortune to lead credit teams dealing with a multitude of specialized industries, including the asset management sector.

Exposure to companies in the fast-moving asset and wealth management industries ultimately resulted in my executing a career change when I had the privilege of accepting a job with Putnam Lovell, a San Francisco-based investment banking boutique. A decade of intensely interesting and challenging deal work followed, and I had the honor of advising dozens of boutique asset and wealth managers as well as global financial services companies in mission-critical M&A assignments. My engagements provided me with a fascinating and enriching global opportunity that included commissions in the U.S., Australia, Canada, Europe, Hong Kong, and Singapore.

In 2007, I detoured from the sell-side to the buy-side when I had the opportunity to join an established West Coast alternative investment manager as Chief Operating Officer. With more than 100 personnel and multiple products across the hedge fund, fund of hedge fund, and structured product universe, the work was thoroughly energizing. Having a ring-side seat during the Global Financial Crisis provided learnings like no other situation I had previously experienced.

The most recent third of my career has been devoted to providing trusted advice to an eclectic group of wealth and asset management companies globally through MHB Advisers. MHB is a Bay Area-based investment banking and consulting firm that I co-founded with two other ex-Putnam Lovell professionals. We have had the pleasure to discreetly serve clients in the U.S., Europe, and Australia on M&A assignments and strategic consulting engagements.

I was thrilled by the opportunity to collaborate with the team at Cantata and look forward to supporting the business in any way I can.

I hold an M.A. (with honors) in Politics, Philosophy and Economics from the University of Oxford.

Solo Work

I’m an avid fan of the arts (theatre, opera, visual arts) and currently sing with both the Marin Symphony Chorus and the St. Francis Yacht Club Men’s Chorus (where I also serve as Chair of the Chorus Executive Committee). Family and friends are a core part of my life. International travel is a keen interest.