EXPERIENCED TEAM
James G. Taylor, MBA PhD
Dr. Taylor is President, CEO and CCO of Oakford Park Capital and has 25 years of experience in the financial industry.
Jim gained much of his expertise while serving in multiple roles in the industry including as Director of Equities for a large cap equity mutual fund and managing equity and fixed income portfolios in excess of $100 million in assets. He also managed an NYSE and Wall Street Journal-Listed Mutual Fund. Jim was Vice President of Business Development for PNC and First National Bank of PA.
His experience also includes security analysis, portfolio management and quantitative analytics. He has also worked in Financial Risk & Analysis for KPMG and PwC. He was also part of Business Development teams raising nearly $1 Billion in Institutional, Public Pension, HNW, Brokerage, and Separate Account assets for two mid-market Registered Investment Advisory firms.
Jim was Quantitative Market Risk Analyst for Raymond James Financial, overseeing $1 Billion in Institutional and Retail Fixed Income and Equity inventories while calculating and reporting daily VaR and PV01 risk to the President & CEO.
Dr. Taylor is a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh with a B.S. in Management and Economics and holds a MBA in Finance from Duquesne University in Pittsburgh. He was also the recipient of a scholarship to Carnegie-Mellon’s Graduate School of Business, Entrepreneurial Management Program. Jim is currently enrolled in the Graduate Cybersecurity Certificate Program at the University of South Florida. He also holds a PhD in Curriculum & Instruction LCACHE from the University of South Florida.
Jim has served as an Adjunct Professor of Finance in the MBA Graduate School of Seton Hill University, an Adjunct Professor for Eckerd College, and is currently an Adjunct Professor at the University of South Florida, Center for Entrepreneurship. Jim has been a regular member of the Chartered Financial Analyst - CFA Institute since 1994 and is a member of the Tampa Bay CFA Society. He currently holds a FINRA Series 65 Investment Advisor Representative License.
Jim lives in the Tampa Bay Area where he enjoys boating and tennis with his wife, teen daughter, and rescue dog Maverick.
Eric R. Tolle, MBA
Mr. Tolle is Vice President of Investments with Oakford Park Capital. He is responsible for managing investments for the firm’s clients and maintains an active role on the OPC Board of Advisors. Eric takes great pride in building meaningful long-term relationships with his clients and developing new affiliations for OPC throughout the community.
Eric has 18 years of experience as an Investment Advisor. He began his career as an advisor with Morgan Stanley and enjoyedseveral years in the private banking division of JP Morgan Chase. More recently, Eric thrived in a management role with the investment advisory firm, GFS Private Wealth, where he was critical to the strategic development of the firm while always maintaining focus on the needs of his clients.
Eric proudly graduated with a bachelor’s in finance from The Ohio State University and an MBA from The University of South Florida. Eric has a fond appreciation of his midwestern roots, although he is happy to call sunny St Petersburg, Florida his home.
Michael Blankenship, MBA
Michael is a member of the Oakford Park Capital Investment Committee helping advise on the portfolios and investment strategies for the firm.
Michael has 20 years of experience in Research and Analysis, Trading, Hedge Funds, Investment Strategy, Funds-of-Funds, and Consulting.
Michael was Senior Manager at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) where he led a team of analysts specializing in the Aerospace & Defense and Utilities sectors. Prior to PwC, Michael covered the government IT sector as an equity analyst at BB&T Capital Markets.
Before returning to graduate school Michael worked at Prudential Securities in New York, NY, where he analyzed special situation and time-sensitive investment ideas. Michael is a graduate of the Virginia Military Institute and received his MBA from the Mason School of Business at William & Mary.
Student Analyst Intern Program
Oakford Park Capital regularly hires University of South Florida undergraduate and graduate business students to work in the business.
Typically students assist with investment topics and research along with other business-related investment management tasks.
Oakford Park Capital takes great pride in helping these students grow and find opportunities to further their careers. We wish all our former interns the best of luck.
Interns include:
Umang Patel
Sodhi Priyeshwar, Operations Analyst - Goldman Sachs
Sam Steck, Alternative Investments Analyst - Raymond James
Jack Mangiafico, Associate - Raymond James
Kanyon Sar, Associate - Raymond James
Andres Herrera, Senior Analyst Intern II at Citi Ventures
Benjamin Szentpaly, Real Estate Acquisition Manager
Ana Hurtado, Analyst - Goldman Sachs
