The 2016 Tech 50: Jim Minnick

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42
Jim Minnick
Chief Executive Officer
eVestment
Last year: 38

Given the breadth of eVestment’s investment data and analytical offerings across asset classes, and a client base of funds and consultants numbering in the thousands, it is no surprise that the company has been hard at work improving its institutional asset management database — the largest in the world. CEO Jim Minnick, 46, spent much of the past year interacting with clients in an effort to evolve the platform. “We’re thinking a lot about how we’re engaging with clients, not just with our technology but also from a process standpoint,” he says. Atlanta-based eVestment has brought in top tech talent to work on its cloud-based software. In June it released a major update to the Analytics product suite, described in the announcement as “a complete reimagining of how a big-data solution should work and perform.” Minnick, who co-founded eVestment in 2000 with his wife, Karen, and two former colleagues from Watson Wyatt & Co., says the upgrade is part of a process of unifying all products and platforms, including those from acquisitions. “Private equity is just one piece of this,” as well as exchange-traded funds, he says. As eVestment’s offerings have broadened, Minnick has been focused on flexibility and ease of use. “We need to lower the learning curve,” he says. To deal with the complexities of big data and a diverse investment ecosystem, eVestment has emphasized collaboration with its clients. The firm, with nearly 400 employees and offices in six U.S. and five overseas cities, held its first user conference last November in Atlanta. “We’ve brought more clients into the development process than we ever have historically,” Minnick says. That process has included the formation of beta-testing groups for the platform update and formal feedback mechanisms.

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The 2016 Tech 50