Leadership

Meet the senior leadership team and lead portfolio managers for Symetra Investment Management (SIM).

Senior Leadership Team

Mark E. Hunt

President, Chief Executive Officer, and Chief Investment Officer

Mark E. Hunt has been President, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Investment Officer of SIM since its establishment in 2019. Mark joined Symetra in 2015 from White Mountains Advisors LLC, a registered investment advisor headquartered in Guilford, Connecticut, where he was managing director. He joined White Mountains in 2004 and was responsible for managing all life company portfolios and alternative investments for all clients, including Symetra. Prior to White Mountains Advisors, Mark headed portfolio risk management and alternative investments at Hartford Investment Management Company. His more than four decades of experience in the financial services industry also includes investment management and actuarial roles at State Mutual Life and Connecticut Mutual. Mark graduated from the University of Chicago, receiving a Bachelor of Science degree, with honors, in Mathematics and Statistics. He holds a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation and is a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries (FSA).

Colin M. Elder

Senior Managing Director, Head of Commercial Mortgage Loans

Colin M. Elder is Senior Managing Director and Head of Commercial Mortgage Loans at SIM. He joined Symetra in 2007 and has served as a Director of the Investment Manager since December 2020. He also serves as Senior Vice President for Symetra Life Insurance Company, Senior Vice President for First Symetra National Life Insurance Company of New York, Senior Vice President for Symetra National Life Insurance Company, President of Symetra Investment Management Real Estate Holdings LLC, and President of Symetra Investment Management Real Estate Holdings LLC and President of Symetra Investment Management Real Estate Investors LLC. Colin holds a degree in Business Finance from the University of Puget Sound, Tacoma, Washington. He joined Symetra in 2007.

John Flynn

Senior Managing Director, Head of Business Development and Marketing

John Flynn is Senior Managing Director, Head of Business Development and Marketing at SIM. He joined the firm in April 2024. John has 30 years of investment industry experience. Prior to joining the Investment Manager in 2024, John worked at AXA Investment Managers in a senior Business Development role. Previously, he held senior business development roles at BlackRock, Inc. and SKY Harbor Capital Management, LLC and Gramercy Funds Management LLC. Earlier in his career he also held various investment and fixed income product specialist and product development positions at Citigroup Inc. and GE Asset Management Incorporated. John began his career at Morgan Stanley. John has an M.B.A. in Finance from Fordham University and a B.S. in Accounting from Plattsburgh State. He holds a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation.

Andrew M.A. Gould

Senior Managing Director, General Counsel and Secretary

Andrew Gould is the General Counsel and Secretary, and a Senior Managing Director, at SIM. He joined the firm in September 2023 and has 22 years’ experience in investment management. Prior to SIM, Andrew worked for Barings LLC and Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company since 2008, focusing on product development, fund formation, private investments, and regulatory issues. For the most recent five years of his tenure at Barings, he was the Deputy General Counsel. Prior to that, Andrew worked for five years at the Boston law firm Choate, Hall & Stewart LLP, focusing on Private Equity and Mergers & Acquisitions transactions. Andrew holds a J.D., cum laude, from Boston College Law School and both M.S. and B.S. degrees in Biology from Miami University.

Trish Grayauskie

Director of HR, Investment Management

Trish Grayauskie joined Symetra Investment Management in October 2023 and supports human resources priorities for the SIM organization, including recruitment, talent management and total rewards. Prior to joining SIM, Trish was Human Resources Business Partner for the Americas region of abrdn, a global diversified investment management company. Earlier in her career, Trish held human resources roles in financial services organizations including Radian Group, a diversified financial services organization in the mortgage industry. Trish holds a B.S. degree in Business Administration from LaSalle University and a M.S. degree in Human Resources Development from Villanova University. She is certified as a Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR) from the Human Resource Certification Institute.

Yvonne M. Guajardo

Senior Managing Director, Head of Private Placements

Yvonne M. Guajardo is Senior Managing Director and Head of Private Placements at SIM. She joined the firm in March 2020. She has also served as a Director of the Investment Manager since January 2021. Prior to joining the Investment Manager in 2020, Yvonne was Managing Director and Head of Relationship Management for MetLife Investment Management’s Private Placement Group. Yvonne holds a B.S. in Petroleum Engineering and MBA in Finance from the University of Texas at Austin. She holds a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation.

Nicholas Mocciolo

Senior Managing Director, Deputy Chief Investment Officer, Symetra Accounts

Nicholas Mocciolo is currently the Deputy Chief Investment Officer responsible for the day-to-day management of the Symetra general account portfolio. Prior to his current role, Nicholas served as Head of Derivatives and Structured Finance and as Head of Derivatives and Portfolio Analysis, and was appointed as a Director of the Investment Manager in January 2021. Nicholas joined Symetra in 2015 from White Mountains Advisors, LLC, where he led the derivatives sector. Prior to White Mountains Advisors, he served in multiple roles at The Hartford Financial Services Group Inc., including Senior Vice President and Head of Enterprise Risk Hedging. Nicholas holds a B.S. and M.S. in Mathematics from the University of Connecticut and an M.S. in Operations Research from Columbia University. He is a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries and holds the Financial Risk Manager designation.

Evan Moskovit

Senior Managing Director, Head of Corporate Fixed Income

Evan Moskovit has served as Senior Managing Director and Head of Corporate Fixed Income at SIM since the establishment of the Investment Manager in June 2019. He has served as Director of the Investment Manager since January 2021. Prior to joining Symetra in August 2016, Evan was head of global investment grade credit and lead portfolio manager at NN Investment Partners in New York, formerly ING Investment Management. Evan holds a B.A. in Psychology from Framingham State University and an M.B.A., M.A., Industrial/Organizational Psychology, from the University of New Haven. He holds a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation.

Kevin Sklar

Senior Managing Director and Chief Financial Officer

Kevin Sklar is Senior Managing Director and Chief Financial Officer at SIM. He joined the firm in February 2021 and oversees the firm’s finances, investment operations and investment reporting. He has over 24 years of investment management industry experience and was most recently senior vice president and corporate controller at York Capital Management, an investment adviser to private investment partnerships and offshore investment funds. Prior to that, he was executive director and head of finance at an investment management subsidiary of Nomura and vice president of finance at a private bank subsidiary of Franklin Templeton. Earlier in his career, Kevin was a senior auditor at Ernst & Young. A Certified Public Accountant, he holds a Chartered Global Management Accountant designation. He earned an M.B.A. with concentrations in Finance and Management from New York University’s Stern School of Business.

Ken Yang

Senior Managing Director, Head of High Yield and Bank Loans

Ken Yang is Senior Managing Director and Head of High Yield and Bank Loans at SIM. He has served at the Investment Manager since August 2020. He has also served as a Director of the Investment Manager since January 2021. Prior to joining the Investment Manager in 2020, Ken worked as Executive Director and Co-Head of Bank Loans at Goldman Sachs & Co. He was at Goldman Sachs & Co. since 2002. Ken holds a B.S. in Commerce with a focus on Finance from the University of Virginia, McIntire School of Commerce.

Glenn Gordon

Managing Director, Structured Products

Glenn Gordon joined SIM in 2016 as one of the original investment professionals tasked with insourcing Symetra’s previously outsourced investment portfolio. Glenn built Symetra’s structured products capabilities across ABS, CLOs and RMBS, and is currently focused on Symetra’s CLO strategy. Before joining Symetra, Glenn was a Senior Structured Products analyst at New England Asset Management where he worked for 9 years covering ABS, CLOs and RMBS. Prior that, Glenn worked in academia as a research assistant at Rhode Island Hospital. Glenn graduated from Brown University and is a CAIA and CFA charter holder.

Robert Herlihy

Managing Director and Chief Compliance Officer

Robert Herlihy is a Managing Director and Chief Compliance Officer at SIM. He joined the firm in January 2021 and has 32 years of investment industry experience. Prior to joining SIM, Robert served as Chief Compliance Officer for GE Asset Management, and for State Street Global Advisors at its Stamford, Connecticut, office location for both its investment advisor and mutual fund product lines. In addition, he has served as Chief Compliance Officer at Hudson Structured Capital Management, focused on alternative assets. Robert has also held several finance leadership roles, serving as treasurer for the GE Mutual Fund family and as an audit manager with PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, McGladrey LLP, and Condon O'Meara McGinty & Donnelly LLP. Robert is a Certified Public Accountant and graduated with a B.B.A. in Accounting from Pace University.

Justin Hook

Director, Multi-Sector Portfolio Management

Justin Hook is SIM’s Director of Multi-Sector Portfolio Management, where he is responsible for developing and implementing strategic and tactical portfolio solutions and is a P.M. on the affiliated general account along with other Multi-Sector investment strategies. Prior to joining SIM, Justin was a Senior Director, Portfolio Manager at Legal & General. Before L&G, he served as a VP at AllianceBernstein on the Multi-Sector Insurance Investments team and was a fixed-income specialist at Bloomberg. He started his career as a financial analyst at GMAC Commercial Finance. Justin holds a B.S. in Business Administration with a concentration in financial analysis from the State University of New York at Buffalo and holds a CFA charter.

Youriy Koudinov

Director, Senior Structured Analyst and Trader

Youriy Koudinov is responsible for overseeing SIM’s ABS portfolio. He has over 20 years of securitized products experience. Prior to joining SIM in 2024, Youriy was a director of investments credit research for the private and structured assets at Genworth. He was also a Senior Vice President at Morningstar DBRS, Vice President and Senior Credit Officer at Moody's Investors Service, and a director of securitized products research at TIAA-CREF, in each case focusing on a broad array of securitized products including ABS, RMBS and others. Youriy received an M.B.A with a concentration in Finance from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School in 2001 and a CFA designation in 2006.

Vin Reilly

Managing Director, Commercial Mortgage Loans

Vin Reilly leverages over 25 years of industry experience in leading SIM REI's new loan origination efforts. He joined Symetra in 2009 and has helped the company grow the mortgage loan portfolio from around $800M to almost $10B. He received his start in real estate finance with GE Financial Assurance and Genworth before joining Symetra. Vin began his professional career in the U.S. Navy, where he served as a submarine officer for seven years following his undergraduate education. He has a B.S. in Civil Engineering from University of Notre Dame, graduated from the U.S. Navy Nuclear Power School, and earned an M.B.A.A. from the University of Washington.

Mark Rigazio

Managing Director and Head of Research, High Yield and Bank Loans

Mark Rigazio is responsible for managing research, has sector coverage, and assists with portfolio management. Prior to joining SIM in 2021, Mark was a senior research analyst on the CLO team at First Eagle Investment Management from 2019 to 2020. Prior to that, from 2006 to 2019, Mark was a portfolio manager and co-head of high yield and bank loan research at DWS Investments, an asset management subsidiary of Deutsche Bank, where he was responsible for managing total rate of return leveraged loan portfolios and co-managed a team of ten high yield and bank loan credit analysts. Prior to taking on portfolio management responsibilities, Mark was a credit analyst on the team. Previously Mark was a leveraged loan credit analyst at Fidelity Management and Research Company and held various roles in leveraged finance at Bank of America and its predecessor companies. Mark graduated with both a Master of Business Administration with Concentration in Finance and a Bachelor of Science degree, Accountancy, from Bentley University.

Raghu Vadlakonda

Managing Director, Portfolio Risk Management

Raghu Vadlakonda is responsible for managing investment risk of all asset classes at Symetra Investment Management (SIM). Prior to joining SIM in 2023, Raghu was the Head of Investment Risk at Insight Investment. Prior to that, Raghu was a fixed income portfolio manager at APG Asset Management and General Motors Asset Management. Raghu has an M.S. in International Business from the University of South Carolina and a B.S. in commerce from Kakatiya University, India.

Contact Us

To learn more about SIM and get connected with an investment professional, contact:

John Flynn, CFA
Senior Managing Director
308 Farmington Avenue, Farmington, CT 06032
(845) 667-7173

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