Phyllis R. Sutton
Chief Executive Officer
Phyllis is the owner and co-founder of Rosenblum-Silverman-Sutton Investment Counsel. As the chief portfolio manager, she heads the firm’s Investment Policy Committee.
Ms. Sutton began her career with Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith in New York City, where she worked as a securities analyst and portfolio strategist. After working at several investment advisory firms, including Dodge & Cox in San Francisco, she became a principal of Robert M. Sutton Investment Management and joined Barbara Rosenblum to create RSS in 1984.
Ms. Sutton has been featured in many financial publications and television shows including Money Magazine and CNN. She is a frequent commentator on financial matters and the capital markets in the San Francisco Chronicle. Ms. Sutton received a B.A. from the University of Miami and did graduate work in Finance at the New York University Graduate School of Business.
Holger Berndt, CFA
Executive Vice President / Director of Research
Holger began his investment career at Fisher Investments, where he managed the trading of equity and Treasury securities for the firm. He subsequently was a research analyst at RSS, working closely with the firm’s principals. Mr. Berndt also was a research analyst and hedge fund portfolio manager at EGM Capital and a portfolio manager at Karp Capital Management prior to returning to RSS.
Holger has a B.S. in Finance from the University of Connecticut and has held the Chartered Financial analyst designation since 1995. He is a member of the CFA Society of San Francisco and the CFA Institute.
Trading, Operations & Administration
Philip Huff
Executive Vice President / Chief Financial Officer
Philip began his career in the investment industry at the Southeastern broker/dealer Norris & Hirschberg as the bond clearing agent. He later transferred, along with their operations, to DFW Clearing in Dallas/Ft. Worth where he was manager of the stock transfer department. In 1992, he moved to San Francisco to manage the office for RSS. He is responsible for the day-to-day management of the office and acting as client liaison.
Philip did undergraduate work at the University of Texas Arlington and earned a B.S. in Finance from Golden Gate University in San Francisco.
Sherry Karlsson
Sherry is the Operations Manager at RSS, she manages new client integration, trade settlement, and account administration. Her finance background includes retail and investment finance; having worked at Bank of America, HSBC, Anvil Capital Advisors, Merrill Lynch, and Ameriprise Financial. She received her MBA in Finance from Notre Dame de Namur University.
Joel Stilwell
Joel began his career at RSS in 2013 after attending Sonoma State University. He is primarily responsible for client reporting and quarterly billing. In addition, he maintains the RSS website, monitors cybersecurity and performs ad hoc projects involving data compilation, analysis and reporting.