About STP Investment Services

Dan Houlihan

As the CEO of STP Investment Services, Dan Houlihan is responsible for overseeing the daily operations of STP’s product, sales, and technology departments to ensure the highest-quality client service standards and ongoing platform capabilities are executed in line with the company’s overall strategic vision.

Dan draws on his over 15 years of experience in leadership positions at Northern Trust, including most recently serving as the Executive Vice President and Head of Asset Servicing for the Americas, to bring a strategic client management and operational focus to his role at STP.

While at Northern Trust, Dan led a team of over 3,000 employees supporting all client segments, including asset managers, asset owners, hedge funds, private capital funds and insurance companies, and was responsible for middle-office outsourcing, fund accounting and administration, and custody and related services. He also served as the Global Product Executive for all front- and middle-office capabilities.

Prior to his tenure at Northern Trust, Dan was a founding partner and President of Citisoft, a leading advisory consultant to global financial services and technology firms.

Dan also served as Chairman of NICSA, sits on multiple non-profit boards, and is a frequent speaker and author on complex industry topics dealing with operations and technology.

David Whitaker

As Head of Strategy & Corporate Development at STP Investment Services, Dave is responsible for vertical-level strategies as well the firm’s overall acquisition strategy. Prior to joining STP, Dave served as President of Foreside Financial Group, LLC (“Foreside”) for 16 years. In his role as President, he oversaw all aspects of Foreside’s business, including client development and firm strategy. Dave led the sale of Foreside to private equity in 2017 (LM Partners) and again to Genstar Capital in 2021. Upon Foreside’s merger with ACA Group in 2022, he served as the Global Services Leader until December 2022.

In addition to serving on the Board of Directors of Foreside, Dave served as a Trustee of several registered investment companies with combined assets of more than $20 billion. He also served on the Board of Directors for NICSA, a not-for-profit trade association serving the global asset management industry.  Currently serving on the Board of Directors for a Maine-based trucking company, Dave is also a Director of a non-profit organization whose mission is to build, maintain, and promote educational opportunities for underrepresented student populations. 

In his personal time, Dave coaches middle school lacrosse and is also Director and Treasurer for the Scarborough, Maine Youth Lacrosse Club. Dave received his BA from Providence College and his JD from Suffolk University and is a member of the Massachusetts and Maine Bar Associations.

Melissa Gingrich

Daniel Ceneviva

Daniel Ceneviva serves as STP’s Head of Product and Client Solutions. In this capacity, he is responsible for defining and driving the strategic product vision and roadmap across STP’s business lines. Daniel uses a client-centric, consultative approach to understanding the underlying needs of STP’s audience, translating abstract problems into the software products that solve for them.

Daniel brings extensive experience developing clear product strategy for the investment and wealth management industries to the STP team. Prior to his role at STP, Daniel served as the Director of Solutions Strategy and Development at SEI, where he executed numerous strategic design and development programs to launch innovative products and solutions, as well as built multiple cross-functional teams to create a streamlined product, development, implementation and consulting process.

Daniel is a graduate of Villanova University. He lives in Collegeville, PA with his family.

Yvonne Guardado

Yvonne Guardado joined STP in 2018 as the Human Resources Manager. In this strategic and hands-on role, Yvonne manages the full-cycle Human Resources function including recruiting top talent, executing our human capital initiatives, providing internal customer support and driving functional excellence and process improvement.

Yvonne is certified as both a PHR (Professional in Human Resources) and SHRM-CP and has over 16 years of Human Resources experience. She has worked for a variety of organizations and industries including: Bausch & Lomb, Wegmans Food Markets, and the University of Mississippi Medical Center.

Yvonne graduated from St. John Fisher College with a B.A in International Studies and a Master’s Degree in Human Resource Development. She is happily married to her husband Pablo and has two school-aged girls. With family all over the world, she enjoys traveling internationally. Yvonne stays active with her young children between gymnastics, soccer, girl scouts, and more. When she’s not running around with her girls- you can find Yvonne enjoying many of the area’s walking trails, dreaming up a new interior design project in her home, or trying a new recipe.

Watch Yvonne talk about STP’s award-winning culture

Donald O'Hara

Donald joined STP in late 2019, leading the effort to form STP’s affiliated Investment Advisor, STP Investment Partners, which acquired AlphaOne Capital Partners in 2019.  He brings more than 25 years of experience leading operational and compliance roles for various institutional asset management companies, most recently with AlphaOne Capital Partners and its internal strategies along with building out the platform to support affiliated investment advisors. Donald has deep experience in overseeing mutual funds, hedge funds, private equity and venture funds, along with separate accounts.  In addition to his Chief Compliance role, he supports product development and oversight of front office solutions to support STP clients, including PennHaven Brokerage Partners, LLC.

Donald earned a Master’s degree in Finance from Villanova University as well as a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics from the Pennsylvania State University.  Donald holds FINRA licenses, series 7, 24, 63, and 79. While he grew up close to our office in West Chester, he now resides in Bucks County with his wife Jennifer and two daughters Grace and Ashley, and is active in coaching and rooting for their respective teams. When time permits, Donald likes to spend as much time outdoors as possible, playing a round of golf, sitting on a beach, or sliding down a mountain.

Frank Farnesi

Frank Farnesi joined STP Investments in 2019 as a Senior Vice President of Operations.  He has over 20 years’ experience spanning roles in front to back office firms like State Street Corporation, Morgan Stanley, and SEI Investments.  Prior to joining STP, Frank ran the Global Enterprise Business Solutions team for State Street with primary responsibility of data delivery and management, operational controls, and product management.  This network of experiences created an ability to partner business knowledge with data and technology to successfully meet clients’ current and future needs.

Frank has a Master’s degree in Organizational Leadership from Cabrini College, a BSED from West Chester University, and a certification in Project Management from Pennsylvania State University.

Jim Lewis

Jitender Kumar

Sunitha Gangadhara

Saneesh Surendran

Saneesh Surendran is Senior Vice President of Systems and a Director of STP India, and has been with STP since inception. He has vast experience within the capital markets industry, and specializes in Eagle Investment Systems, Markit EDM and other leading financial systems. Saneesh has excellent domain knowledge and has been the technical lead on multiple STP implementation projects. In his capacity as the Head of Systems, he partners with all STP clients in understanding their requirements and architecting solutions that maximize efficiencies on the STP platform. Saneesh also works with STP’s business leaders and leads a global team of financial systems experts. He has significant experience in integrating leading vendors in the investment management industry like Bloomberg, ICE, FactSet, CRD, Longview etc.  Prior to joining STP, Saneesh worked as a consultant at Robeco Investment Systems and held key roles in the technology space for leading investment firms including HSBC’s Halbis Capital Asset Management, Ark Asset Management, Trilogy Investments, and Northern Trust.

Saneesh has completed his Bachelor’s in Telecommunications Engineering from the Mumbai University. He enjoys all sports and follows Cricket and Soccer closely. Outside of work, Saneesh, his wife, and son love to travel across the globe.

Jeff Hooks

Jeff Hooks is Senior Vice President of Operations at STP Investments with more than 20 years of experience.  Jeff is responsible for the day-to-day management of the investment manager outsourcing services, which includes operations, client management, and shared services.  Prior to joining STP, Jeff was a Director at SEI Investments.  In this role, Jeff was responsible for overseeing multiple functions within the middle office team.  Jeff also spent time at various investment management firms including Nuveen Investments, PIMCO Allianz (now Allianz Global), and Nicholas Applegate.

Jeff graduated with a degree in Business Economics from University of California at Santa Barbara.  Jeff was born and raised in San Diego and now enjoys the East Coast with his wife, Laurie, and three boys.

Jessica Cruz

Jessica Cruz, SVP of Project Management, has more than 15 years of project management experience. She is a creative problem solver who effectively manages risk to ensure a successful and timely project implementation and positive experience for the client. Jessica has a strong knowledge of financial products, hands-on operational experience, and ability to collaborate across multiple functional areas levels of an organization in addition to providing vendor oversight. Prior to joining STP, Jessica worked at Genpact, Citi and BNY Mellon in their Wealth and SMA servicing divisions.

Jessica earned a Bachelor of Arts from SUNY Oneonta. She enjoys living in New York’s Hudson Valley with her husband and two kids. Away from the office, besides being a sports chauffer, Jessica loves to read and has a monthly book club with friends.

Watch Jessica speak to STP’s best practices with conversions and implementations

Jason Bolc

Emily Strickland

Emily Strickland is Head of Client Service with STP. She has more than 17 years of industry experience with a focus on back office operations, data management, systems conversions, client reporting, SSAE18 audits and outsourcing implementations. Prior to joining STP, Emily worked at SS&C Technologies- PORTIA where she managed the outsourced operations team. She was directly responsible for managing a team across multiple clients that processed all back office functions. Emily’s previous roles include portfolio administration and custody operations.

Emily holds a B.S. in Business Administration from San Diego State University. She enjoys her free time with her two children and her husband. This includes attending travel baseball games with her son, art classes with her daughter, and relaxing with a good glass of wine when she can.

Steve Arnold

Steve Arnold is VP of Fund Accounting at STP Investment Services. He serves as the leader of STP’s fund accounting team where he has developed and enhanced the firm’s fund administration offering. Steve joined STP in 2014 and has ten years of industry experience. Prior to joining STP, he served in various accounting roles at BNY Mellon and SEI Investments where he managed the delivery of accounting and administrative services for an array of investment products including Private Equity, Real Estate and Hedge funds. Steve graduated from Millersville University with a B.S. in Accounting.