His areas of expertise include trading and investment management, risk management, quantitative analyses, operations, trading and investment-related accounting, technology (including software development), trust administration, fund administration, mathematics, probability, and statistics.

He has first-hand experience with a wide range of investment products, including equities, debt instruments, repo and securities lending, listed and OTC derivatives (such as interest rate, total return, asset, and credit default swaps), commercial and consumer loans, and structured credit products such as CDOs and MBS. He has also developed business plans and strategic marketing plans for leading financial institutions and vendors, including JP Morgan, Daiwa Securities, Smith Barney, ADP, Sun Microsystems, Perot Systems, and Sybase. Additionally, he has extensive experience in international markets and has worked extensively outside of the United States.

Prior to forming PVA Toucan with his partner, Dr. Jeanette Jin, Mr. Vinella was a managing director first at LECG and then Berkeley Research Group (BRG) where he provided expert testimony and advisory services in regard to a host of matters primarily involving financial services and technology matters. At LECG, Mr. Vinella was also responsible for managing the firm’s financial services practice, which consisted of over 125 individuals and generated 20 percent of the company’s profits. Both Mr. Vinella and Dr. Jin continue to provide testimony and advisory services through BRG as affiliates.

Prior to his work in litigation support and dispute resolution, Mr. Vinella was a founder, co-owner, and CEO of Wilmington Trust Conduit Services (WTCS), a subsidiary of Wilmington Trust Corporation, the Federal Reserve–regulated bank holding company of Wilmington Trust Company. He was responsible for overseeing all aspects of WTCS, including business administration, sales, operations, research, production technology, and software development. WTCS provided a wide range of administrative, trustee, custodial, operations, accounting, and risk management services to issuers and managers of and investors in credit and structured credit transactions. WTCS also provided fund administration services to hedge funds and private equity funds investing in loans, distressed assets, and structured products. 

Before joining Wilmington Trust in 2006, Mr. Vinella was the founder and CEO of PVA International/Toucan Partners, a New York-based consultancy focused on capital markets and risk management. During his 11-year tenure, PVA/Toucan was engaged in more than 100 projects with more than 50 clients on four continents, including money center banks, international brokerages, central banks, government agencies, and investment managers.

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Having begun his career in finance in the early 1980s at the risk management boutique BARRA (now part of Morgan Stanley), Mr. Vinella has also held a number of senior positions at leading Wall Street firms, including trader and trading manager, chief information officer, and head of fixed income research. Earlier in his career, he founded Berkeley Investment Technologies (BIT), an early pioneer in algorithm trading and one the first financial services firms to employ UNIX-based distributed systems, relational database management systems, object-oriented architecture, and real-time analytical systems.

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Mr. Vinella is a member of the U.C. Berkeley Center for Risk Management Research which promotes research in and education about serious issues in the field of financial risk management. He holds a master’s degree in mathematics and a bachelor’s degree in applied mathematics from the U.C. Berkeley. He is currently completing his Ph.D. in mathematics at U.C. Berkeley where he frequently presents seminars on various aspects of mathematical finance, stochastic dynamical systems, and non-linear analysis. He also taught mathematics at California State University at Hayward and was a NASA Junior Research Fellow.

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Mr. Vinella has co-authored two books with Jeanette Jin (the COO of WTCS) on governance and operational risk management, one published through Risk Waters and the other in manuscript form. He has authored numerous articles in the areas of litigation, finance, technology, and mathematics, including a solicited op-ed piece for the New York Times. Additionally, he is often quoted in the mainstream and trade press, including an appearance on ABC Nightly News with Peter Jennings. He has worked with the U.S. Congress and GAO on a variety of issues including TARP/ESSA, program trading, derivatives regulations, and the impact of September 11 on the U.S. financial system.