KATHLEEN A. GRAHAM
THE GLOBAL FINANCIAL CONNECTION™
-Connecting finance professionals with what they need.

Kathleen “Kathy” Graham is a Principal with HQ Search, Inc., a retained executive search firm specializing solely in financial services positions globally that she co-founded in 1997. HQ Search, Inc.’s clients are: asset/money management companies; domestic money center, international, and suburban banks; investment/merchant banks; consulting firms; corporations; credit rating services; pension funds; real estate developers; trading institutions/hedge funds; and private equity/venture capital firms. Graham incorporated 3 new companies in 2006: HQ Seminars, Inc. (custom designed financial niche and in-house seminars); HQ Scripts, Inc. (editing and creation of financial articles, books and newsletters); and HQ Services (financial services compensation studies, brainstorming/focus groups, and market intelligence through reading mosiac patterns). 

In addition to a track record of always being a star recruiter, she has a: MBA in Finance, Analytic Finance, and Econometrics & Statistics from the University of Chicago and a BA in Business Administration and Marketing from North Central College, where she has also taught classes in Corporate Finance. 

Her other activities include: recently retired CFA Society of Chicago’s Career Management Advisory Group Chair and the CFA Institute’s Professional Development committee member for the Midwest US region; four years (2001 - 2005) as a member of the University of Chicago’s GSB alumni Career Advisory Committee and Global Chair of their alumni Finance Roundtable where 130-400 senior finance professionals attended their monthly events; and recognition by the University of Chicago’s Graduate School of Business (GSB) with their “CEO” award (1998), a prize that’s one of only five honors granted annually to the entire MBA student population.

Graham is a frequently requested as a speaker for numerous local and national finance-related groups that include the Managed Funds Association, Financial Research Associates, and the CFA Society of Chicago; and actively participates as a member of the 100 Women in Hedge Funds, CFA Society nationally and locally, Financial Women’s Association, Hedge Funds Care, Illinois CPA Society, QWAFAFEW (a quantitative research alliance), GARP and PRMIA (risk management associations).

Ms. Graham is also: a free-lance journalist who has written articles for Financial Engineering News (which includes contributing a feature article on alternative investments that details the risk/reward/characteristics of each type (CDOs, hedge funds, real estate, and private equity) and a summary table) and for Financial History; the author of a book currently in publication process on applying asset valuation techniques to determine and optimize a career’s net present value; plus the writer of a chapter on hedge fund careers and special issues that women face in that sector for the book, Hedge Fund and Investment Management by Izzy Nelken, PhD, published by Elsevier Limited (owns the U.S. publisher Harcourt) in December 2005.

Just released, Kathy’s first children’s book, The Land of Lemons and Nuts, is a full-color fable that teaches children ages 4 through 9 the basics of economics, finance, and personal choice in a manner sure to enchant.