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Open to opportunities

Ian Menezes

From Institutional Scale to Building What’s Next

15 years managing €75B+ portfolios and billion-euro risk positions at PGGM and Aegon. Now looking to bring that rigor — and a builder’s mindset — to a company where finance is still being built. Series A to post-IPO.

Previously atPGGMAegon
Looking forFinanceOperationsStrategyBuilding What’s Missing

Experience

PGGM

Senior Investment Manager

Jun 2022 - Present

Zeist, Netherlands

Investment firm managing €250B in assets

  • •Manage €75B portfolio with full decision-making authority — own the number, defend it to leadership
  • •Led 2-year regulatory transition: no playbook, built solution end-to-end
  • •Aligned 5 teams on first mandate redesign in 10 years — influence, not authority
  • •Got AI tooling approved against default vendor
  • •Found €10B in overlooked liquidity through stress testing

Aegon

Senior Portfolio Manager

Aug 2011 - May 2022

The Hague, Netherlands

Systemically Important Financial Institution, €300B balance sheet

  • •Led front-office implementation of €30M treasury system — took operations from spreadsheets to infrastructure
  • •Built the first analytics platform myself (10,000+ lines of code), then handed off to developers
  • •Scaled team from 5 to 20: identified roles, designed workflows, hired, trained — no manager title
  • •Managed portfolios across 5 business entities, each with different regulatory and technical requirements
  • •Translated 4 major regulations into system and process changes — read the specs, built the solution
  • •COVID March 2020: made real-time trading decisions while standing up remote operations

Syntel Inc.

Quantitative Analyst

Mar 2008 - Aug 2010

Mumbai, India

IT & Business Process Outsourcing

  • •Quantitative analysis for financial services clients

Salient Wealth Management

Research Assistant

Dec 2006 - Jun 2007

San Rafael, California

Wealth Management

  • •Investment research support

Skills

Strong

Deep expertise, can lead

Financial Modeling & Analysis(15y)Cash & Liquidity Management(10y)Building Systems from Scratch (Excel/VBA, 10k+ lines)

Working

AI-assisted (Copilot, Claude) — raw data → analysis → dashboards

SQLPythonStreamlit

Transferable

Proven in other contexts

Cross-functional alignmentRegulatory translationScaling teams & processes

Honest Gaps

Transparency builds trust. Here are areas where I'm still growing — and what I'm doing about them.

No direct startup experience

Moderate

My career has been at large institutions — but in fast-paced, high-pressure environments. Trading floors, real-time decisions, COVID crisis management. Not a startup, but not slow either.

How I'm addressing this:

Actively networking in startup ecosystem. Building this site to demonstrate adaptability.

No business operations title

Moderate

I haven’t held a role called “Head of Ops” or “BizOps.” But I’ve done the work — built systems, scaled teams, drove cross-functional projects.

How I'm addressing this:

The experience is there; the title isn’t.

Limited FP&A experience

Moderate

My background is portfolio management, not budgeting or forecasting for operating companies.

How I'm addressing this:

Strong analytical foundation. Learning on the job.

Check My Fit

Paste a job description and get an honest assessment of how well I match.

LinkedIn · Built with AI honesty in mind

No direct reports currently

Minor

I’ve hired, trained, and scaled teams — but without formal management title.

How I'm addressing this:

Ready to step into people management.