Greg Carstensen has over 20 years of credit and institutional fund management experience.  Prior to forming Ballast Capital Advisors, he was responsible for managing over $22 billion of investment funds for a large insurance company.  He has executed more than $100 billion of purchases across most asset classes for insurance, pension and mutual fund accounts.  He was an early buyer of REMIC securities during the mortgage crisis in early 2009 and established numerous vehicles to capitalize on mortgage-backed securities during the crisis.  Greg had portfolio management responsibilities through the 2000-2001 and 2008-2009 crises.  He’s a member of the CFA Institute and CFA Society Iowa.  A graduate of St. Olaf College with a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and philosophy, Greg also holds an MBA from the University of Iowa.

Chad Carstensen specializes in assisting high net worth individuals and families with estate tax, financial and retirement planning. He began his career at Prudential Insurance in New Hartford, NY as a financial advisor. He was a key member of the Empire State Agency, Prudential’s top-ranked agency from 2011 through 2014. In 2013, he was named Representative of the Year. Chad earned his bachelor’s and master’s of business administration from Harding University.

Patrick joined Ballast in 2017 and contributes a decade of institutional experience. His daily focus is on investment analysis and making recommendations to the Ballast investment team in order to fulfill Ballast’s mission to build institutional investment portfolios for clients. Patrick also supports portfolio management, trading, and portfolio reporting functions. Prior to joining Ballast, Patrick was responsible for credit investment analysis of a $3 billion-plus portfolio of assets in various sectors, portfolio analytics generation and reporting, and derivative hedging for an insurance company with over $40 billion of invested assets. These assets were managed to a long duration liability, and Patrick assisted in implementation of portfolio management. His earlier experience was in investment operations of an investment manager with over $100 billion in assets under management. There, Patrick worked with investments ranging from stocks and bonds to bank loans and derivatives. He earned the right to use the Chartered Financial Analyst designation and is a member of the CFA Institute and CFA Society Iowa. Patrick is also a Certified Public Accountant licensed in the state of Iowa and has bachelor’s degrees in accounting and economics from Loras College.

Steve Harms joined Ballast Capital Advisors in 2016. From 2008 to 2016, Steve was Vice President of Financial Reporting and Tax at American Equity Investment Life Insurance Company where he had a wide variety of duties that included GAAP accounting, SEC reporting, income tax provisions and accounting, and working with national rating agencies. Steve began his accounting career in 1989 with Kiesling Associates, LLP, a regional accounting firm with an office in West Des Moines, Iowa. He was a partner from 2000 through 2008. He graduated from Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa with a major in mathematics in 1988. Steve is a Certified Public Accountant and is a member of the American Institute of CPAs and the Iowa Society of CPAs.