“The art of investing is to draw sufficient conclusions from insufficient data. At Avalan, we employ proven strategies, theories, and innovations that we feel can assist investors in achieving the highest level of return consistent with risk.”

– Peter Madlem –

Peter Madlem, CFA

CIO I Partner I Musician

As Chief Investment Officer and Partner at Avalan, Peter brings over 35 years of high net worth and institutional investment management experience. He has had a successful and diverse career in the arts, as an author, marketing, and finance. Entrepreneurial by nature, he has founded and/or grown three successful companies.

Prior to joining Avalan, Peter was the regional CIO at Northern Trust where his department was a top performing investment group, and his individual risk-adjusted returns were in the top 1% of all Northern Portfolio Managers. He left Northern to assume the CIO position for Montecito Bank & Trust.

At Montecito Bank & Trust, Peter re-built the department’s investment research capabilities, investment processes, policies & procedures, and compliance infrastructure. He attracted a successful team of investment professionals who were able to expand solutions across high net worth, Endowment, and not-for-profit enterprises. He was responsible for managing the Bank’s billion-dollar bond portfolio and was consistently a top-decile performer across bank bond fund manager peers.

As an author, he has written 5 books on investment topics ranging from ETFs, closed-end funds, REITs, and technical analysis. He founded an investment advisory company specializing in Closed-end funds that rapidly grew to become the second largest of its kind before he sold it. He has been frequently quoted in Investors Business Daily, The Wall Street Journal, Kiplingers, and the New York Times.

Prior to entering the financial industry, Peter was a full-time composer/arranger and studio musician for the recording and television industry. His compositions have appeared on the Columbia, Elektra, and Sony Artist labels.

A former academic, he taught at the college and university level for twelve years, founding the undergraduate and graduate classical guitar program at UC Santa Barbara.
Peter is a Chartered Financial Analyst charter holder and earned his Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts from UC Santa Barbara. He lives with his wife Katherine and has two children.