Leading Voices for Nasdaq Solovis: Michael Kendall

Nasdaq Solovis helps asset owners gain instant insights across their entire multi-asset class portfolio so they can create context faster and drive decision-making.

In this Q&A article series, we get to know the leaders behind Nasdaq Solovis who help power the platform and support the success of its asset owner clients.

This week, we spoke with Michael Kendall, Director of Implementations.

What’s your role at Nasdaq Solovis?

As Director of Implementations, my core responsibilities focus on leading and overseeing the implementation of new clients. Additionally, I wear many hats across the organization ranging from speaking with prospects, assisting with product development, and the ongoing support of our growing client base.

What is your area of expertise?

I’d like to say “all things Nasdaq Solovis” but more specifically listening. Listening to the challenges or problems our clients face, not in the investment decisions they make, but in how those are represented, reported, aggregated, and synthesized across a firm. We can’t properly serve our clients without first getting on their level and understanding the problems that make them similar and unique all at once.

How do you support asset owners with your expertise?

Getting on a client’s level is a prerequisite that’s followed by bridging the gap between their experience, challenges, and goals, and where technology helps solve those problems.

My knowledge of our software, specifically the depth and flexibility it provides, is one of our greatest strengths, and I’m most proud of how we’re able push the limits of the analysis available through using Nasdaq Solovis.

How do we support, consult, and partner with our clients during market crises?

At our best, we are a consultative vendor for our clients. When things get rocky, clients want to understand those potential downsides or opportunities.

One of our greatest flexibilities is the ability to view a portfolio through different lenses within minutes. In early 2023 there was a focus on banks, and nobody knows what might come tomorrow, but we’re always here to help our clients futureproof their technology to quickly adapt to the unknown problems of the future.

What is a major blind spot for allocators that you’re working to address?

I feel strongly that operational excellence is the bedrock to providing agile analysis in the moment it’s needed. It’s impossible to know the risks of tomorrow, but to be ready for those you need to trust the accuracy and timeliness of your data to have the best available information ready for the analysis you don’t know you need to do yet.

What’s the most rewarding part of working on Nasdaq Solovis?

Working with our clients and supporting their missions. Even as a vendor, instead of focusing on just one mission, I’m able to support many and that’s very rewarding.