Senior Personnel
Derrick M. Grava, CIMA®
President, CEO, CIO, and Chief Compliance Officer
Kiawah Island, SC
c: 404.402.7016
Derrick has primary responsibility for sourcing and performing ongoing due diligence on the managers on the Palmetto platform.
Derrick began his career in the asset management and financial services industry in 1984 and started Palmetto after leaving Boston based 2100 Capital Group, where he was Head of U.S. Sales and Marketing. While at 2100, Derrick structured funds of hedge funds that were registered mutual funds and distributed those funds for 2100's parent firm, Old Mutual Asset Management. Prior to 2100 Capital Group, Derrick was a Senior Vice President at UBS Wealth Management and a senior professional in the Alternative Investment Group. At UBS, Derrick assisted in the launch of over 25 alternative funds and helped raise over $8.5 billion for funds created and managed by the Alternative Investment Group. While Derrick was at UBS, the firm was the largest manager of funds of hedge funds in the world.
Prior to UBS, Derrick was a Vice President at Smith Barney, where he worked for the Consulting Group, was part of the senior staff at the Consulting Group's Atlanta Tech. Center. Prior to being recruited to the Consulting Group, Derrick was a Financial Advisor and managed retail and institutional client accounts at various brokerage firms including Smith Barney, Shearson Lehman Brothers and Drexel Burnham Lambert. Derrick started his career on the trading floor of Trust Company Bank in Atlanta, where he ultimately worked as a Portfolio Manager and part of a team that managed over $4 billion for SunTrust Banks, Inc.
Derrick received his CIMA® designation from the Investments and Wealth Institute (formerly Investment Management Consultants Association or IMCA) after completing coursework at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. Derrick earned a BA in English and History from Northwestern University. While an undergraduate at Northwestern Derrick started and coached the Northwestern Crew (rowing team), which is Northwestern's largest club sport.
Derrick has been married to Joan since 1985 and they have two sons, Nicholas and Christopher. Nick graduated from Northwestern in 2011 and Chris graduated from Vanderbilt in 2014. Nick & Chris co-founded and co-manage the American non-profit Intsikelelo, which works to improve the lives of vulnerable children in South Africa.
Derrick and Joan are avid sailors with extensive offshore and international sailing experience. When not working they enjoy sailing, skiing, and diving. Derrick is the Honorary Lifetime Director on the board of the Bubbly Creek Rowing Foundation, which was established to support the Northwestern crew. He is the past Chairman of the Choate Rosemary Hall Volunteer Admissions Network, former member of the CRH Alumni Executive Committee, and has been a member of the Investments and Wealth Institute (formerly IMCA) since 1995.
Joan K. Grava
Principal and Operations Manager
Kiawah Island, SC
c: 404.626.8348
Joan began her career at CNN in 1983. When Joan left CNN she was a Director for CNN International and a Technical Director at CNN domestically. Joan worked at Robinson Humphrey and was the Operations Manager at Tiffany & Co. in Atlanta. After raising the Grava’s two sons and extensive involvement in volunteer activities, Joan took over the operations of Palmetto in 2008. Joan graduated from Northwestern University with a B.S. in Radio, Television and Film. Joan studied at Harvard University, where she learned to scull, and subsequently was a founding member of the Northwestern Crew, where she initially rowed and ultimately helped coach the team during its first few seasons.
Joan is a founding member and serves on the Board of Intsikelelo, a 501c3 non-profit charity founded in 2014 to help vulnerable children in South Africa.
Christopher C. Abbott
Managing Director
Manchester, MA
617.462.0525
Chris is responsible for global institutional business development, as well as business development in New England. Chris has over 35 years of professional asset raising experience in marketable securities, hedge funds and private equity, and can assist in the design and implementation of a Go-To-Market distribution strategy for global investment managers seeking to grow their assets and profitability.
He has been actively involved in raising funds in global agribusiness and private equity since 2008. Most recently, Chris was a Managing Director with NCH Capital Inc., a global private equity and agribusiness company that managed $3.5 billion in Russia and the former Soviet Union. In agribusiness NCH aggregates, farms and distributes row crops and oil seeds from 880,000 hectares (approximately 1.6 million acres) equally split between Russia and Ukraine, with smaller holdings in Romania, Latvia and Kazakhstan. NCH manages ~ US $1.5 billion in agribusiness assets that were raised in two funds. Chris focused on non-government and sovereign investors, foundations, endowments, and family offices globally with a concentration on clients in the North America, the United Kingdom and Europe.
Chris has held senior corporate roles in production and management at Merrill Lynch, Putnam Investments, Pioneer Investments, State Street Research & Management Company, and 2100 Capital Group, an alternative fund manager that was a subsidiary of Old Mutual, all in Boston and New York City. He was responsible for new business development and investment consultant relations, client service, product development and strategy design and implementation. During his tenure with these organizations he worked with global institutional investors including corporate and public pension plans, foundations and endowments, insurance companies, sub-advisory relationships, family offices and high net worth individuals and the consultants that serve them. Chris managed the institutional businesses at both Pioneer and State Street Research and sat on both of their Management Committees. He has raised over $32 billion in institutional assets in his career and participated in over 350 “Final Presentations.”
Chris graduated with honors from St. Lawrence University with a major in Government and a minor in Canadian Studies, and completed graduate work at New York University Stern School of Business.
Chris is the parent of two children. His married daughter lives and works in San Francisco and his son moved from NYC to San Francisco as well in 2021. Chris enjoys travel and has seen >47 countries for both business and pleasure. Originally from Manchester, MA, Chris has split is time in business between Boston and New York City in nearly equal proportions. Chris enjoys boating and has cruised and raced extensively, including a Trans-Atlantic crossing in 2007. He is also an active tennis player, golfer and a life-long skier having skied all over the world. Chris is a jazz devotee and enjoys music of all kinds. He grew up playing the drums and regularly attends concerts throughout the country and locally. Chris is also an avid reader who prefers non-fiction with a particular focus on historical global events.
Chris served two terms as an elected member of the St. Lawrence University Alumni Council, has been a Trustee and President of the Alumni Association of Brooks School in North Andover, MA and served seven years as a Trustee of Shore Country Day School. He served as a Corporate Trustee for the Trustees of Reservations, a Massachusetts conservation organization, for over 20 years. He has also been an officer of the Manchester Yacht Club and is active in civic activities in the Town Manchester.
Michael J. Laubinger
Managing Director
Charleston, SC
508.982.3491
Mike is responsible for business development in the Mid-Atlantic states and North Carolina. His career began in Boston in 2003 as a Financial Advisor where he focused on financial planning and wealth management. Prior to joining the firm Mike spent 9 years with Charles Schwab & Co. as a VP Financial Consultant serving high net worth families in Charlotte, North Carolina. Most recently Mike was a Vice President at Victoria Capital with responsibility for institutional relationships.
Mike served in the United States Coast Guard and graduated from Bridgewater State University in Massachusetts.
John H. Lauderdale
Managing Director
Milwaukee, WI
262.719.2196
John is responsible for business development in the Midwest and California. John began his Financial Services career in 1991. Before joining Palmetto, John was an Institutional Investment Consultant with the Schilffarth-Schnoll Group of RBC Wealth Management. Prior to RBC, John was a Senior Vice President with the North Track Funds / The Ziegler Companies, Inc. As a Senior Vice President, he lead North Track's mutual fund sales and marketing efforts for over fifteen years.
John earned a BA from the University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire, where he majored in Communications and minored in Business.
John K. Nawrocki, MBA, CPA
Managing Director
Southern Connecticut
203.724.7571
John is responsible for business development in the Northeast and institutional business development nationally, John joined Palmetto in 2019 after being a senior member of CRA Rogerscasey and Rocaton Investment Advisors, two of the largest investment consulting firms in the U.S. At these firms he successfully founded and grew two outsourced CIO multi-manager investment platforms to more to $10 billion in AUM. John also advised national and regional wealth advisory and management platforms, TAMPS, large corporate retirement plans, and municipal retirement plans in forging investment strategies and selecting best in breed investment managers. John spent his early career in public accounting and corporate finance, with a focus on business valuation, white collar crime investigations, financial technology, and mergers & acquisitions.
John earned his MBA (Finance and Operations Management) and BS (Marketing and Accounting) from NYU’s Stern School of Business. He is a Certified Public Account (not practicing).
John enjoys hiking, ice hockey (he is a goalie), and is a classical trumpeter. These days he is most often at ice rinks as the biggest fan of his sons Christian and Jonathan as they pursue their academic and hockey goals and dreams. Jonathan plays Tier I youth hockey, rugby, and is a talented saxophonist and pianist. Christian plays Junior Hockey in the Eastern Hockey League (Keene, NH) and also enjoys rugby and being a talented guitarist. John’s a lucky dad.
Daniel W. O'Connor III
Managing Director
Duxbury, MA
781.733.7732
Dan is responsible for business development in New England, and institutional business development nationally. Dan joined Palmetto Advisory Group in 2021 and most recently he was a Managing Director and Head of North America Institutional Consultant Relations at Morgan Stanley Investment Management. Prior to MSIM, Dan held senior management positions within the institutional client businesses at BlackRock, MFS Investment Management and State Street Research & Management. During his tenure with these organizations, Dan developed a deep understanding of capital markets and the institutional investor landscape; working with complex global/tier one and regional consultants and the clients they serve; including corporate and public pension plans, foundations and endowments, insurance companies, intermediaries, family offices and defined contribution plans. His investment product expertise spans public equities (long-only/hedged), fixed income & credit, multi-asset solutions (LDI, risk parity, GTAA) and alternatives (private equity/credit, infrastructure & real estate).
Earlier in his career at State Street Research & Management Dan worked within retail asset management distribution in a number of roles and channels including broker/dealer wholesaling, sub-advisory, defined contribution platforms and sales management.
Dan received his BA from St. Lawrence University, majoring in Economics, with a minor in Chemistry. Dan was a President's Scholar at St. Lawrence and inducted as a lifetime member into Omicron Delta Epsilon – the National Economics Honors Society. Dan also completed coursework at the University of Copenhagen.
Dan and his wife Ann Marie live on Boston’s Southshore and enjoy travel, the beach & boating, tennis and hiking, cherishing time with their children, family and friends.