Our People

Brenda Cass

Expertise

Recognized for her expertise in leading and developing results driven operations teams, Brenda employs a simple methodology to help leaders utilize a strength based approach to maximize team performance. Her mentoring and coaching of senior leaders and seasoned professionals has been widely recognized by executives, peers and professional organizations.

During Brenda’s career, she has frequently been solicited to take on underperforming teams to implement performance measurements, new systems, workflows and build relationships with internal and external client and vendors.

Professional Background

Brenda has lead operations teams for more than 35 years.  Prior to joining RKD Group, she was responsible for multiple departments at Edward Jones, including Insurance and Annuities, Cash Operations and Trust Operations. Prior to joining Edward Jones, she was Sr. Vice President and Director of Package Products at BNY Clearing responsible for all Insurance and Annuities processing, Mutual Fund Trade and Reconciliation, Money Market Operations,  Managed Account Services, and Technical Help Desk Support for 250 brokerage firms.

Professional Affiliations

Brenda is Board Chair for the Professional Organization of Women,  affiliated with Connections to Success, and a member of the National Association of African Americans in Human Resources. She was the Secretary of the SEI user Board and has been quoted in Securities Industry news for Registered Representatives, a speaker at Investment Company Institute and sat on several Securities Industry panels providing expertise in processing for mutual funds, annuities and trust operations.

Notable Achievements

Solicited to assist a business unit with account balancing discrepancies of over 8 million dollars. Brenda worked with several division leaders to align their teams and implement processes to resolve differences by using a simple approach of aligning vocabulary and facilitated working sessions. By identifying process issues, assigning accountability, changing processes and improving reporting, the organization delivered positive audits and eliminated regulatory concerns.

Brenda assumed responsibility for a failing managed accounts department facing increased volume coupled with a legacy system. She collaborated with marketing and operations leaders to diffuse the negative environment between the divisions by organizing the workflow, implementing and training on a new system.  She then formed a firm officer due diligence team to analyze new client operations and improve new client on-boarding, reducing complaints from 35  to 3 per month.

Energized a struggling Business Resource Group (BRG) to provide professional development for multiple BRGs with the focus on retaining diverse associates. She implemented development sessions and held collaborative discussions with leaders and associates to uncover development opportunities for skill enhancement and improved associate performance. Additionally, diverse candidate retention showed noticeable improvement.

Education

Brenda earned her Bachelor Degree of Arts in Economics from the Washington University in St. Louis and a Management Certificate from Wharton Business School. She holds the Securities 7 and 66 licenses.