Paul Darrell Damon
Paul is president and founder of Keramas, a MarComms consultancy for the investment management industry. Believing that asset managers, wealth management firms and service providers can benefit from greater quality and specialized intelligence from their marketing partnerships, Paul started Keramas to offer his communications skills, industry expertise and distinct insights to clients operating in the sector.
Prior to founding Keramas, Paul was Head of Marketing and Communications at Markov Processes International (MPI), providers of quantitative research, investment analytics and performance reporting software for the wealth and investment management industry. At MPI, he ran a thought leadership content program focused on fund manager research and investing trends. Before going in-house, Paul was with FTI Consulting (NYSE: FCN, formerly Financial Dynamics) where he worked in the Financial Services group within the Strategic Communications practice. While at FTI, Paul worked on a number of accounts for both ongoing media relations and strategic engagements, including Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Third Avenue Management, MF Global, AQR Capital Management, New York Portfolio Clearing (a joint venture between NYSE & DTCC), Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP and Burford Capital. Paul started his career in November 2007, just weeks after the Global Financial Crisis drawdown began, with Cognito, an integrated communications consulting firm for the financial services industry. During the GFC and recovery years at Cognito, he led and/or supported a diverse range of accounts, including re-launching the legitimate market-making arm of Madoff’s BLMIS, establishing Bloomberg LP’s proactive media relations program, managing a Dodd-Frank-related media education campaign for a prominent hedge fund trade group, launching media relations for the research platform of an emerging markets investment bank and helping to build the profile and communications strategy of Focus Financial Partners, the largest independent wealth management organization in North America.
Paul is a San Francisco transplant, torn away from New York City -- his home of more than 8 years -- by the waves and snow of the '15/'16 El Nino winter. He maintains an 802 area code from his days as a student at The University of Vermont where he studied broadly across the Humanities and learned how to think. Lacking the proximity of the Green Mountains to snowboard, Paul took up surfing in NYC, frequently taking the A Train to the Rockaways in Queens – and to equally exotic, though more pristine, destinations globally. A believer in the adage that “Health is Wealth”, he attempts to stay “surf fit” and balance his professional schedule with the glorious arrival of quality waves to his local coastline. Paul dedicates his time and communications skills to charities and issues central to his life, including brain injury recovery, awareness and prevention and behavioral disabilities, with an emphasis on autism.