About This Group
The Veterans Committee of CFANY, (a.k.a. Veterans Roundtable) is a special interest group dedicated to supporting prior military service members through professional networking and finance education. Our mission is to establish the foundations from which military veteran members may better achieve leading positions in the financial world. We promote CFANY and CFA Institute programs, while also being highly active in NYC regional and national-level veteran clubs and affairs. By being active supporters and participants in other veteran organizations, we are able leverage their networks, and broaden the reach of CFANY and CFAI. Why have such a group? The ethical standards promoted throughout military services worldwide align with Code of Ethics and Standards of Professional Practice of the CFA Institute. Part of what attracts future generations of leaders to the military services is robust support groups that empower access the fullest range of post-military career options, including the highest levels of finance. Our membership is open to CFANY members, CFA Charterholders, CFA program participants, active duty military service members, and interested persons dedicated to CFAI mission and values. We aim to meet at least six times a year for meetings/socials, hold a minimum of two CFANY programming events per year, and actively participate in other veteran organizations at least six times per year.
Chair: Lance Widner, CFA, CFP
Vice Chair: Matthew Noll, CFA
Vice Chair: Won Palisoul, MA, MS, CFE
Veteran Consultant, Airforce: Anthony Cipriano, D.M.D.
Veterans Transition Bootcamp
Lance Widner, CFA, CFP, is a Senior Director and Analyst with the Private Equity Group of Oppenheimer Asset Management here in NYC, where he is the second in command of the five person team, managing approximately $500 million in assets across four funds, both as LP and GP. He has 17 years of experience in finance, with specific roles including portfolio management, equity valuation, asset allocation, advanced financial planning concepts, country risk analysis and relationship management. He co-founded the Veterans Roundtable of the CFA Society New York (CFANY) in 2015 as a special interest group to assist transitioning veterans who are interested in pursuing a career in finance. Since the group was founded, it has grown to approximately 30 active members, is a recognized member of Veterans on Wall Street (VOWS), has received recognition on the nationally broadcast ‘Jim Bohannon Show’, had an article published in the March, 2016 edition of CFA Institute Magazine and was the featured bell ringer for the NASDAQ closing bell on June 30, 2016 as a tribute to the Fourth of July weekend and the nation?s 240th birthday. He is also a Supply Corps Officer in the U.S. Navy Reserve, currently assigned to the Navy Operational Support Center, NYC unit as a Lieutenant JG. Additionally, he is a current board member of the Red Circle Foundation, which provides Quick Reaction Force (QRF) funding to families of the special operations community in need. Other leadership roles include Board of Directors and Programming Chair of CFA Hawaii (2004-2009), President of IE Business School’s NYC alumni chapter (2010-2012), President and Captain of the IE Business School Rugby Team (2010), and Government Affairs Chair and Board of Directors for a 2,000 home community (2006-2009). Lance received his BA in Business Administration from Drury University in Springfield, MO in 1998 and an International MBA from IE Business School in Madrid, Spain with an emphasis in finance and emerging markets in 2010. He holds both his CFA charter and CFP designation, as well as the Series 7, 66 and 24 licenses. 
Matt Noll, CFA, is the founder of IOn Capital Advisors, a credit and risk advisory services firm dedicated to meeting the needs of financial institution issuers and investors in financial services sector. Most recently, Matt covered the Americas’ financial institutions sectors for Fitch Ratings, working with rating teams to publish over 200 commentaries on banks, non-bank financials and insurers. As Morgan Stanley’s lead financial institutions credit rating advisor in the years following the financial crisis, Matt provided credit advisory services to over 100 issuers contemplating M&A, restructurings, balance sheet optimizations, term loan borrowings, and first-time bond issues. He provided significant consulting services to Kroll Bond Rating Agency in its effort to expand its coverage of bond insurers following Morgan Stanley. Prior to Morgan Stanley, Matt served as Moody’s Investors Service’s lead analyst in the bond insurance and asset management sectors between 2002 and 2010. Matt served in the U.S. Navy submarine force prior to earning his MBA at the NYU Stern School of Business. He holds a B.S. in Applied Physics from the University of Notre Dame. He obtained his CFA Charter in 2005. Matt served as the Chair of CFANY’s 200+ member of the Institutional Asset Management Committee between January 2011 and January 2016. In 2015, he co-founded the Veterans Committee of CFANY to promote the CFA program with transitioning veterans. He was among several recipients of CFANY’s Volunteer of the Year award in 2014. He is married with three children, living in Larchmont, New York. 
Anthony J. Cipriano, D.M.D. is currently serving as President of the founding chapter of the Air Force Association, the Iron Gate Chapter of New York City. In 1981 he helped create and served as Chairman of the New York Section of the American Institute of Aeronautics, the AIAA being one of the largest aerospace engineering societies in the U.S., and partnered with CFANY & the Financial Analysts Federation in the ground breaking seminar Space Shuttle Commercial Potentials featuring NASA astronauts who flew COLUMBIA on the first Space Shuttle flight. The historic conference was televised live on HBO to all the cable TV networks in the U.S. from the Nieuw Amsterdam Ballroom, Vista International Hotel of the WTC, New York City and teleconferenced to eleven cities with an estimated viewing audience of 15 to 20 million – the largest for a teleconference. In the capacity of Allied Professional of the Aerospace Splinter Group of CFANY , serving on the Seminars / Special Events Committee between 1981/1988, he helped organize and chair over 25 aerospace events, including the first Spacelab Mission, Hubble Space Telescope, the first satellite retrieval mission, and DOD’s introduction of the B-2 Stealth bomber to Strategic Air Command, the mission of USAF Space Command / NORAD, and the Strategic Defense Initiative / SDI Star Wars culminating in an SDI Technology Applications Conference in NYC in May of 1988 which partnered CFANY, the AIAA, the Financial Womens Association of New York and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. Serving as its Chairman of the Board, he oversaw the inception of the SPACE COMMERCE ROUNDTABLE exploring the early beginning of space opportunities. He currently serves in Public Policy on the CFANY MARKET INTEGRITY COMMITTEE, and is Vice Chair of the VETERANS ROUNDTABLE COMMITTEE. He was a past member of the British Interplanetary Society, National Space Institute, founding member of the Space Studies Institute / Princeton, and past member of the Board of Trustees of the New Jersey Aviation Hall of Fame. Other appointments included Chairman of the Master Plan Revision Committee of the Planning Board / City of New Brunswick, N.J. and member of the National Advisory Council of the Center For The Study Of The Presidency. In 1979 he authored the award winning Americas Journeys Into Space / The Astronauts of the United States, Simon & Schuster, is listed in Contemporary Author / Volume 102 and as a reference in World Book Encyclopedia / Astronauts. Dr. Cipriano is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine and served as a Captain in the United States Air Force Dental Corps. He is a Life Member of the American Dental Association, the New Jersey Dental Association, co-founder of the American Society of Laser in Dentistry / New York and second President. He currently maintains a full time practice in restorative dentistry in Ridgewood, New Jersey. 
Born in China and raised in New York City, Won enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 2001 and served as a Gas Turbine Technician (Electrical) aboard guided missile destroyers. She was forward deployed in the Pacific region for Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF). Shortly after separating from the military in 2009, she founded a small business that she ran for four years.