Who We Are

Bespoke Investment Group was founded in May 2007 by Paul Hickey and Justin Walters.  Both Paul and Justin have gained recognition as two of the most intuitive thinkers on the street, and they form the backbone of the Bespoke research and money management team.  Bespoke’s co-founders have been the feature interview in Barron’s magazine twice in recent years.  You can view these interviews here and here.

Paul Hickey

pthPaul Hickey’s professional experience in finance runs the spectrum of equities, fixed income, and structured products.  Paul has become a staple on financial news networks for his unique ability to analyze data and his deep historical knowledge of the markets.  Paul appears frequently on CNBC, Bloomberg TVBloomberg Radio and Fox Business, and his reports and findings have been extensively featured in publications including The Wall Street JournalThe New York TimesThe Financial TimesBarron’s, and USA Today.  

Paul created and maintains many of the regularly recurring reports featured in our Bespoke Premium service, and with Justin Walters, he co-writes the Bespoke Report newsletter on a weekly basis.  Paul is also a head portfolio manager for Bespoke’s Wealth Management services.

Prior to founding Bespoke, Paul served over six years as a research analyst for Birinyi Associates, Inc.  During that time he conceived and implemented in-depth and original research projects on domestic and global financial markets for institutional clients.  Before his move to Birinyi Associates, Paul was at Salomon Smith Barney from 1997 to 2000 on the firm’s Emerging Markets fixed income structured products desk.  Paul graduated from the College of the Holy Cross in 1996 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics.  With his wife Hope, Paul is the proud parent of four daughters, Brennan, Claire, Jane, and Mara.

Justin Walters

jwaltersimageJustin Walters co-founded Bespoke Investment Group with Paul Hickey in May 2007.  At Bespoke, Justin acts as co-head of research and investments.  Justin designed and maintains a number of the reports featured in our Bespoke Premium service, including many of our popular earnings-related products.  Justin also co-writes our weekly Bespoke Report newsletter along with Paul Hickey, and he is a head portfolio manager for Bespoke’s Wealth Management services.

Prior to co-founding Bespoke, Justin was a research analyst and trader at Birinyi Associates where he developed numerous equity trading strategies based on proprietary fundamental and technical models that he created.  Before his departure from Birinyi, Justin headed the firm’s subscription level research product and was responsible for increasing the firm’s online presence.

Justin’s work on the underlying intraday and long-term price moves of equities and indices has been featured in multiple publications and articles, and he has made appearances on CNBCFox Business, and Bloomberg TV.

Justin graduated from Yale University, where he was a member of the baseball team, in 2003 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics. Justin and his wife Lauren have three children — Nolan, Wes and Sienna.

The Bespoke Team

georgeGeorge Pearkes — George is responsible for assembling commentary for both The Morning Lineup and The Closer reports, while also supporting client research requests, authoring B.I.G. Tips reports, selecting Bespoke’s Trade of the Day and contributing to the weekly Bespoke Report newsletter.  He is the author of the Bespoke Fixed Income Weekly and also handles Stock Scores, ETF Trends and The Closer’s quantitative models.  He submits frequently to the Think B.I.G. blog and has been quoted in media outlets such as the Financial Times and Barron’s.  He has also appeared on Fox Business and CNBC Asia.  His focus areas include macro, the relationships between fixed income and equity markets, and market sentiment.

Prior to joining Bespoke, George was a member of the Futures, Options and OTC Clearing group at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, with a focus on short-term fixed income products and collateral management.

George graduated with Honors from Duke University in 2012, where he majored in Public Policy Studies, minored in Economics, and earned a certificate in Markets & Management Studies.  While at Duke, George was a four year walk-on and letter winner while playing for the Duke Football team.  He originally hails from Nelson, British Columbia, Canada.