Nick Bartolo is the Founder and Managing Partner of Essential Partners and an Advisory Board Member at the University of Southern California - Center for Investment Studies. Mr. Bartolo has over two decades of investment experience, most recently as a Managing Director at International Value Advisers (IVA) where he directly invested in global equities and fixed income for 11 years. Mr. Bartolo was previously a Senior Vice President at Trust Company of the West (TCW) where he invested in domestic equities. Prior to TCW, Mr. Bartolo was in a management development program at the Capital Group, who owns and manages the American Funds. Mr. Bartolo is also a managing member of Rational Capital, an early-stage venture capital partnership. Mr. Bartolo received his Master of Business Administration (MBA), with Beta Gamma Sigma Honors and a Bachelor of Science in Accounting from the University of Southern California (USC). He was supported with academic scholarships for both degrees. Mr. Bartolo is a Chartered Financial Analyst Charterholder (CFA) and a Certified Public Accountant (CPA). He is an annual guest lecturer for the Student Investment Fund course at the USC MBA program and the finance valuation course for undergraduate and MBA programs. He is a Board Member of the Gwendolyn Strong Foundation and serves on the Finance Committee of the Village School in Pacific Palisades.