Strategic Partners
Spartan Capital Management
Cypress’s strategic partnership with Spartan Capital to actively manage model portfolios and long/short strategy began in 2018 and offer’s our clients exclusive access to industry leading professionals who combine for over 100 years of experience in investment, risk management, and advisory services.
Tripp Rudisill III
Chief Investment Officer & Portfolio Manager
Tripp is the founder and Chief Investment Officer of Spartan and was the CIO of its predecessor firm, Spartan Capital Advisors. Mr. Rudisill spent the first 10 years of his career managing equity portfolios for Friess Associates, Maverick Capital Management, UBS/Dillion Read, and Millennium Capital Management. Over the last 15 years heading Spartan’s RIA business, Tripp has managed portfolios and separately managed accounts for high-net worth individuals, family offices, and institutions. Utilizing his 25 years of investment, risk management, and advisory experience, Tripp formed Spartan to offer clients high quality investment strategies and solutions. Being an active manager while assessing risks and opportunities with all clients, Tripp was adamant in establishing a firm built on the foundation of partnership.
In his free time, Tripp enjoys spending time with his family, playing golf, and watching ACC basketball. Tripp has volunteered on the capital campaigns for Charlotte Country Day School and Christ Church Charlotte and has been a youth soccer and basketball coach for the Charlotte YMCA. Tripp resides in Charlotte, North Carolina with his wife Kamie and daughters Annie, Coco, and Molly.
Scott Gates
Portfolio Manager
Recently joining Spartan in June of 2022, Scott brings 25 years of investment management and capital markets experience. Previously, Scott was the Managing Partner and Chief Investment Officer for Friess Associates, overseeing $10b in AUM across four equity funds and hedged equity strategies. Prior to Friess, Mr. Gates honed his analytic and quant skills as an Equity Analyst and Portfolio Manager at Gardener Lewis Asset Management, a trader in the foreign exchange department of Butler Harlow PLC, and an options trader on the floor of the Philadelphia Stock Exchange.
In his time off, Scott enjoys skiing and golf and is a dedicated Crossfitter. Advocating the importance of education and affordable urban housing, he actively serves on the Boards of Wilmington Friends School and Woodlawn Trustees. Scott resides in Lewes, Delaware with his wife Stephanie and their two dogs, Pippa and Moose, with their two daughters, Laura and Merritt residing in Vermont.
Joe Fields
Senior Business Consultant
Joe has spent his career as an entrepreneurial financial services executive who moves seamlessly between management, strategy, and business development while building lasting relationships in the institutional, family office, and high-net worth spaces. Most recently, Mr. Fields retired as the Managing Partner of Friess Associates. Throughout his career, Joe had the pleasure of working with a broad range of clients with varying advisory needs such as private, public, and corporate pensions, foundations and endowments, and multiple family offices and high-net worth individuals. Notable clientele includes General Motors, Chrysler, Con Ed, Honda Motors, Wisconsin, Michigan State, Baylor, Auburn, and the University of Georgia, the State of Florida, as well as the Long Island Railroad and Chicago Transit Authority. Joe draws on deep relationships developed over his four-decade career where he served in leadership capacities at Alex. Brown and Smith Barney as Managing Director of Asset Management.
Fields currently serves as the Director of the Evans Scholars Foundation, an organization supporting over 11,800 young men and women with four-year full college scholarships. Joe has continued to serve his alma maters and sits on numerous investment committees. Mr. Fields resides in Baltimore, Maryland with his wife Barbara of 38 years. They have four children and currently four grandchildren.
MMX Management
Cypress’s partnership with industry leading alternatives provider, MMX Management, grants clients access to institutional quality offerings in various asset classes including Private Debt & Equity, Venture Capital, Hedge Funds and more. The team identifies private placements for inclusion in certain client portfolios and as a source of referrals.
Mark Marxer
Founding Principal & CEO/CCO
Mark Marxer, with over 35 years of experience, is the Co-founder and Managing Partner at MMX Management; a global firm advising innovators on business development and growth. He serves as the CEO of MMX Sports & Entertainment and Co-founder of MMX Wealth Partners. He supervises main office personnel and handles compliance duties for MMX Global Partners. Notably, Mark has started over 486 businesses and raised over $20 billion since 1989.
Previously, Mr. Marxer held high-ranking positions at Citi, Black River Asset Management, RedSky Partners, AllianceBernstein Capital Management, and American Express Asset Management. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Business from Oregon State University.
Brian Leftwich
Founding Principal & CIO/CFO
Brian is a Partner and Co-founder of MMX Management in New York. Previously, he served as a Director in the Alternatives Distribution Group at Citi, was a Vice President for Merrill Lynch’s Private Equity Group where he was instrumental in developing a specialized sub-group dedicated to Hedge Fund Placements, joined Morgan Stanley’s New York and London offices advising Media and Telecommunications M&A and Private Wealth Management, and was a Healthcare Investment Banking Analyst at Salomon Smith Barney.
With over 25 years of experience, Mr. Leftwich brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to MMX. Brian’s academic credentials include an A.B in Politics from Princeton University and an M.B.A in Finance and Accounting from Columbia Business School.
Chris Manlove
CFA Partner
Chris is based in Minnesota and carries 23 years of experience in business development and investment. Prior to joining MMX in 2010, he was the Managing Director of Client Relations at Deephaven Capital Management where he focused on marketing the firm’s global multi-and single- strategy hedge funds to a diverse range of clients including pension funds, endowments, foundations, investment consultants, family offices, and more. He also served as both a Director and VP of Institutional Sales for AXA Investment Managers and Advantus Capital Management, respectively.
Chris holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Gustavus Adolphus College and an M.B.A from the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota.
Dave Kaufman
Partner
Dave joined MMX in 2024 and is based in Dallas. Before, he was a Director of Capital Introductions at BNY Mellon/Pershing where he forged new relationships with institutional investors and global family offices and provided strategic advice to the group’s hedge fund clients on fundraising and business development initiatives. He was also an Executive Director at J.P Morgan’s Global Funds Group; renowned for catering towards alternative investment fund managers across a diverse range of public and private market strategies.
Impressively, Dave holds an M.B.A in Corporate Finance from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, an M.A in Russian and East European Studies from George Washington University, and a B.A in International Studies from Virginia Tech.
