Who We Are
We are your GIPS® compliance and performance review resource, passionate about using our decades of experience to help your firm.
Our Team
Kim Cash, CFA, CAIA, CIPM, CSCP
Kim is a veteran verification professional who brings over 23 years of investment operations risk management and consulting experience to every GIPS verification.
Kim’s career in finance began in 1995 working with one of the largest global providers of GIPS verification services. As Director of Verification Services, Kim oversaw hundreds of verifications and thousands of performance examinations, creating deep partnerships with individual firms to help grow their businesses and meet compliance objectives.
Now a recognized leader in the business, Kim is a regular speaker at national industry conferences. Her investment career includes training and empowering a generation of verifiers, leading client service initiatives for over 800 clients, and combining her Master’s degree in Education with her work experience to develop and teach national CIPM exam review courses and a CFA Level III exam review course on the GIPS standards. From 2001 to 2019, Kim also worked alongside principals from regional and Big Four accounting firms and CFA Institute staff to develop guidance for CPAs reporting on the GIPS standards.
Kim is also a Certified Securities Compliance Professional. Her other risk management experience includes working as a Chief Compliance Officer, consulting with asset owners on investment operations solutions, and leading operational due diligence examinations of hedge fund managers
Outside of work, Kim likes climbing the Cascades with her husband, cheering on their five mostly grown kids, and being ever-inspired by the life-changing service work she contributes to as a member of Rotary International.
Janice Kitzman, CIPM
Janice has more than 10 years of experience working as a thoughtful and energetic verification lead for clients from large, complex asset managers to small start-up firms and everything in between. Her experience spans a wide variety of investment strategies, giving her a deep understanding of the unique performance challenges that different strategies can pose. Janice first worked with Kim in 2010 at Ashland Partners in Southern Oregon. After moving to Portland, she spent over 7 years working with Vincent Performance Services and its acquiring firm, ACA Performance Services.
As a Partner at Cascade Compliance, Janice provides client consulting, leads strategic initiatives, creates client tools and templates, and continuously develops improvements to ensure an effective, well-organized verification process and top-tier service for every client. She also currently serves as a volunteer on the GIPS Verification Subcommittee.
Janice holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics from Southern Oregon University. She also holds the CFA Institute Certificate in ESG Investing.
In her free time, Janice enjoys spending time with her family and exploring all the Pacific Northwest has to offer.
Jordan Berger
Jordan joined Cascade Compliance in July 2018, specializing in data analytics. He has supported the senior members of the team on dozens of verifications and performance examinations and developed curriculum on the GIPS standards for workshops and seminars. His experience spans a variety of investment strategies including equities, bonds, private debt, and currency overlays. Jordan is committed to promoting full disclosure and fair representation of investment performance results.
He received his Bachelor of Science degree in Finance from Oregon State University.
When he’s not at work, Jordan is an avid cyclist, skier, and snowboarder who enjoys exploring new roads on his bicycle and heading for the mountains at the first sign of fresh powder.
Natalia Taylor
Natalia Taylor joined Cascade Compliance in June 2022. She began her career in 2018 working exclusively with the GIPS standards as a consultant and verifier at ACA Group in their Performance Services division. After this, in 2021 Natalia worked for a large institutional manager to help re-vamp and support their GIPS compliance efforts, including tightening up policies and procedures, leading the firm’s internal GIPS Committee, and establishing new processes for composite maintenance. Having moved from a third-party verifier to working in-house, Natalia is excited to be back in the verification world and bring her institutional knowledge to the Cascade Team.
Natalia received her Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting from Southern Oregon University. When she’s not raving over GIPS compliance, Natalia can often be found frolicking in her garden and taking care of her small family farm.
Leif Smucker
Leif Smucker joined the Cascade Compliance team in 2021 as support to the senior professionals. He works exclusively with Cascade’s asset manager services and brings years of client service to this engagement. Leif earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from Eckerd College in 2015.
Our Values
Cascade Compliance is proud to be a woman-owned business and a benefit company.
A Woman-Owned Business
Diversify your service providers by choosing us as a partner.
Cascade Compliance is a Women’s Business Enterprise (WBE) certified through the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC), the nation’s largest third-party certifier of businesses owned and operated by women.
Today’s companies recognize the importance of diversity, equity, and inclusion in helping their businesses grow and thrive. Working with us can add diversity to your lineup of financial service providers and vendors, and we also seek out minority and women-owned businesses when hiring external service providers.
Mission Statement:
Cascade Compliance provides independent consulting and verification services, promoting investment industry best practices and fortifying ethical standards and trusted partnership between investment advisors and investors. We promote diverse hiring practices, give back to the communities and physical environments we live in, and foster a work environment that embraces differences and engenders mutual respect, creating a culture of inclusion where everyone has the opportunity to excel.
A Benefit Company
We believe in the power of business as a force for good.
Client service is our top priority, and we bring the same conscientious approach to our own business and operations decisions. We invest in the success of our employees by providing education, advancement opportunities, health and retirement benefits, and paid volunteer time off.
Diverse hiring practices are crucial to us, and we recognize the effects of racial inequalities are pervasive and profound. We know we can do more as we grow, and we can start now as we build a work environment that values diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Interested in finding more ways your company can be a force for good?
To learn more about how to make a global impact with small changes to everyday business practices, check out the Standards, Benchmarks and Tools at the B Lab.
~ Valerie, New York, New York