A single-family office serving the Dekker family
What We Do
Cat Trail is a single family office (SFO), a private investment company focused on growing its General Partners’ capital.
Investment
Management
Cat Trail takes strategic positions in publicly traded securities, makes placements with unique fund managers, manages a portfolio of real assets, and occasionally invests in small private companies. Investing in both debt and equity, Cat Trail establishes active, on-going relationships with those with whom it invests. Investment partners are caref
Wealth
Planning
Providing a full suite of customized services, Cat Trail coordinates with trusted advisors to meet the needs of the Dekkers, extended family and friends. Services include multigenerational estate planning, tax strategy, portfolio reporting & analytics, and financial planning.
Learning &
Philanthropy
Cat Trail attempts to optimize the impact of its giving strategy and works with the Dekker Foundation to support its philanthropic mission. More information on the Dekker Foundation can be found here. Cat Trail also recognizes the importance of learning and developing financial acumen. In support of financial literacy, Cat Trail provides programs i
Who We Are
Our Team
David Dekker
MANAGING PARTNER
David Dekker serves as Managing Partner of Cat Trail, which he founded in 2004.
David has served on numerous boards of private companies and currently serves on the advisory committees of Freedom 3, a private credit solutions fund (www.freedom3.com), Alta Community Investments, a real estate development fund (www.acifund.com), and Cornerstone, a construction company headquartered in Big Sky, MT (www.cmsbigsky.com). David is the founding Trustee of the Dekker Foundation (www.dekker.org). David also currently serves as President of Vineyard Golf Club in Martha's Vineyard, MA.
David received a BS degree in Management Science from the University of Rhode Island and is a member of the Edward's Society, an alumni advisory board to the University President. David also received a Master of Business Administration degree from the Executive Management Program at Pace University's Lubin School of Business. Postgraduate work included the Executive Education Program “Mergers and Acquisitions” at Columbia University's Graduate School of Business.
Russell Dekker
PARTNER
Russell Dekker is a Partner of Cat Trail and serves on Cat Trail's investment committee.
From 1990 through 2004, Russell served as Chief Publishing Officer of Marcel Dekker, Inc. From 2004 through 2009, he was the Founder and Managing Director of Summit Communications, LLC. Russell is a Trustee of the Dekker Foundation (www.dekker.org).
Russell received a BA degree cum laude with high honors from Hobart College in 1990 and an MA degree from New York University in 1994.
Additional background information can be found on the history page.
Andrew Budinoff
DIRECTOR
Andrew Budinoff is Director of Portfolio Management and Trading at Cat Trail. Andrew is responsible for development and execution of Cat Trail's various internally managed trading strategies. Andrew is also responsible for developing and managing the firm's asset allocation model as well as portfolio risk and performance analytics.
Prior to joining Cat Trail, Andrew was an analyst at Point Clear Capital Management (PCCM). Prior to joining PCCM, Andrew completed internships with UBS's private bank and JP Morgan.
Andrew received a Bachelor of Science Degree from Boston College's Carroll School of Management. He also earned an MBA from NYU's Stern School of Business specializing in Quantitative Finance and Financial Instruments & Markets. Andrew is a CFA® charterholder.
History
Cat Trail is an investment company serving the Dekker family.
Cat Trail was founded by David Dekker after Marcel Dekker, Inc. was acquired at the end of 2003. Marcel Dekker, Inc. (Dekker) was a scientific/technological/medical (STM) publishing company founded by David and Russell's father, Marcel Dekker, in 1964. Prior, Marcel worked in marketing and sales for the publishing firm, Interscience, which was founded by Marcel's father, Maurits Dekker, and Eric Proskauer in 1947. Interscience merged with John Wiley & Sons in 1963, becoming Wiley-Interscience.
Like Interscience before it, Marcel Dekker, Inc. prospered, transforming into a mid-sized global STM publisher. In 1997, Marcel Dekker retained his Chairman title but vacated the Presidency, passing the company's leadership to his two sons, Russell Dekker as Chief Publishing Officer and David Dekker as Chief Operating Officer.
At the time, technology and the internet were posing both opportunities and challenges for traditional publishers. With new leadership, the company embraced the digital challenges by building a strong web presence, a new brand image, pioneering in-house content management, and directly publishing material in real-time to the web and syndication partners. Crossroads Media, a separate company owned by David and Russell Dekker, also purchased Achorn Graphics (Achorn) in 1998, a typesetter which had developed a unique technology to render STM content on the web. Achorn became well-regarded doing all production work for Dekker as well as for other STM publishers such as Elsevier, Kluwer, Springer, Wiley, and McGraw-Hill. Achorn was sold in 2001 to SPI Graphics, a company financed by Tommy Lee Partners.
In 2003, Dekker's Board of Directors agreed to sell Dekker to the Taylor & Francis Group, plc (T&F). Dekker's American base and digital activism made it an especially good fit with the more English and print-centric T&F. Russell and David worked for T&F, honoring their required employment contracts, but left soon after to establish new ventures. Now well-established and with better resources, Cat Trail has become a full-service investment boutique for the Dekker family.
Contact Us
Cat Trail Office
admin@cattrail.com
The Dekker Foundation
admin@dekker.org
Mailing Address
CAT TRAIL
606 Post Road East Suite 681
WESTPORT, CT 06880
Phone
(203) 226-3152
(212) 207-3714
