Meet Our Amazing Team
What makes us different? Beyond being a group of talented, intelligent, and amazing people, we genuinely care about each other, our customers, and the products we stand behind. Take a moment and learn about the humans behind Traders Reserve.
John Hutchinson
Co-Founder
As a life-long, serial entrepreneur whose first business was delivering the morning paper in Syracuse, NY, I started Traders Reserve with my partner to take something I loved (trading and investing) and turn it into a business.
Ten years later, the people – our customers, our team – have become a second family to me and always will be. That makes this company more fun to run than any other company I know of.
About John
John is a graduate of Oakland University in Auburn Hills, Michigan and lives in suburban Detroit with his partner-in-crime, Liz and their watchdog, Gordie, a Yorkie-poo who thinks he’s a Doberman.
For amusement, he lets Liz pour the wine.
David Durham
Co-Founder
A 30-year veteran of the direct response business, Dave launched and built multiple business units for Phillips International (InvestorPlace Media).
Phillips was primarily a newsletter publishing business, but in 1989, Dave started their trade magazine and conference business in the technology and defense markets and built it up to $30 million in sales within 5 years.
From there, he moved back into the consumer financial marketplace within Phillips to take over and rebuild their mutual fund newsletter publishing business from 2 fledgling services into 5 major products that produced $20 million in sales.
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Dave was asked by Tom Phillips, founder and owner of Phillips International, to create a franchise within the company that would test the use of traditional direct response marketing in an online environment.
Dave launched ChangeWave Investing in fewer than 3 years with a $24 million dollar business that had grown to include 6 additional publications, a thriving research business and a prolific content generation machine.
Dave concluded his time at Phillips by identifying the move of individual investors into active trading and made the push within the company to introduce active trading services, options trading services, and utilize video in both marketing and delivery of product for is changing customer base.
Jeff Wood
Jeff started off his investing when his dad came to him with a generous offer. His dad was prepared to match his investments dollar-for-dollar. Jeff agreed and took his hard-earned money to a stockbroker and watched his investment fall to half its value. Shortly after, his dad once again made the same generous offer and once again the two watched the money disappear. That led Jeff and his dad to embark on their journey to learn how to trade on their own.
Since then, Jeff has been a student of the market, reading investing books, going to seminars, and learning from other gurus in the industry.
Jeff went on to earn his Master’s of Business Administration with a concentration in Finance and Project Management and has a passion for educating others and assisting them on their financial journey.
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As an avid film buff from a young age, Jeff went to school for film and business management and went on to work in the advertising industry, working around the country for clients like Ford Motor Company, Cintas, Bush’s Baked Beans, Warrior Sports, and Arby’s to name a few.
Jeff spent time working in the Detroit independent film scene, but eventually went back to school.
After earning his MBA, he worked in the instructional video industry as an Executive Producer and led a team of multimedia experts to create over 2000 videos a year for Nissan.
He also spent time building international teams to produce virtual reality and augmented reality experiences for a variety of clients.
Jeff enjoys technology, investing, and coaching others.
Emily Norris
Publisher Dave Durham took a chance on a scrappy college grad who’d never traded a stock or heard of an option, and gave Emily her start in the world of financial publishing in 2009. Their paths diverged and then crossed again when Dave asked Emily to come aboard the startup he and John Hutchinson founded.
Today, Emily is known as an analyst wrangler and editor extraordinaire. She cherishes the community at Trader’s Reserve.
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Emily graduated from American University in Washington, D.C., earning her master’s degree in Journalism and Public Affairs. She has worked in financial publishing as a writer and editor for numerous well-respected firms over the past 15 years.
Emily recently gave up the beach life (where she developed a love of remote work long before the pandemic struck) and moved back to her hometown in upstate New York to be closer to family.
She lives in a small town where she enjoys spending time on the beautiful Finger Lakes.
Kara Turner
Kara began working at Traders Reserve in 2019. What started as a part-time opportunity has developed into an incredible growth experience that continues to challenge her. Kara loves the close-knit team and all the fantastic customers that she has had the chance to meet along the way.
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Kara graduated from Central Michigan University in 2011 and has two Bachelor’s Degrees: one in Marketing and one in Art/Photography/Media Design.
She enjoys hot yoga, reading, traveling, and going on adventures, especially those that involve an adrenaline kick, like jumping out of airplanes.
Leslie Sharp
Leslie was born and raised in the south, just a few miles outside of New Orleans, and is a high school teacher by college degree. She is one of the two faces of Customer Care.
Leslie has been on the front lines of Traders Reserve since 2015 and her favorite aspect of the job continues to be the Live Events. She loves the “work vacations” because she gets to put names to faces and develop relationships on a more personal level. You can find her at these events at the sign-in table and the hotel bar 😉
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Leslie is a Pisces, a dog person by nature and has three daughters. Her philanthropies tend to be local animal rescues. If she ever wins the Powerball, she will buy a ton of property, build a huge home/farm and rescue all the puppies.
Her favorite food is boiled seafood (any kind), and her favorite holiday is Mardi Gras. She is in the “second phase” of her adult life so laissez les bons temps rouler!!
Mike Walton
Mike is the other half (and equally dynamic) of the Customer Care team. He handles technical issues for access to member’s websites and member communication. He has been with Traders Reserve since 2015 (same with Leslie) and loves it. He was born and raised in New Jersey (Exit 4) but now splits his time between the Lone Star and Sunshine states.
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When not providing outstanding customer care, he is usually spending time with his family. He enjoys traveling, a peaceful motorcycle ride, unloading at the shooting range, smooth bourbon, and a round of golf (Yes I’m terrible).
