Meet the Making Sense Team

Brent Ciliano has spent more than 10 years as the Chief Investment Officer of the Capital Management Group at First Citizens Bank. He and his teams oversee more than $50 billion in client assets across institutional and personal trust, as well as the firm's broker-dealer. Brent has more than 25 years of investment experience in portfolio strategy, portfolio management and investment banking.

Before his role at First Citizens, Brent was Chief Investment Officer for Congress Capital Partners LLP and led Congress Asset Management's Portfolio Strategy team. In this capacity, he worked with Congress Asset Management and Wealth Management institutional and ultra-high-net-worth clients to help set investment policy and strategy.

Prior to Congress, Brent spent 5 years as head of portfolio strategy for Goldman Sachs Asset Management's Portfolio Strategy Group, where he helped some of Goldman's largest clients formulate investment policy and strategy. His group and sister group Global Portfolio Solutions advised on and helped execute more than $1.1 trillion in client assets globally.

Prior to Goldman, Brent was head of Investment Strategy for SEI's Wealth Network Group, where he provided investment strategy and advice to its ultra-high-net-worth clients, personally managing more than $3 billion for 49 families. He also spent time as a senior strategist on the Merrill Lynch Investment Managers—now BlackRock—Global Allocation fund with assets over $100 billion, as well as 8 years in global mergers and acquisitions with Merrill Lynch.

Brent holds the Chartered Financial Analyst, or CFA, designation and is a member of the North Carolina Security Analysts Society.

Phillip Neuhart is the Director of Market and Economic Research at First Citizens. In this role, he develops and delivers the bank's market and economic viewpoints in the form of written, audio and video content, speaking engagements, and events.

Previously, Phil was Manager of the Institutional Portfolio Strategy Team at First Citizens. He and his team functioned as the liaison between the Capital Management Group and institutional clients to develop investment policies, asset allocations, manager structure, performance analytics and reporting.

Prior to joining First Citizens, Phil worked as an Institutional Equity Strategist with Morgan Stanley in New York. In this role, he provided US equity market research for institutional clients, equity research analysts, traders and sales associates focused on fundamental and quantitative equity market analysis, weighted sector allocations and S&P 500 price strategies. Prior to his time with Morgan Stanley, he served as both an Institutional Equity Strategist and Economist with Wachovia-Wells Fargo Capital Markets.

Phil is a graduate of Duke University, where he earned a Bachelor of Science in Economics. He's frequently quoted in media outlets and is a repeat guest on Bloomberg's Surveillance podcast.

Blake Taylor is a market and economic research analyst at First Citizens. In this role, he conducts research and analysis across global markets and economies. He also contributes thought leadership as part of the Making Sense series through commentaries and presentations.

Blake joined First Citizens Wealth in 2024 from Ziff Brothers Investments, where he was the firm's senior economist. Previously, he was an associate in macro research at Goldman Sachs, where he helped clients navigate complex economic and policy matters. Blake began his career as a research assistant at the Federal Reserve Board of Governors in Washington, DC. He's passionate about economic issues and policies and how they affect investors, institutions and the public at large.

Blake is a graduate of Wake Forest University and the London School of Economics and Political Science.