About Finance IQ

Finance IQ is a NASBA certified financial learning and consulting firm, created and managed by securities industry professionals.

Our principals have designed and delivered numerous interactive and creative instructor led training (ILT) programs to the world’s largest investment banks, asset management firms, regulators, insurance firms, corporate banks, rating agencies and support firms.

With programs developed exclusively by industry practitioners, Finance IQ offers training across a wide range of topics from introductory Financial Accounting to advanced Alternative Investments. Each course captures the latest changes in the regulatory environment, industry practices and capital markets innovations.

All our courses are distinguished by case-based study and our facilitators bring into the classroom a wealth of knowledge and expertise behind each topic to skillfully illuminate even the most complex concepts.

Combining our technical expertise and extensive training experience, we set the industry standard for the most relevant and practical training solutions across a broad spectrum of both corporate and regulatory agency needs.

In addition to our vast course list, our team can help customize the design and delivery of specialized programs to meet the specific learning and development needs of an organization.

Our Team

Lance Eckel, CFA, FRM

Lance is a Managing Partner of Finance IQ and has over 15 years of experience designing and delivering innovative training programs to a variety of professional and academic audiences. His financial industry experience spans almost 25 years and began as an emerging markets analyst for the Bank of Nova Scotia in Santiago, Chile. In 1997, he moved to Toronto and became a junior portfolio manager in the Proprietary Equity area of Scotia Capital Markets. In 2004, he co-founded the Geneva Arbitrage Fund, a private investment fund that focused on the areas of merger arbitrage and other event-style investing. As the Director of Research and co-Manager, he helped lead the fund to over ten consecutive years of positive returns. Prior to his work in the securities industry, Lance was an economist and policy analyst for the Government of Canada.

He has a BA (Honors) and MA, both in Economics from McGill University. He holds both the Chartered Financial Analyst and the Financial Risk Manager charters and is the Director of the Investment Committee for Church of the Incarnation in New York City.

Matthew Porio, CFA, CTP

Matt is a Managing Partner of Finance IQ and heads up our advisory business. He has combined over 30 years of international capital markets experience with 10 years of corporate training and advisory engagements to become a lead facilitator in a number of financial topic areas. He started his Wall Street career with Salomon Brothers in the mortgage backed securities group and shortly thereafter became a Vice President of Global Markets at Chase Manhattan Bank. In 1996, he became the Chief Dealer at American Express Bank and in 2001 was promoted to Global Head of Markets. Matt was also Executive Vice President and Co-Head of Global Markets in the U.S. operations for the Bank of Ireland. Following his career on Wall Street, Matt founded Lucas & Associates, a consulting and risk advisory firm that created financial and risk management solutions for over 50 corporations across a variety of industries in the U.S. and overseas.

Matt holds a BA (cum laude) in Economics from Duke University and an MBA in Finance from the Fuqua School of Business; he also holds an MLIS from St. John’s University where he was a Laura Bush scholar. Matt is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA), a Certified Treasury Professional (CTP) and holds an ACI Diploma.