Eric (aka Royce) was born May 19th, 1976, and grew up in St. Paul where I participated in sports (basketball, soccer, high-jump), the band (percussion), and mostly kept out of trouble. I often got on the nerves of my younger sister, Kristi, during this time. I decided to attend St. Olaf College in the footsteps of my parents, Mike and Beth, where I graduated in 1998 with a BA in Economics and Management.

        At St. Olaf I continued with sports and mostly keeping out of trouble, and also enjoyed being an active member of the student community taking part in student governement, writing for the school newspaper, DJing at the campus radio station, and certainly keeping an active social agenda. After working for several years developing "real world" experience, I returned to school in 2002 to pursue my MBA from the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota. I recently graduated in May of this year and started working with Piper Jaffray soon after.

Career

        Since graduating from St. Olaf College I have focused my job experience on learning business development, management, and strategy skills. First as a Branch Manager for Enterprise Rent-A-Car, I learned the basics about running my own company (with huge support from corporate), and then my work with Four51 where I honed my skills emphasizing project management and to experience what it's like to contribute to a start-up firm.

        When I went back to school for my MBA, I continued working on business development through my work as an associate with Carlson Ventures Enterprise. As part of CVE I did a number of projects helping small entreprenuerial firms write business, marketing, and operation plans. I also did some management consulting work for UMORE Park, a University of Minnesota Research Park.

        In November of 2004 I began working with Piper Jaffray as a Financial Advisor. My focus as a financial advisor is working alongside customers, building individual, personal, and comprehensive financial plans. I work in conjunction with my clients to help them relalize their own financial and life goals by utilizing institutional research, leading technology, and one on one consultation. If you have any questions, thoughts, or are interested in discussing how to best realize your goals, you can give me a call at my office in downtown St. Paul.

Why 'Royce'

        I often get asked why half the people I know call me Eric and the other half call me Royce. The quick and dirty version is that it started my first week at St. Olaf. On third floor North, Hoyme Hall, were I took up residence, there were three Erics living within 3 doors of each other. 12 hours after moving in it was decided that two of us had to change our names. Eric Peterson is not the most original name, so I was henceforth known as Royce.