Our Team
Denise Shull, MA
Performance, Strategy, and Decision Advisor
Denise Shull, ReThink’s Founder and CEO, leverages her background in neuroscience and modern psychoanalysis to solve the mental mysteries of successful investing, trading, competing, and leading teams. She is known for her uncanny effectiveness in resolving mental blocks and decision conundrums.
Her Wall Street career began in 1994 when she joined one of the first electronic trading firms in Chicago. She then traded at Schonfeld Securities before she was recruited to run her own desk at Sharpe Capital in NYC.
In 2003, an academic journal published her pioneering University of Chicago master’s thesis, “The Neurobiology of Freud’s Repetition Compulsion.” This led Denise to discover the then-emerging research indicating that, contrary to popular belief, emotion is required for decision making. She founded The ReThink Group to apply this radical finding to assisting pension funds, hedge funds, asset managers, and trading firms all over the globe in making better market decisions. The head of an international trading desk said, “the work I have done with her has enabled me to make more progress in my trading than my 15 years of experience did on their own.”
Her first article, Freud’s Path to Profits, was published in December 2004 in Stocks, Futures and Options Magazine and her 2012 book, Market Mind Games: A Radical Psychology of Investing, Trading and Risk has been reviewed as the “best of its genre” and a “veritable Rosetta Stone of trading psychology.” An engaging speaker, Denise has keynoted for UBS, Credit Suisse, MIT’s Sloan Fellows, Harvard Business School, and the US Ski and Snowboard Association.
In 2015, Denise consulted on the development of Showtime’s BILLIONS. In ’16, Denise began mental coaching with the 2022 Gold medal winner Lindsey Jacobellis. Bloomberg Tradebook also released ReThink’s the Trader Brain Exercise, based on her work. In ’17, ReThink delivered HEADSx, a unique talent assessment tool that measures the elusive intangibles in X-factor performance. In ’18, Denise headlined a LEADERS in SPORT conference and ReThink landed their second major professional sports client, Hendrick Motorsports.
In 2019, Real Vision, NASDAQ’s Trade Talks, and Yahoo Finance featured Denise. In the past, she has appeared on CNBC, FOX Business and Bloomberg TV. Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Bloomberg Markets, and New York Times’ Dealbook have run profiles on her unique work.
Denise holds a Master of Arts (1995) from the University of Chicago. Her thesis was cited in 2013 as one of the first papers written about neuropsychoanalysis. She is also a 2009 alumna of Harvard’s Kennedy School Executive Education program, Investment Decisions and Behavioral Finance.
Bill Long
EVP and Chief of Staff
Bill Long is EVP and Chief of Staff at ReThink. He is the brains behind our revolutionary HEADSx talent assessment tool and the intuition training game “trader brain exercise”. He brings his broad range of experience in trading, financial markets and economics to ReThink’s coaching of investors, traders and athletes.
Bill began his career at the Dallas Fed where he rose to the position of senior economist and director of economic information. In that role, he served as part of the team that prepared the Fed Beige Book. He next took on a leadership role at KPMG, and then transitioned to Bear Stearns to work with the chief institutional strategist, the trading desks and Bear’s top clients. When the crisis hit, he became a director of manager research and evaluated more than 250 hedge funds across a broad range of trading strategies and asset classes.
Throughout his career, Bill has been a well-respected mentor and coach. He has led numerous teams within the Federal Reserve and at KPMG on a project to develop sophisticated analytical software. He holds a license as a cycling coach from the United States Cycling Federation. Bill also brings an entrepreneurial side to ReThink, having founded NetEvolution Technologies, Inc. in the early days of the web.
Bill holds a Financial Risk Manager (FRM) designation. He received his Master of Arts and “ABD” in Economics from Duke University and a Bachelor of Arts with Honors in Economics from UNC-Chapel Hill.
Bill is an avid cyclist and reader and enjoys golfing from time to time.
John Burns
Senior Consultant and Performance Advisor
John Burns serves as ReThink’s Senior Consultant and Performance Advisor. His life passion is optimal human performance. John was one of the most consistently profitable options floor traders at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and as a competitive amateur golfer has been often ranked as a top-20 Illinois amateur golfer. In addition to his role with ReThink, he trades several portfolios across multiple global markets employing several fundamental and technical ideas.
Starting as a runner on the floor of the Chicago Board of Trade upon graduation from Indiana University, John quickly learned to read market dynamics while building strong relationships with key traders. This opened the door for his position as an options clerk, which led to his position as an option market maker on the trading floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange from 1994 to 2014. John profitably traded his own account for every quarter he was on the trading floor.
Through the years, John also realized that optimal performance is not something that can be achieved independently. He sought out experts across multiple fields, creating and customizing his own Masters-level program. Some of his professional consultants include Denise Shull of ReThink; Dr. Michael Gervais, PhD High Performance Psychologist and Co-Founder of Compete to Create; Curt Cronin, Retired Navy Seal and founder of the Broadway Strategic Investment Fund; Robin Mesch, Founder of Mesch Associates Technical Analysis; and various consultants with the Corporate Athlete Program.
He is now studying at the Boston Graduate School of Psychoanalysis, an institute who’s teaching aligns with ReThink’s unique angle on human performance. John thrives on sharing his knowledge and experience with others. He knows how to connect high-achievers—and those that want to be—to the emotions that will embolden their achievements.
John works with institutional money managers, professional and independent traders, analysts and financial advisors. He is also currently working with an MLB pitcher and has worked with a variety of professional and amateur athletes.
– Margaret T.
Get to know John:
- Interview with Dave Mabe, Trade Ideas, July 8, 2020
- How to Tackle a Recession of Confidence in Athletes Returning to Play After Sport’s Shutdown, LEADERS, June 30,2020
Evan Marks
Senior Consultant and Performance Advisor
Evan Marks is a Sr. Consultant and Performance Advisor for ReThink. A 25-year Wall Street veteran, a trader and a former equity partner at an industry-leading hedge fund, his experience is invaluable. From running trading floors in volatile markets to investing in start-up companies with driven entrepreneurs, he’s worked through many challenges to achieve professional success. His philosophy is that pressure is a privilege and you should never be comfortable.
This belief is what drives him daily to reach new levels of personal and professional growth. He finds passion in uncovering his clients’ potential by implementing tailored coaching strategies, thoughtful planning and focused execution.
Evan holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Pennsylvania, where he played Division 1 Lacrosse. Having retired from triathlons, he remains committed to fitness to compensate for his love of food. In his free time, he enjoys traveling, time with his family and most importantly, coaching his daughters’ sports teams.
Lindsey Jacobellis
Special Consultant
Five-time Olympian Lindsey Jacobellis is the most dominant SBX rider of all time. Otherwise known as the GOAT, she added gold in Beijing in 2022 to her record of Olympic silver medalist, 6-time world champion and 10-time X Games gold medalist. Lindsey has been a competitive snowboarder since she was 11 years old. She competed in her first X Games at 15 and her first Olympics at age 20. While continuing to compete, Lindsey also works as an inspirational leader for Supergirl Snow Pro, an event series dedicated to showcasing the world’s top female, professional athletes and providing a platform for young athletes to develop and grow – a mission she is expanding thru ReThink.
In 2016 she began working with Denise Shull and is now bringing her synthesis of these unique experiences to the role of Special Consultant at ReThink.
In her spare time, she finished 2nd in the charity edition of MTV’s The Challenge to raise money for ASPCA and she loves to surf, sew, garden, cook and play the ukulele.