After receiving his Ph.D. in statistics from the Wharton School of Business in 1987, Witt pursued a 20-year career in finance in New York and London in derivatives, structured finance and investment management. In the 1990s, he managed the derivatives trading desk at Sakura Global Capital in London after working for General Re and Citibank as an over-the-counter interest rate option trader. In 2005, as a managing director at Moody’s Investors Service, he left the collateralized debt obligation group to create the Moody’s operational risk rating team focused on hedge funds and to lead the mutual fund rating team that primarily rated money market and bond funds worldwide. From 2008 until 2015, Witt drew from his many years of experience to teach statistics and finance at Temple University.