Sunita Advaney Director, National Accounts

Principal Global Investors

Sunita Advaney is a Director for National Accounts at Principal Global Investors (PGI).  PGI is the asset management division of the Principal Financial Group.  Sunita joined the firm in April 2014 and is responsible for developing new national account relationships across Sub-Advisory, Mutual Fund, ETF, VIT, CIT & Private Real Estate Fund opportunities. Prior to her current role, Sunita was a Director at Munder Capital Management, Wells Capital Management and VP at Deutsche Asset Management.  In all of these capacities, she was charged with building the Sub-Advisory, DCIO & Trust/Private Bank distribution channels.  She has 20 years of industry experience developing various institutional business lines.  She received a bachelor's degree in International Business from Hofstra University.  She holds licenses for Series 3, 6, 63 and 7.

Dana Burns Senior Portfolio Manager, Investment Grade Fixed Income

PineBridge Investments

Mr. Burns joined the firm in 2007 and is a Managing Director and Senior Portfolio Manager of PineBridge Investments’ Investment Grade Credit Team. He is responsible for the management of high grade institutional and retail fixed income portfolios. Mr. Burns’ primary focus at the firm is the management of investment grade total return portfolio and high quality insurance company assets. Previously, Mr. Burns was Vice President and co-manager of the Fixed Income Separately Managed Account Group at Morgan Stanley. Additionally, Mr. Burns managed assets for high net-worth individuals through Morgan Stanley’s Private Wealth Management Group (PWM). Mr. Burns’ investment industry experience began in 1997. Mr. Burns received a BS in Business Administration from the University of Richmond and an MBA from New York University.

Adam Choppin Assistant Portfolio Manager, Multi Manager Strategies

Xponance

Adam Choppin is Vice President and Assistant Portfolio Manager, Multi-Manager Strategies at Xponance. Xponance is a multi-strategy investment firm with approximately $12 billion in assets under management servicing institutional investors in fixed income, passive, and active international multi-manager equity strategies.  Adam joined the firm in May 2013 and is the Assistant Portfolio Manager for multi-manager strategies. Adam is also Chairman of the Board of the Association of Professional Fund Investors, the sole global non-profit professional association whose members are all professional allocators, fund investors, and manager research analysts.

From 2008-2013, Adam founded and ran a boutique investment advisory firm which advised on private investments in South America, Africa, and the Middle East. Previously, he worked as a trade and financial markets analyst for the U.S. government including as an economic affairs liaison in Iraq, Afghanistan, Cape Verde, Sierra Leone, Ghana, and Mozambique. In 2008 he organized the first official U.S. Government trade mission to Iraq in over 25 years.

Adam earned his B.A. in International Relations from the University of Southern California (USC); his M.A. in International Economics and Business from Yale University; and a post-graduate Diploma in Finance from the London School of Economics. While a student at USC, Adam also read in Latin American economics and politics at the Universidade de São Paulo. He speaks Portuguese, Spanish, and English.

Tim Clift Chief Investment Strategist

Envestnet Asset Management

Mr. Clift serves as Chief Investment Strategist at Envestnet | PMC and is responsible for research and portfolio services for the organization. He leads a team of analysts who are responsible for the selection and monitoring of investment managers and a team of portfolio managers who manage a suite of investment products for the Firm. Clift co-chairs PMC’s Investment Committee and is instrumental in setting investment policy for the Company. 

Prior to joining Envestnet | PMC, Clift was the Chief Investment Officer and Chairman of the Investment Committee at FundQuest. He joined FundQuest in 1994 and maintained overall responsibility for the firm’s investment management programs for separately managed accounts, mutual funds, alternative investments, exchange traded funds and annuities.

Clift possesses over 30 years of industry and investment management experience. He received a Master’s in Business Administration in Finance from Boston University and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Allegheny College.

Ben Doob Head of ISS Market Intelligence

ISS Market Intelligence

Ben Doob is Head of ISS’ Market Intelligence (ISS MI) business and a member of the ISS Leadership Team. ISS MI provides critical data, insight, and workflow solutions to global asset managers, insurance companies, and distribution platforms while helping drive strategy and decision-making across a wide-range of financial products and global markets.

Ben is responsible for the overall strategy and performance of the ISS MI business, whose solutions deliver a powerful combination of proprietary data, in-depth research, robust analytics, and executive engagement to clients across the globe. Ben works across ISS’ business lines to grow the scope and geographic reach of ISS MI solutions and to deliver its industry-leading data through the Simfund, BrightScope, Local Market Share, Financial Clarity, and Mortgage Clarity platforms. He also oversees an extensive set of proprietary global research and analytical services including 529 & ABLE Solutions, Investor Economics, Market Metrics, and Plan for Life. Prior to joining ISS, Ben was Senior Managing Director, Managing Principal, and on the Executive Team at Strategic Insight, where he focused on overall firm strategy and operations. Previously he was Managing Principal at FactSet and Chief Operating Officer at Market Metrics. He has also worked at McKinsey & Company where he helped clients with sales and operations strategy.

Ben holds an undergraduate degree from Williams College, with a double major in Computer Science and Economics, and an MBA with Honors from The Wharton School at The University of Pennsylvania.

James Dunham Director of Financial Institutions and National Accounts

William Blair Investment Management

James Dunham is the Director of Financial Institutions and National Accounts (FINA) at William Blair Investment Management. Based in New York, he’s responsible for the firm’s relationships with financial institutions and the sub-advisory market. James has 25 years of experience in the investment management industry with expertise across the full spectrum of strategies, clients, and geographies.

Before joining William Blair, he was Managing Director and Global Head of Sub-Advisory at Perella Weinberg Partners. Before that, he served as Vice President in the Investment Management Division of Goldman Sachs & Co. Previously, he was Managing Director and Head of Sub-Advisory at Principal Global Investors in New York. Jamie spent six years at Bankers Trust and Deutsche Bank in Australia before joining Principal in the United States in 2000.  

He is a graduate of the University of South Australia where he holds both a Bachelor of Business Degree majoring in Banking and Finance and an Associate Diploma of Business with a major in Credit Management. He also holds the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) Series 7 Securities License, the Series 63 Securities Agent Law License and the Series 3 Commodity Futures License.

James is a regular speaker at industry conferences and has been a guest on Bloomberg TV. He’s also a former Chairman of Financial Research Associates Sub-Advised Funds Forum. Outside of work, he’s married with two children, has completed over 30 marathons and is a four-time Ironman Triathlete.

William Blair is a premier global boutique with expertise in investment banking and investment management. The investment management business manages $56 billion in assets across U.S equity, non-U.S equity, fixed income, multi-asset and alternatives.

David Eisenberg Managing Director – Pensions

Cambridge Associates

David Eisenberg is a Managing Director at Cambridge Associates. Based in Boston, he serves as an Outsourced Chief Investment Officer (OCIO). David serves pension clients in both fully discretionary and non-discretionary assignments. With over 35 years of investment experience, David has worked with corporate, public, union, and not-for-profit pension plan sponsors, and other multi-asset investors. His investment experience includes both defined benefit and defined contribution investment programs.

Previously, David served as North America Director of Client Consulting and as Senior Portfolio Manager at Mercer, as well as Chief Equity Officer at John Hancock Advisors and Portfolio Manager at Trinity Investment Management. He has also held leadership roles at Meketa Investment Group and NEPC. David is a regular speaker at investment industry conferences.

His recent speaking topics have included evaluating, selecting, and managing sub-advisors, investment governance, the integration of environmental, social and governance (ESG) investment factors with decision making, and other topics directly impacting the pension industry.

Atticus Fallon Business Development and Client Relations

GMO

Kimberly Flynn Managing Director, Alternative Investments

XA Investments

Kimberly Flynn serves as Managing Director at XA Investments, a wholly-owned subsidiary of XMS Capital Partners.  She is a partner in the firm and responsible for all product and business development activities.  Kim created the alternative registered trust platform at XA Investments working in partnership with independent subadvisers representing best-in-class alternative investment managers.  Previously, Kim was Senior Vice President and Head of Product Development for Nuveen Investments’ Global Structured Products Group. In her 11 years at Nuveen, she helped developed over 40 closed-end funds raising ~$13 billion in capital.  In her leadership role at Nuveen, Kim was responsible for asset raising activities through the development of new traditional and alternative investment funds including CEFs, ETFs, UITs and commodity pools. 

Kim received her MBA degree from Harvard University, where she was a William J. Carey scholar and President of the HBS Volunteers.  Before attending Harvard Business School, Kim spent three years working in Morgan Stanley’s Investment Banking Division (1999-2002) in their Chicago office.  She earned her BBA in Finance and Business Economics, summa cum laude, from the University of Notre Dame in 1999 where she was a valedictorian candidate, Rhodes Scholar Finalist and the first recipient of the Paul F. Conway award given to a senior in the Department of Finance who embodies Notre Dame’s tradition of excellence and who enriches the ideals of the university. Kim earned the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation and is a member of the CFA Institute and CFA Society of Chicago. Kim currently serves on the Board of the Women in ETFs Chicago chapter as head of the mentorship committee and on the Advisory Board for Youth Guidance’s program Becoming A Man (BAM).  Kim is a frequent volunteer with Magnetar Youth Investment Academy.  Kim with her husband Leo, son Teddy (13yrs) and daughter Rose (10yrs) live in Lincoln Park, Chicago.

Sonia Kowal President

Zevin Asset Management

As Zevin Asset Management’s president, Sonia brings over two decades of investment experience to managing corporate matters, business practices, and strategic planning. She also over­sees mar­ket­ing, advi­sor, and client rela­tion­ships. She is a member of the firm’s Board of Managers and the Investment Committee. She is passionate about the value of integrating environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues into investments and is a frequent speaker on the topic at conferences. She feels particularly strongly about racial equity, wealth inequality, and our disastrous criminal justice system. Previously, she was a Senior Research Analyst and head of Ethical Investment Research Services' (EIRIS) U.S. Boston office. She was a portfolio manager and equity analyst in Emerging Markets at Baillie Gifford in Scotland. Sonia holds a BS in Zool­ogy from the Uni­ver­sity of Edin­burgh and an MS in Invest­ment Analy­sis from the Uni­ver­sity of Stir­ling, Scot­land. She is a board mem­ber of ICCR, the Inter­faith Cen­ter on Cor­po­rate Respon­si­bil­ity, a coali­tion of faith- and values-driven orga­ni­za­tions who view the man­age­ment of their invest­ments as a pow­er­ful cat­a­lyst for social change.

Jonathan Kreider SVP, Head of Great-West Investments

Great-West Investments

Jonathan Kreider is Senior Vice President and Head of Great-West Investments™. He leads the team responsible for product development and product management of GWI proprietary investment solutions. His team is responsible for the management and distribution of the Great-West Funds’ series of proprietary mutual funds; our stable value businesses; and the broader due diligence, monitoring and selection of investment options for company platforms.

Jonathan joined the organization in 2012. Prior to joining GWI he worked as a consultant with JDL Consultants, LLC, a boutique management consulting firm specializing in strategic and analytical work for mutual fund boards. Before that, he served as a senior research analyst at Lipper, Inc.

Jonathan has spoken at industry conferences on manager due diligence and subadvisor selection, retirement income, the practical interpretation of investment risk metrics, and other topics. He has been quoted in numerous financial publications including the Wall Street Journal, Barron’s, Money and SmartMoney. In 2016, he was named as a Rising Star of Retirement Under 40 by LIMRA.

Jonathan holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Colorado at Boulder and an MBA from the University of Colorado. He is a member of the CFA Society of Colorado and is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) Charterholder.

A. Rama Krishna Founder & Chief Investment Officer

ARGA Investment Management

Mr. Krishna has successfully built asset management businesses around the world, including:

• President – International at Pzena Investment Management
• Chief Investment Officer and Head of Institutional and International at Citigroup Asset Management, Member of Citigroup Management Committee
• Director of International Equity Research, Portfolio Manager, International Equities and Chief Investment Officer, Emerging Markets Equities at AllianceBernstein in New York, London and Tokyo

He has a joint MBA/MA in Asian Studies from University of Michigan and a BA (Honors) in Economics from St. Stephen’s College, University of Delhi.

Eivind Lorgen Investor Advisory Group (IAG) Chair

Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB)

Maria Ma Head of Fixed Income and International Equity Manager Selection & Portfolio Construction

Lincoln Financial Group

Maria Ma, CFA, is a Portfolio Manager and Team Lead for Fixed Income and International Equity strategies within Lincoln Investment Advisor. Ms. Ma joined Lincoln Financial Group in June 2015.  Ms. Ma has 20 years of asset management and investment experience. Prior to joining Lincoln in June 2015, Ms. Ma spent nine years with SEI Investments as Senior Investment Analyst, responsible for manager selection, manager oversight, and multi-manager portfolio construction on U.S. investment grade fixed income funds.

Ms. Ma received her Master of Science Degree in Finance from Boston College. She holds a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation and is a member of the CFA Society of Philadelphia.

Sheryl Mejia Managing Partner

Steward Asset Management

Sheryl leads sourcing, diligence, execution, and monitoring of anchor investments targeting newly forming private equity and opportunistic strategies. She maintains a focus on strategies of growing interest to Institutional Limited Partners, ultimately seeking to steward the next generation of alternative asset management leaders.

Most recently, she was the Director of Emerging Managers at the New York State Common Retirement Fund, overseeing over $7 billion in commitments to more than 120 smaller and emerging firms.  She is passionate about supporting the incubation of owner-manager entrepreneurs, those with a strong record of allocating to small buyout, growth equity, and other private fund strategies.

Previously, she was the Managing Partner of Decagon Advisors, focused on the due diligence of smaller private funds as well as supporting the launch advisory practice for newly forming firms.  Decagon was formed as a direct result of the evolving needs in her previous role as Macroeconomic and Due Diligence Analyst at KCS Funds, a Fund of Funds. Prior to that, she served in asset management and client-facing roles as a Director at Deutsche Bank (formerly Bankers Trust Asset Management) after beginning her career at KPMG in the Financial Services practice.

She holds a Bachelor of Commerce, Honors, from Queen’s University in Canada and an M.B.A. from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. She is a CFA charterholder and a Canadian Chartered Accountant. In addition, she serves as Director of the Levy vonWald Foundation, which primarily focuses on literacy initiatives in New York State.

Bruce Picard Managing Director, Head of Model Portfolios

Manulife Investment Management

Bruce Picard, CFA, is a portfolio manager and Head of Model Portfolios within the Multi-Asset Solutions Team (MAST) at Manulife Investment Management. The Multi-Asset Solutions Team is tasked with the design, delivery and management of bespoke cross-asset class investment solutions that include pension and retirement solutions, management- and outcome-oriented solutions, and multi-manager portfolios including both public and private assets. Solutions may be absolute return, peer- or benchmark-relative and are delivered in many formats including mutual fund (including fund-of-fund), pooled, segregated and customized.

Bruce is responsible for the development of MAST’s model portfolio business, which provides discretionary and non-discretionary investment models to investment advisors and broker/dealers around the globe and represents many of the key capabilities of MAST. Bruce’s responsibilities include portfolio management, monitoring and implementation of asset class decisions, optimizing asset class models using MAST’s proprietary research and the development of new model portfolios.  

Previously Bruce was Assistant Vice President, Investment Director – Portfolio Management at MML Advisers, the adviser for the MassMutual Funds. During his tenure there, Bruce was responsible for a variety of asset allocation services across the Retirement Services division including lead decision-making responsibility for the MassMutual RetireSMART Funds and various in-plan solutions as well as oversight of various asset allocation offerings. Earlier in his career Bruce was a Vice President at Loomis, Sayles & Co.  where he held roles in Specialty Growth Management and Funds Distribution. Bruce is a CFA charter holder, and he is a member of the CFA Society Boston and the CFA Institute.

Education: Boston College, BA, MBA, MsF (1991, 2011, 2012 respectively)

Joined Company: 2018

Began Career: 1993

Amit Popat Partner & International Business Leader, Wealth Management & E&F

Mercer

Carl Robinson Vice President, ISS Market Intelligence

ISS Market Intelligence

Leslie Samuelrich President

Green Century Capital Management

Leslie Samuelrich leads Green Century Capital Management, focusing on the firm’s investment strategies, business development, and impact investing program. Ms. Samuelrich is a frequent speaker on sustainable investing and has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, and other financial and environmental news publications. Ms. Samuelrich currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Forum for Sustainable and Responsible Investment (US SIF), the Management Council for Divest-Invest Individual, and the Advisory Board of the Intentional Endowments Network. She also is a guest lecturer on impact investing at The Wharton School. She holds a BA in Economics from Boston College.

Chavon Sutton Senior Investment Director

Cambridge Associates

Chavon Sutton is a Senior Investment Director in the Sustainable & Impact Investing Research Group at Cambridge Associates, conducting manager research and working with institutional clients to build sustainability – and impact –focused portfolios. She joined Cambridge in 2020 with over 10 years of finance experience.
Prior to joining Cambridge, she served as the first Director of Diversity and Inclusion and Emerging Manager Strategy for New York City’s Bureau of Asset Management, the investment advisor to each of New York City's five retirement systems. There, she led its growth strategy for investment in small, diverse and women-owned investment managers across all asset classes, supported the investment staff's sourcing and due diligence efforts, and created the Bureau's first blueprint for the integration of diversity factors in its investment process.
Previously, Chavon was a Vice President at J.P. Morgan Asset and Wealth Management where she constructed and managed portfolios for families, endowments and foundations. She began her career in corporate finance roles at Bank of America and RBC, primarily underwriting debt transactions for Fortune 500 financial institutions.
Chavon is a frequent speaker on diversity in investment management, strategies for building robust emerging manager programs and ESG issues.
A native of Newark, NJ, Chavon is passionate about the arts and education. She serves as Vice Chairwoman of the Board and Chair of the Investment Committee for Hyde Leadership Charter School (Bronx, NY) and a Vice Chair of the Alumni Board of NYU’s Leonard N. Stern School of Business, and actively supports local arts organizations. Chavon holds an M.B.A. and M.A. in Journalism from New York University, and a B.A. (cum laude) from the University of Pennsylvania.

Larry Vasquez Partner, Senior Portfolio Manager

Mercer Investments

Christopher Vella Senior Vice President and Chief Investment Officer, Multi-Manager Investments

Northern Trust Asset Management

Christopher E. Vella is the chief investment officer of multi-manager solutions at Northern Trust Asset Management with responsibility for manager research and portfolio construction processes across the group. He is responsible for the global manager research platform at Northern Trust, consisting of approximately $75 billion in assets under management, across more than 200 investment strategies. He manages a team of more than 25 investment professionals across all traditional asset classes. The team covers all external manager relationships on behalf of Northern Trust's private and institutional clientele.

Previously, Christopher was a founding member of Goldman Sach's external manager business, which consists of institutional and private client assets. While at Goldman Sachs, he managed the international and emerging markets equity team. Prior to Goldman Sachs, Christopher spent close to six years at SEI Investments working primarily on international equity and emerging markets equity manager research. He has 20 years of manager research experience.

He received a bachelor's degree magna cum laude in finance with a minor in applied mathematics from Lehigh University and was elected into the Phi Beta Kappa honor society. He is a member of the New York Society of Financial Analysts. Christopher is a CFA charterholder.

Brad Watterson AVP, Director of Investment Research

Touchstone Investments

Mr. Watterson is Assistant Vice President and Director, Investment Research for Touchstone Investments. He has been with Touchstone since 2007 and has experience in the financial services industry since 1997. Prior to joining Touchstone, he was an Equity Research Analyst with Robert Leshner & Associates, Inc., a Cincinnati-based independent RIA. Prior to Robert Leshner & Associates, he was a Commercial Credit Underwriter for PNC Private Bank. Mr. Watterson began his career as a Mutual Fund Accountant with BISYS Fund Services. He earned a BS in Finance from Indiana University (IU) and an MBA in Finance and Multinational Business from Xavier University. While at IU, Brad competed in swimming for the Hoosiers, earning four varsity letters, first team All-American honors and served as team captain. He is a CFA charterholder and member of the CFA Society of Cincinnati.