Christopher J. Ailman
Christopher J. Ailman is chief investment officer at the California State Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS), where he leads a team of 144 investment staff. He also serves on several boards and advisory boards, including the PRI manager selection committee and the SASB investor advisory group. Additionally, Mr. Ailman serves as co-chair of the Milken Global Capital Markets Committee from the Milken Institute, and he represents institutional investors on the MSCI Barra Index editorial advisory board and the EDHEC-Risk Institute. He is the recipient of numerous awards including Institutional Investor’s Large Public Fund Manager of the Year Award, aiCIO’s Innovation Award, New America Alliance’s Distinguished Service Award for the Advancement of Latinos in Business, and the Richard Stoddard Award for service in the investment of public pensions. In addition, Mr. Ailman is a regular guest on CNBC, Bloomberg, Yahoo Finance, and the Wall Street Journal Report. Mr. Ailman holds a bachelor of arts in business economics from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and he received the certified financial planner designation from the University of Southern California.
Lynn S. Blake, CFA
Lynn S. Blake, CFA, is an executive vice president at State Street Global Advisors and CIO of Global Equity Beta Solutions. She oversees a team of 70 portfolio managers globally and more than 1,600 portfolios across all equity index and smart beta strategies. Ms. Blake also oversees State Street Global Advisors’ ESG Investments and Asset Stewardship Team and the Company Stock Group, which manages fiduciary transactions and company stock investments. In addition, she is a director of the State Street Global Advisors Trust Company and a member of the Fiduciary and Conduct Committee, Investment Committee, and Executive Management Group. Previously, Ms. Blake was head of non-US markets of passive equities at State Street Global Advisors, responsible for overseeing the management of all non-US equity index strategies, and served as portfolio manager for several equity index portfolios. She serves on the board of the Posse Foundation Boston, a non-profit organization that partners with colleges and universities to recruit and sustain young leaders from diverse backgrounds. Ms. Blake is a member of the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board’s Investment Advisory Group and serves on various index advisory boards. She has a bachelor of science from the Boston College Carroll School of Management and a master of business administration in finance from Northeastern University.
Noriel Campos, CFA
Noriel Campos, CFA, is currently pursuing a master of science degree in international and development economics at the University of San Francisco, focusing on policy and inclusive political and economic institutions in the developing world. He has 15 years of experience in finance and most recently was an associate portfolio manager at City National Bank. Mr. Campos has also worked at Silicon Valley Bank, where he advised institutional clients and managed fixed-income portfolios for some of the bank’s highest-profile corporate relationships. He began his career at Wachovia and later joined Wells Fargo as a result of the firms’ merger. Mr. Campos is active in the San Francisco senior and youth community, serving as a board member for SteppingStone and a soccer coach at the Brandeis School. He earned a BA in political science and Latin from the University of Houston.
Rebecca Fender, CFA
Rebecca Fender, CFA, is head of the Future of Finance initiative at CFA Institute, a long-term global effort to shape a trustworthy, forward-thinking investment profession that better serves society. Her team works with industry partners, academics, and a volunteer network to produce research and thought leadership papers. Recent publications include “Future State of the Investment Profession,” “The Next Generation of Investor Trust,” “Discovering Phi: Motivation as the Hidden Variable of Performance,” and “Gender Diversity in Investment Management.” Ms. Fender is also the co-leader of the CFA Institute Women in Investment Management initiative and has served as the director of the flagship CFA Institute Annual Conference. She speaks regularly at industry events and has appeared in such media outlets as the Financial Times, Bloomberg, and the New York Times. Previously, Ms. Fender was a vice president at BlackRock, working with pension funds and endowments, and she also worked at Cambridge Associates, where she published research about manager selection. She earned her undergraduate degree in economics from Princeton University and holds an MBA from the Darden School at the University of Virginia.
Margaret E. Franklin, CFA
Margaret E. Franklin, CFA, is president of BNY Mellon Wealth Management, Canada. Previously, she was president of Marret Private Wealth and served in senior positions at Barclays Global Investors, State Street Global Advisors, and Mercer. Ms. Franklin is the former chair of the Board of Governors of CFA Institute and a past president of the Toronto CFA Society. She received a bachelor’s degree in economics from McMaster University.
Serena Ho, CFA
Serena Ho, CFA, is director of account management at Solovis, where she is responsible for cultivating and maintaining high-profile client relationships and providing strategic insights to the product team to help the firm stay on the leading edge of market needs. Previously, she was the head of business development at Madrone, a fund analytics software platform, and a vice president at BlackRock/Barclays Global Investors, where her focus was driving sales efforts and providing first-class client service to large institutional investors. Ms. Ho also held various accounting and finance positions, including senior financial analyst, at PG&E Corporation and served as a senior auditor at Ernst & Young. She is a CAIA charterholder and a chapter executive with the CAIA San Francisco Chapter. Ms. Ho serves as co-chair of the CFA Society San Francisco FinTech Committee and is on the CFA Society San Francisco Career Advisory and Job Support Committees. She has a bachelor of science from UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business.
Jennifer M. Johnson
Jennifer M. Johnson is president and chief operating officer of Franklin Resources, Inc., where she oversees the majority of investment management and all related investment management support services. She is responsible for Franklin Templeton’s global retail and institutional distribution efforts. Ms. Johnson oversees client service, fund administration, global technology, and the company’s high-net-worth business, Fiduciary Trust Company International. She is an officer of Franklin Resources and serves as a director of Fiduciary Trust Company International and several other subsidiaries of Franklin Resources. Ms. Johnson was named one of 10 executives on Money Management Executive’s inaugural list of Top Women in Asset Management and was chosen by her peers as one of Ignites.com’s Most Influential Women in Fund Management. She received the Robert L. Gould Award presented by NICSA, recognizing achievement in helping the mutual fund industry better serve investors through customer service, thought leadership, and technology. Ms. Johnson was recognized twice by the San Francisco Business Times as one of the Most Influential Women in Bay Area Business. She is a trustee at Crystal Springs Uplands School and a board member of the Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital. Ms. Johnson earned her BA in economics from the University of California, Davis.
Michael Kaufman
Michael Kaufman is a senior fellow at the research institute Promundo and the only male member of the G7 Gender Equality Advisory Council. His forthcoming book, The Time Has Come: Why Men Must Join the Gender Equality Revolution, draws on his life as an adviser, writer, and speaker focused on engaging men to promote gender equality, promote involved fatherhood, and end violence against women. Over the past three and a half decades, Dr. Kaufman has worked in 50 countries with the United Nations, governments, nongovernmental organizations, universities, and businesses, including Unilever, Microsoft, PepsiCo, Accenture, HP, Deloitte, Triumph International, Deutsche Bank, Barclays, RBC, and Rio Tinto. He is the co-founder of the White Ribbon Campaign, a global movement of men and boys working to end male violence against women. Dr. Kaufman is the author or editor of eight books, including two novels.
Lisa Kueng
Lisa Kueng is the director of creative campaigns at Invesco. She has developed many of Invesco’s practice-building programs including the “Your Prosperity Picture” workshop for women investors, “New Retirementality,” and “T.E.A.M. Dynamics.” Prior to joining Invesco when the firm combined with Van Kampen Investments, Ms. Kueng worked at Van Kampen’s Consulting Group. Before that, she worked in advertising account management, including a two-year engagement as an account supervisor at DDB Worldwide. Ms. Kueng is coauthor of the book Picture Your Prosperity: Smart Money Moves to Turn Your Vision into Reality. She has been a keynote presenter at hundreds of industry conferences, including a Pennsylvania Treasury Department statewide tour and the Possible Woman Conference. Ms. Kueng has been featured in media including Business Week, the New York Times, NBC News Philadelphia, NPR’s “Marketplace Weekend,” and Fund Marketing Alert. She is currently a member of the Invesco Women’s Network, a volunteer for One Million Degrees, and a regular guest speaker at Loyola University in Chicago. Ms. Kueng holds a BS in journalism with a concentration in speech communications from the University of Illinois and earned her Registered Corporate Coach designation.
Lori Nishiura Mackenzie
Lori Nishiura Mackenzie is executive director of Stanford University’s Clayman Institute for Gender Research and the co-founder of the university’s Center for Women’s Leadership. Under her leadership, the center launched a corporate affiliates program—a learning community of corporations, government agencies, and thought leaders working together for change. Ms. Mackenzie teaches executive education at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and has been a speaker at such organizations as the European Central Bank, the Watermark Conference for Women, and the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business. Her work has been cited in the New York Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, and brand eins, among other outlets. Ms. Mackenzie was featured as one of the BBC’s 100 Women in 2017, was interviewed for the 2018 documentary bias, and was the founding educational partner for the launch of LeanIn.Org. She has 20 years of marketing strategy and business management experience from such companies as Procter & Gamble, Apple, eBay, and PayPal and is a board member for the Women’s Foundation of California. Ms. Mackenzie has a BA in economics from the University of California, Berkeley, and an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
Patrice E. Merrin
Patrice E. Merrin is an independent director of Glencore PLC and Kew Media Group, and previously served on the boards of Stillwater Mining Company and Novadaq Technologies Inc. She served as chief operating officer of diversified natural resources multinational Sherritt International and was president and CEO of Luscar Ltd., Canada’s largest thermal coal producer, which was then owned equally by Sherritt and the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board. Ms. Merrin was chairman of the board and a director of CML HealthCare Inc. and a director at Enssolutions, NB Power, and the Alberta Climate Change and Emissions Management Corporation. She has been an activist nominee in three proxy contests. Ms. Merrin was a member of the Canadian Advisory Panel on Sustainable Energy Science and Technology and of Canada’s Round Table on the Environment and the Economy. She is currently co-chair of the Emmy Noether Circle of the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, which provides strategic expertise and financial support to increase the number of women in physics and mathematical physics at Perimeter. Ms. Merrin is a graduate of Queen’s University and completed the Advanced Management Programme at INSEAD.
Michele Norris
Michele Norris is director of the Bridge, the Aspen Institute’s new program on race, identity, connectivity, and inclusion. Previously, she served as a host of NPR’s All Things Considered. Ms. Norris has also produced in-depth profiles, interviews, and series for NPR News programs as well as special reports for National Geographic, Time Magazine, ABC News, and Lifetime Television. She created the Race Card Project, an initiative to foster a wider conversation about race in the United States. Ms. Norris served as a reporter for ABC News and a staff writer for the Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune, and the Los Angeles Times. She wrote The Grace of Silence: A Memoir and earned a Peabody Award and the Distinguished Dialogue Award for her work on the Race Card Project. Ms. Norris was named Journalist of the Year by the National Association of Black Journalists, which also honored her with its Salute to Excellence Award for her coverage of Hurricane Katrina. She received a Livingston Award and was a Shorenstein Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School. Ms. Norris graduated from the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, where she studied journalism, and attended the University of Wisconsin, where she studied electrical engineering.
Jared Redick
Jared Redick is an executive résumé writer and a career transition coach at the Résumé Studio. A former search consultant for two nationally retained search firms, he first gave a presentation to CFA Institute members at the CFA Society Minnesota 2010 Professional & Career Development Conference. Mr. Redick’s work with CFA Institute and CFA Societies has since expanded to LinkedIn profile development, including two how-to webinars. His career development ideas have appeared in articles and reprints presented by the American Bar Association, CFA Institute, Legal Career Journal, BusinessInsider.com, Dynamic Search Solutions, Forbes Coaches Council, Mental Floss, the National Association of Women Lawyers, the Times of India, and RD.com. Recently, Mr. Redick has participated in conferences, symposia, corporate trainings, and webinars presented by Beyond Academia; CFA Institute; the University of California; Moss Adams, LLP; the National Résumé Writers’ Association; and the Harvard Club of Washington, DC. He published “Jared Redick’s Job Description Analysis,” an insightful career discovery exercise that helps people evaluate and set realistic next steps using their own collection of ordinary job descriptions. Mr. Redick’s use of the tool with the University of California Humanities Research Institute inspired tutorials by the Modern Languages Association.
Barbara B. Roberts
Barbara B. Roberts is entrepreneur in residence at Columbia Business School, former NY chair of Tiger 21, and speaker and writer about all stages of entrepreneurship and the economic progress of women. Previously, Ms. Roberts held senior positions in securities research, investment policy, and marketing at Blyth Eastman/Paine Webber and at Dean Witter. Before leaving Wall Street, she served as senior vice president and director of capital markets marketing at Dean Witter and was the first woman to serve on the firm’s board of directors. Ms. Roberts also served as president and CEO at FPG International now part of Getty Images and at Acoustiguide. Through her foundation, Fair Share, she has been especially active in the promotion of economic development for women worldwide, serving on many boards and helping start many not-for-profits. Ms. Roberts is a past president of the Financial Women’s Association of New York and helped found the New York Women’s Agenda and the New York Women’s Foundation. She also served as chair of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s Small Business and Agricultural Advisory Committee and as a member of the Suffolk County NY Planning Commission. Ms. Roberts is the author of three whitepapers about entrepreneurs: Life after an Exit, The Owner’s Journey, and Women’s Entrepreneurial Journeys. Ms. Roberts holds an economics and philosophy degree from Goucher College.
Fran Skinner, CFA
Fran Skinner, CFA, is chief administrative officer, investments at Diamond Hill Capital Management, Inc. She served on the board of directors of Diamond Hill’s publicly traded parent company, DHIL, where she chaired the compensation committee and was a financial expert on the audit committee. Prior to joining Diamond Hill, Ms. Skinner was cofounder of AUM Partners, a boutique consulting firm that worked exclusively with investment firms to assess and develop talented employees to create high performing teams. She also worked for Mellon Bank and Allstate Investments in a wide variety of roles, including launching a quantitative portfolio modeling function and developing performance incentive measures for the Allstate investment portfolios. Ms. Skinner is a contributor to Barron’s and coauthor of the book High Performing Investment Teams. In addition to being a certified public accountant, she holds a bachelor’s degree from St. Xavier University and an MBA from the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Shazia Syed
Shazia Syed is the chief executive officer and chairperson at Unilever Pakistan Limited. Previously, she served as chairperson at Unilever Sri Lanka Limited. She has held various senior management positions across most categories at Unilever Pakistan and other markets, including Unilever Vietnam as business unit leader for personal care. Ms. Syed joined Unilever as a management trainee. In addition to being on the board at Unilever Pakistan Limited, she is also the chief executive officer at Unilever Pakistan Foods Limited, director at the Pakistan Business Council, vice president of the managing committee at the Overseas Investors Chamber of Commerce and Industry, trustee at the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Foundation Pakistan, and member of the board of governors at the National Management Foundation. Ms. Syed is an active advocate for diversity in the workplace and believes that enabling and facilitating working women from all backgrounds and across all sectors should be every leader’s top priority.
Maya Tussing
Maya Tussing is a principal for the San Francisco presence of Alesco Advisors, an SEC-registered investment advisory firm servicing the investment needs of institutions, foundations, endowments, and high-net-worth individuals. Previously, she led BlackRock’s US Institutional Index Asset Allocation business. Ms. Tussing has held senior risk-management roles at such firms as BlackRock, Barclays Global Investors, Visa, and GE Capital. Additionally, she has coached hundreds of men and women at all levels of corporate and nonprofit organizations to achieve personal and professional success and satisfaction. Ms. Tussing is a graduate of Pomona College and holds an MBA in international finance from the University of Washington.
Valerie Wong
Valerie Wong is a vice president and an equity index strategist in BlackRock’s ETF and Index Investments group. Previously, she worked at MSCI, where she was part of the Index Client Coverage team, supporting West Coast asset managers. Ms. Wong has also served as a financial analyst at HSBC, and she began her career as an auditor at KPMG. She holds the FINRA Series 7 and 63 licenses. Ms. Wong is an adviser for Latinos in Finance and an active member of Women in ETFs. She earned a BSc in accounting with a minor in public accounting and a BA in international business with a minor in economics from John Brown University. Ms. Wong graduated summa cum laude from the EGADE Business School (Tec de Monterey) with a master of finance degree.
