Fall Virtual Conference I - Navigating Today's Volatility

Matt Brenner is a Managing Vice President, Investments. He oversees the Mutual Fund team, manager due diligence, investment reporting and communications, and the ongoing operations of the Investment Division. Mr. Brenner is an investment specialist focusing on the VT PLUS Fund, the VT III Vantagepoint Milestone Funds, and other select Vantagepoint Funds, and oversees the Client Portfolio Management team. Mr. Brenner also serves as the primary interface on legal and compliance matters related to investments and facilitates product development and special projects across functional areas of the organization. Prior to joining ICMA-RC in February 2017, Mr. Brenner served as a Senior Vice President with PIMCO in Newport Beach, CA. He was responsible for developing, leading, and maintaining relationships for many of PIMCO’s largest clients, with expertise across multiple investment vehicles, asset classes, and strategies, including fixed income, stable value, equities, alternatives, and volatility products. In addition, he created and led the messaging group responsible for analysis and communications related to PIMCO’s Total Return core bond offerings. Mr. Brenner has over 14 years of investment industry experience. Mr. Brenner began his career as an attorney at Leventhal, Senter, and Lerman in Washington D.C., focusing on mergers and acquisitions in the telecommunications industry, as well as business and regulatory matters including First Amendment issues in the broadcasting industry. He also served as a business development manager for U.S. News & World Report. He holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of California, Berkeley, a Juris Doctorate from Georgetown University, and a Master's of Business Administration from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business. He has earned the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation.

Rob has primary responsibility for managing Russell Investments’ US Retail and Institutional Multi-Asset Solutions, including the firm’s traditional target risk balanced funds, outcome oriented portfolios, target date, and investment outsourcing mandates. In this role, he leads the team which integrates the firm’s equity, fixed income, real asset, and alternatives capabilities globally. He is tasked with creating strategic asset allocations for the portfolios, selecting managers or passive alternatives to populate asset classes, integrating the firm’s capital market insights, and positioning the total portfolio in order to help clients achieve their objectives. Rob has deep experience researching and managing both traditional and non-traditional assets from his 10 years in the industry, all of which are with Russell Investments. Previously, Rob was a senior analyst in the investment process and risk group for the investment division at Russell Investments. In this role, Rob focused on improving the measurement, evaluation, and enhancement of Russell’s portfolio management practice. From 2006 until 2009, Rob was a member of the global equity team in multiple capacities. He was responsible for evaluating asset management firms worldwide that offer global, international and emerging market equity mandates and supported portfolio managers in the structuring and monitoring of Russell’s global equity strategies. Rob holds a B.A. in Economics from Harvard College and is a member of the CFA® Society of Seattle.

Michael Hunstad, Senior Vice President of Northern Trust, is Head of the Quantitative Strategies team responsible for quantitative equity research, strategist, and quantitative equity portfolio management activities. He is co-manager of the Northern International Equity Fund and the Northern Large Cap Core Fund. Previously, Mr. Hunstad was director of quantitative research where he was responsible for leading Northern Trust Asset Management's factor-based research and product development programs. Prior to joining Northern Trust, Mr. Hunstad was head of research at Breakwater Capital, an algorithmic trading firm and hedge fund. Previously, he was head of quantitative asset allocation at Allstate Investments, LLC and a quantitative analyst with a long-short equity hedge fund. He also served as an adjunct professor at the Illinois Institute of Technology. Mr. Hunstad holds a Ph.D. in mathematics, an MBA in finance, an M.A. in econometrics and a bachelor's degree in economics. He has published more than 50 articles and papers in professional and academic journals including Pensions & Investments, European Pensions, the Journal of Index Investing, the Alternative Investment Analyst Review, the Journal of Financial and Strategic Decisions and the Journal of Corporate Treasury Management. Michael has also spoken at more than 200 conferences across North America, Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Australia/New Zealand.

Max Guimond is a Solutions Manager at Schroders, which involves the design and implementation of investment solutions that address the asset allocation, liability hedging and downside risk management needs of Schroders’ clients. He joined Schroders in 2020 and is based in New York. Max was a Solutions Designer at Insight Investment from 2018 to 2020, which involved the design and delivery of LDI and equity risk management solutions for institutional investors. He was a Solutions Strategist & Derivatives Portfolio Manager at Standish from 2015 to 2018, where he was responsible for the development of de-risking strategies for corporate pension plans. He was a LDI Portfolio Manager at Legal & General Investment Management America from 2011 to 2014, where he managed the implementation of various LDI solutions and derivatives overlay mandates. He was a Derivatives Trader at Milliman from 2006 to 2011, which involved the execution of all derivatives trading across asset classes for the hedging strategies of Variable Annuity and Fixed Indexed Annuity insurance products. Qualifications: CFA Charterholder; BEng in Mechanical Engineering from the Thayer School of Engineer at Dartmouth College; BA from Dartmouth College.

Michael F. Raab, CFA is a Sr. Research Analyst, Associate Director of Research, and a Co-Portfolio Manager of the Sands Capital Global Leaders and Select Leaders strategies. Mr. Raab joined Sands Capital in 2007 as a Research Associate, and later went on to direct the firm’s research on financial businesses globally. In 2015 Mr. Raab was named Associate Director of Research, where he helps lead the firm’s strategic research priorities and resources. Mr. Raab became a Co-Portfolio Manager of the Global Leaders and Select Leaders strategies in 2019. Prior to joining Sands Capital, Mr. Raab was an Analyst at SNL Financial. Mr. Raab earned a BA from the University of Virginia (2006) and an MBA from the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland (2011).

Ram joined Acadian in 2018 and is a senior investment strategist on the Client Advisory Team, aligned closely with Acadian's Global Client Group and Investment Teams. Prior to joining Acadian, Ram was a quantitative research analyst on the Asset Allocation team at GMO LLC, focused on portfolio construction, risk models, and signals. Ram also previously worked as a quantitative analyst at Batterymarch Financial Management, where he conducted research on quantitative equity portfolios. Ram holds an M.S. in financial engineering from MIT; an M.S. in transportation engineering/operations research from MIT; and a B.Tech. in civil engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, India. He is a CFA charterholder and a member of CFA Society Boston.

Kent Shepherd joined Franklin Templeton in 1991 and has over 30 years of industry experience, including portfolio management roles with various asset class investment teams within the firm. He is currently a member of the Franklin Templeton Multi-Asset Solutions Team (FTMAS) in San Mateo, CA for which he serves on the Global Equities Team of the Investment Strategy Research Committee (ISRC) and is a senior member of Franklin Templeton's Fixed Income Policy Committee (FIPC) that formulates our firm's in-house views on bond markets around the world. He also represents the FT Multi-Asset Solutions team in meetings with both internal and external partners as Client Portfolio Manager (CPM) & Institutional Portfolio Manager (IPM) and is a founding member of the company's Liberty-Q ETFs & Smart Beta Quantitative Equity Strategies Development team. Prior to his current position, Mr. Shepherd was lead manager of various portfolios with Franklin's Core-Hybrid Group, including mutual funds & institutional mandates for some of the world's largest pension funds and governmental agencies. Prior to that, Mr. Shepherd was a portfolio manager & analyst with the Templeton Global Equity Group in Nassau, Bahamas. Prior to Templeton, Mr. Shepherd was a portfolio manager & analyst with Franklin's San Mateo high yield fixed income group. Before joining Franklin Templeton, Mr. Shepherd spent three years with investment banking firm Drexel Burnham Lambert in New York and San Francisco. Mr. Shepherd holds an M.B.A. from UCLA's Anderson School of Business and a bachelor's degree in economics from Northwestern University. He is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and a Chartered Investment Counselor (CIC). While living in Nassau, Bahamas Mr. Shepherd served as president of the Bahamas Chapter of the International Society of Financial Analysts, and Executive Director of various programs on behalf of The John Templeton Foundation - a role that afforded him the opportunity to work directly with Sir John Templeton while overseeing some of his foundation's local charitable endeavors.

Mr. Greenblatt serves as Managing Principal and Co-Chief Investment Officer of Gotham Asset Management, the successor to Gotham Capital, an investment firm he founded in 1985. Since 1996, he has been a professor on the adjunct faculty of Columbia Business School where he teaches "Value and Special Situation Investing." Mr. Greenblatt is a director of Pzena Investment Management, Inc., a global investment management firm. He formerly served on the Investment Boards of the University of Pennsylvania and the UJA Federation. Mr. Greenblatt is the author of You Can Be A Stock Market Genius (Simon & Schuster, 1997), The Little Book that Beats the Market (Wiley, 2005), The Little Book that Still Beats the Market (Wiley, 2010), and The Big Secret for the Small Investor (Random House, 2011). He is the Former Chairman of the Board (1994-1995) of Alliant Techsystems, a NYSE-listed aerospace and defense contractor. He holds a BS (1979), summa cum laude, and an MBA (1980) from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Dr. Sushil Wadhwani, CBE, is the Chief Investment Officer for QMAW, originally founded as Wadhwani Asset Management in October 2002. Prior to joining QMA, Sushil served as the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Wadhwani Asset Management. Previously, Sushil was a Member of the Monetary Policy Committee at the Bank of England. He also served as the Director of Quantitative Systems at Tudor Investment Corporation, Director of Equity Strategy at Goldman Sachs, and as an academic economist at the London School of Economics. Sushil is an emeritus governor at the London School of Economics and a Commander of the Order of the British Empire. Sushil earned a BSc, MSc and PhD from the London School of Economics and Political Science.