CFA Institute Research Foundation Board of Trustees

CFA Institute Research Foundation Board of Trustees (BOT) establishes the Foundation's strategic mission and oversees related business operations. The BOT is also responsible for hiring individuals and organizations to carry out its operations. Trustees have diverse expertise in equity, fixed income, alternative investments, and roles in investment management, asset ownership, or advisory capacities.

The BOT consists of 9 to 11 members, including two ex-officio positions, and up to three non-voting emeritus trustees.
Trustees serve three-year terms and may be reappointed for a second consecutive term.
The BOT has five standing committees: Executive, Research, Finance, Planning and Marketing, and Governance and Nominations.
Committees meet two to four times annually, and trustees are expected to actively participate and be willing to serve as committee chairs if requested.
The BOT meets at least twice a year — once virtually and once in person. Special meetings may be called to address issues needing immediate attention.
Additional trustee skills considered include involvement in research and leadership experience. Geographic diversity is also a consideration. Holding a CFA charter and familiarity with CFA societies are desirable characteristics but not required.
Nominations for trustee positions come from BOT members, CFA Institute, CFA societies, and other Foundation stakeholders. These nominations are reviewed annually by the Governance and Nominating Committee, which recommends candidates to the BOT.

Submit a Nomination

Contact the CFA Institute Research Foundation Board of Trustees

Meet our FY 2026 Board of Trustees

Chair

Jeffery V. Bailey, CFA, is a senior finance lecturer at the University of

Minnesota. Previously, he was senior director, benefits, at Target Corporation, where he supervised the company’s employee benefit plans and directed the investment of the defined benefit (DB) and defined contribution (DC) plans. Prior to that, Bailey was a managing partner of Richards & Tierney, a Chicago-based pension consulting firm specializing in quantitative risk control techniques. He also served as assistant executive director of the Minnesota State Board of Investment, which manages the pension assets of Minnesota public employees. Bailey has published numerous articles about pension management. He co-authored the textbooks Investments and Fundamentals of Investments with William F. Sharpe and Gordon J. Alexander and co-authored the CFA Institute Research Foundation publications A Primer for Investment Trustees and Controlling Misfit Risk in Multiple-Manager Investment Programs. He is a director of the University of Minnesota Foundation Investment Advisors. Bailey received a BA in economics from Oakland University and an MA in economics and an MBA in finance from the University of Minnesota.

Vice Chair

CEO, CFA Society Germany

CFA Society Germany

Susan Spinner, CFA, is currently CEO of CFA Society Germany, the largest professional association for investment professionals in Germany.

Susan looks back on over 25 years of professional experience in the investment industry with a focus on capital markets, credit portfolio management and structured securities analysis. In Germany, she has worked in senior roles for well-known financial institutions such as Cominvest, Commerz International Capital Management, the Hamburgische Landesbank, and Dresdner Bank. In addition, she worked in Chicago (USA) for the Bank of Montreal, trading interest rate derivatives, as Director, Global Financial Products.

Before Susan Spinner took over the full-time management of CFA Society Germany in 2011, she was a founding board member of the Society in late 2000. She has been an active volunteer at CFA Institute, including serving as Chair of the EMEA Society Advocacy Advisory Council and as a member of the Annual Conference Advisory Board.

In addition, Susan gives regular lectures and trainings on topics such as capital market ethics at several universities in Germany and lectures as adjunct faculty the award-winning master-in-finance class "Ethics in Finance" at the Goethe Business School of the University of Frankfurt. At Goethe Business School, she also serves on the jury to award the Woman+ academic scholarship

Co-Directors of Research

Florida Atlantic University and EIA Economic Index Associates

Dr. Luis García-Feijóo, CFA, CIPM, is Professor of Finance at Florida Atlantic University (FAU), where he teaches investments and international finance. He is also a co-founder of Economic Index Associates (EIA), LLC. Professor García has served as associate editor of the Financial Analysts Journal since 2012, and he is also a research director for CFA Institute Research Foundation. Prior to joining FAU, he worked as director, exam development at CFA Institute and was an associate professor at Creighton University. Professor García’s research interests include factor investing, monetary policy and asset returns, and behavioral finance, among others. His research has been published in leading academic and practitioner journals. He is co-author of the book Invest with the Fed: How to Maximize Portfolio Performance Following Federal Reserve Policy. Professor García holds a PhD in finance from the University of Missouri-Columbia. He actively served on the Board of Directors of the CFA Society of South Florida from 2009 to 2014 and has been an active volunteer for CFA Institute since 2009.

Professor of Finance at EDHEC Business School

Lionel Martellini is Professor of Finance at EDHEC Business School and the former Director of EDHEC-Risk Institute. Before joining EDHEC, Professor Martellini was a member of the finance faculty at the Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California. He has also been a visiting Professor at Princeton University and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

He holds Master’s degrees in management, economics, mathematics and statistics, as well as a PhD in finance from the Haas School of Business, University of California at Berkeley. Outside his work in finance, he earned a PhD in Relativistic Astrophysics and published research on gravitational waves and the foundations of quantum mechanics.

Professor Martellini is a member of the editorial board of The Journal of Portfolio Management. His work related to investment solutions for individual and institutional investors has been published in leading academic and practitioner journals and has been featured in major European and global dailies such as The Economist, The Financial Times and The Wall Street Journal. He has also launched two digital specialization programs, one on Data Science for Investment Management and one on Climate Finance and Sustainable Investing.

In parallel to his academic activities, Professor Martellini has been a consultant to large institutions and a co-founder of business ventures related to quantitative investment strategies in the equity space.

Board Members

Interim President and CEO

CFA Society Chicago

Ms. Rothschild is an advisor to The TIFIN Group and a board member of the Financial Fitness Group. In her former role as president of Apex Fintech Solutions, she was responsible for the strategic planning, development, and overall growth of the company. She also directly oversaw internal and client-facing functions including sales, marketing, and product management.

Before joining Apex, Ms. Rothschild was Chief Product Officer and Co-Head of Global Markets at Morningstar, where she led a multi-million-dollar global portfolio of businesses including software, data, research and index solutions that served asset managers, wealth managers, and individual investors. In her 26-year career at the firm, she developed a focused advisor and wealth management segment strategy, launched the firm’s equity research business, drove content strategy for the firm’s individual investor website, and served as a securities analyst and editor.

Ms. Rothschild graduated with a bachelor of science degree from Northwestern University and holds a master’s degree in Russian and East European economics from Indiana University. She also sits on a small portfolio of private-company boards in the fintech and wealth-tech space.

Manager, Treasury & Deputy City Treasurer, City of Calgary

CFA Society Calgary

Aaron joined The City of Calgary in 2016 and took the role of Deputy City Treasurer in March 2018. As the head of Treasury, he has oversight of the $6 billion investment portfolio, all cash management, banking, and cashiering operations, and debt issuance and capital project advisory functions. Mr. Brown holds a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Alberta in 1997 and became a CFA charterholder in 2003. He currently holds numerous board appointments including Calgary Housing Corporation and Silvera for Seniors. In August 2022, completed four years as global Chair of the CFA Institute’s Presidents Council. In this global senior society leadership role he represented the 161 CFA societies around the world and their over 160,000 charterholders. Aaron is member of both CFA Society Calgary and CFA Society Edmonton.

Board Member, Member of CFA Society Switzerland

CFA Society Switzerland

Dr. Giuseppe Ballocchi, CFA, is passionate about bridging the gap between the theory and the practice of finance with a pragmatic, multi-disciplinary approach. He is a partner with Alpha Governance Partners and specializes in derivative strategies. Dr. Ballocchi serves on a number of company and investment fund boards and is a member of the Future of Finance Content Council of CFA Institute. He is an adjunct professor and member of the steering committee for the master in finance at the University of Lausanne and a visiting professor at the University of Malta. He served on the Board of Governors of CFA Institute, where he chaired the audit and risk committee. He also served as president of CFA Switzerland. Dr. Ballocchi was head of financial engineering and risk analytics at Pictet & Cie; chief investment officer at Olsen Ltd.; a fixed-income manager at the Asian Development Bank in Manila; and a high-energy physicist at CERN. He holds a laurea (MS) in physics from the University of Bologna in Italy, an MBA from the Open University of the United Kingdom, and a PhD in high-energy physics from the University of Rochester in the United States. He is the author of more than 50 academic publications in physics and finance, including a reading for the CFA curriculum. He is currently writing a book on pitfalls in wealth management.

Will Goodhart is Executive Director at the Future of Sustainable Data Alliance, working to strengthen the voice of the sustainable data and analytics ecosystem. He joined FoSDA in April 2025. He is also a Board member at the UK's Impact Investing Institute where he led the Institute's work on its Learning Hub.

Will was formerly chief executive of the CFA Society of the UK (CFA UK) – a member society of CFA Institute and the leading professional body for the investment sector in the UK. In recent years, CFA UK launched the Certificate in ESG Investing, the Certificate in Climate & Investing and the Certificate in Impact Investing.

Before joining CFA UK in 2006, Will worked for Euromoney Institutional Investor in a variety of editorial and management roles.

He holds an MSc in Corporate Governance and Business Ethics from Birkbeck College and is an affiliate member of CFA Institute and CFA UK.

Phil is an independent member of the State Investment Advisory Board in Queensland and a consultant to AustralianSuper. He has extensive experience in investment management, financial markets and economic policy, including in asset allocation (both strategic and dynamic), portfolio construction and manager selection across a broad range of sectors.

Phil studied economics at university and worked as an economist in economic policy with the Reserve Bank of Australia, and in business with the ANZ Banking Group for a total of 18 years. Phil then transitioned into investment management in 1999, and worked with the Queensland Investment Corporation and Access Capital Advisors before joining Mercer in 2007, where he was Senior Portfolio Strategist and Deputy Chief Investment Officer until August 2018.

Phil is actively involved with the CFA Institute. He is a past-President of the CFA Society of Melbourne and was the Presidents Council Representative for the CFA Asia Pacific North and Oceania region in 2015-19.

Phil’s academic qualifications include a Bachelor of Arts (Economics) with Honours from Macquarie University, a Master of Commerce (Finance) with Honours from the University of Melbourne and the CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst) qualification. He is also a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors course.

Chief Advisor for Research and Strategy at Vest Financial, and serves on the Board of Governors for CFA Institute

CFA Society South Carolina

Joanne Hill has over 25 years of experience in research and strategy with an emphasis on indexes, options and quantitative investments. Prior to joining CBOE Vest, Dr. Hill worked with ProShares for 8 years, as Head of Institutional Investment Strategy, focusing on ETF research and education, and spent 17 years at Goldman Sachs, where she was a Managing Director leading global equity index and derivatives research and advising institutional investors on strategies using index and risk management tools.

She heads the research committee for the "Q" Group and the CFA Institute Research Foundation where she is also a board member. She also serves on the editorial board of the Financial Analysts Journal, Journal of Alternative Investments, and Journal of Index Investing.

Money Management Executive named Dr. Hill one of the ten inaugural recipients of the Top Women in Asset Management Awards. She was a Founding Member and Co-President of Women in ETFs and currently serves on their board. She is a member of the Investment Committee of the Montgomery County Public School Defined Benefit and Defined Contribution pension plans. Prior to her career on Wall Street, Dr. Hill was on the faculty of the University of Massachusetts (Amherst) and she has a Ph.D. in Finance from Syracuse University.

Sung started his investment career at GIC in 1993 and retired as Chief Risk Officer in 2011. Subsequently, he served in executive, advisory and board positions with finance ministries, central banks, endowments, asset managers, insurance companies and research institutes in US, Norway, Singapore and Thailand. In recent years, Sung has also been advising investment managers in venture capital, infrastructure and healthcare finance. Sung studied mathematics first at the University of Waterloo and later at the University of Minnesota.

Co-founder and CEO of Navega Strategies, LLC

Kurt D. Winkelmann has over 30 years of experience in investments and

pension-related issues. He is a co-founder and the CEO of Navega Strategies, LLC, a quantitative investment research firm providing investment solutions. He has been a senior fellow at the Heller-Hurwicz Economics Institute (University of Minnesota), where he spearheaded the organization’s pension policy initiative. Before founding Navega, Winkelmann was managing director and global head of research at MSCI. Prior to that, he was a managing director at Goldman Sachs, where he led the Global Investment Strategies group in the Investment Management Division. Winkelmann has written extensively on asset allocation and risk management themes. He has been an adviser to the Monetary Authority of Singapore, a board member of the Alberta Investment Management Company, an adviser to the British Coal Staff Superannuation Scheme, and a director of the University of Minnesota Foundation Investment Advisors. Winkelmann is chair of the Advisory Board for the Heller-Hurwicz Economics Institute. He received his PhD and MA in economics from the University of Minnesota and his BA in economics and mathematics from Macalester College.

Emeritus Board Members

Bill Fung, PhD, is a trustee of the CFA Institute Research Foundation. He earned a PhD in mathematics from London University and a PhD in finance from the University of Manchester. Prior to joining the investment banking industry in the mid 1980s, he held visiting as well as permanent faculty positions at both UK and US universities. Fung joined the hedge fund industry in the early 1990s as a hedge fund partner and subsequently as co-CEO of a fund of hedge funds. He maintained his research interest and co-authored several awarding winning papers on hedge fund strategies (with David A. Hsieh) including a Graham and Dodd Scroll Award and the CAIA 2015 Research Excellence Award. Fung served on the editorial board of the Financial Analyst Journal prior to his retirement and continues to referee papers for the Journal.

Aaron Low, CFA, is a principal at Lumen Advisors, LLC, where he manages emerging markets macro long-short funds and oversees Lumen's operations in Asia. He also serves as a board trustee of the Singapore government's pension fund. Previously, Dr. Low served as a senior portfolio manager and head of Asia ex-Japan at PIMCO and as a senior portfolio manager and head of Asia at RCM Global Investors. He serves on the Board of Governors of CFA Institute and the board of directors of the Wealth Management Institute. Dr. Low holds an undergraduate degree in engineering from the National University of Singapore and a PhD in international financial economics from the UCLA Anderson School of Management.

Author and Co-Founder of Wealth Horizons and ViviFi Ventures

Lotta Moberg, CFA, PhD, is co-founder and co-CIO of ViviFi Ventures. On a voluntary basis, she serves on the Board of Trustees of the CFA Institute Research Foundation where she chairs the Marketing and Planning Committee. She has seven years of experience as an analyst on William Blair's Dynamic Allocation Strategies team, which was responsible for global macro research. She also served in the Swedish Defense Forces, including two missions in Kosovo, and has worked for the Swedish foreign ministry in Russia. Her writing has appeared in economics journals including The Journal of Institutional Economics, The Review of Austrian Economics, and the Financial Times. She has taught undergraduate classes in economics while at George Mason University, where she earned her PhD. Her research is inspired by Austrian economics and political economy and focuses on such topics as special economic zones, tax policy, and municipal bankruptcy.

Gary P. Brinson Director of Research Emeritus

Laurence B. Siegel is the Gary P. Brinson Director of Research Emeritus at CFA Institute Research Foundation and an independent consultant. He has authored, edited, or co-edited six CFA Institute Research Foundation monographs and is the author of Fewer, Richer, Greener, published by Wiley in 2019. Mr. Siegel serves on the editorial boards of several prominent journals and on the board of directors of the Q Group and the American Business History Center. He has assisted a variety of nonprofit organizations in the role of investment committee chair or member. Previously, Mr. Siegel was director of research in the Investment Division of the Ford Foundation. Before that, he served as a managing director at Ibbotson Associates (now Morningstar). His website is www.larrysiegel.org. Mr. Siegel received a BA in urban geography and an MBA in finance from the University of Chicago.

Staff

Treasurer | CFA Institute

Secretary | Research Foundation

Strategic Operations Manager | Research Foundation