Featured Speakers


Mark Balasa

Balasa Dinverno Foltz, LLC
Principal, Co-President, and Chief Investment Officer

He is a member of the firm’s Investment Committee which oversees policy as well as strategic and tactical direction for the firm’s investment portfolios. Mark has been named seven times as one of the “Best Financial Advisors” in the U.S. by Robb Report Worth magazine; one of the top “150 Financial Advisors” in the country by Medical Economics again in 2009; and one of the “Top 100 Planners in the Country” in Mutual Funds magazine for three consecutive years. Bloomberg chose Balasa Dinverno Foltz LLC as one of their top Wealth Managers for six consecutive years; and the firm was featured as the cover story for Financial Advisor magazine, as well as a follow-up story of the firm’s continued growth.
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Mark currently sits on PIMCO’s advisory panel for RIAs. He also sits on the advisory board for State Street Global Advisors, and Charles Schwab & Co.’s technology board. Mark also served on the Financial Advisory Board of TIAA-CREF Institute, and is part of the nationally recognized consortium, The Alpha Group. This group of ten wealth management firms across the U.S. controls about $10 billion of assets and has been described by Barron’s as the premier financial advisory group in the industry. Mark has been a featured speaker at many national and regional conferences in the country.

Mark was also on the advisory board for the Journal of Retirement Planning, published by CCH, Inc. and has been quoted or featured in publications such as The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Barron’s, Smart Money, Business Week, The Chicago Tribune, Boston Globe, Bloomberg. Mark is also listed in Who’s Who in America and Who’s Who in the World.

Mark is recognized in the book by Mary Rowland, Best Practices for Financial Advisors, as one of the top 55 financial advisors in the industry as defined by their peers.

For seven years Mark was National Chair of the FPA’s Investment Committee for their endowment. He received a BS degree in Business Administration (1980) from Central Michigan University, and an MS degree (1993) from the College for Financial Planning. Mark received certified FINANCIAL PLANNER™ certification (1988) through the College for Financial Planning.


Christopher Brightman, CFA

Research Affiliates
Director, Head of Investment Management

Chris Brightman is responsible for portfolio management and trading.

Chris has three decades of investment management experience spanning equities, fixed income, currency, and asset allocation. He has traded securities and derivatives, managed portfolios, supervised quantitative product development, and allocated assets to alternative investment strategies. He has extensive organizational and people management expertise.
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Prior to joining Research Affiliates, Chris served as board chair of The Investment Fund for Foundations (TIFF), chief executive officer of the University of Virginia Investment Management Company, chief investment officer of Strategic Investment Group, director of global equity strategy at UBS Asset Management, senior portfolio manager at Brinson Partners, vice president and head of asset/liability management at Maryland National Bank, and associate national bank examiner at the Comptroller of the Currency.

Chris is a board and investment committee member of the Virginia Tech Foundation. He is a member of the CFA Society of Washington, D.C.

Chris received a BS in finance from Virginia Tech and an MBA from Loyola University Maryland.


Scott Burns

Morningstar, Inc.
Director, ETF, Closed-End, and Alternative Fund Research
Publisher, Alternative Investments Observer

Scott Burns is director of exchange-traded, closed-end, and alternative fund research for Morningstar, responsible for managing Morningstar’s global research efforts for these investment vehicles. In this role, he leads a team of analysts that cover more than 700 ETFs, 50 closed-end funds, and 40 alternative mutual funds and provide extensive commentary to individual investors, advisors, and institutions. He is also publisher of Alternative Investments Observer, a quarterly newsletter.
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Burns has more than 13 years of experience in securities analysis. Prior to joining the ETF team, Burns was an associate director for the equity research staff, where he was in charge of training and methodology development. Before joining Morningstar in April 2004, he spent five years as an analyst and associate with JP Morgan and Banc of America Securities Leveraged Finance groups.

Burns holds a bachelor’s degree in finance from the University of Illinois and a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. In July 2009, Burns was named to ETF Database’s ETF Hall of Fame.


Steve Cucchiaro

Windhaven Investment Management
Chief Investment Officer

Stephen Cucchiaro is the Chief Investment Officer of Windhaven Investment Management, a Boston-based global asset management firm with over $7 billion in institutional and private client funds. Mr. Cucchiaro has conducted over 30 years of research and development of a proprietary model of the key economic, fundamental and behavioral relationships driving the global capital markets. He earned a B.S. in Mathematics at M.I.T. and an M.B.A. in Finance at Wharton, where he began to apply the principles of nonlinear dynamic systems from science and engineering to portfolio theory and investment management. Prior to founding Windward Investment Management (The portfolio management team of Windhaven Investment Management, Inc. was formerly with Windward Investment Management, Inc.), Mr. Cucchiaro held positions as a management consultant, senior economist and technology entrepreneur.
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He was president and co-founder of Datext which was sold to Lotus Development Corporation, and president of ICAD which he helped position for IPO and sale to Oracle Corporation. During the late 1970s, Mr. Cucchiaro was a member of the U.S. Olympic Team in yacht racing and became national champion of his class in 1978 and Gold Medalist in the 1979 Pan American Olympic Games.


Tony Davidow

Guggenheim Investments
Managing Director and Portfolio Strategist

As managing director and portfolio strategist, Tony’s primary focus is to provide strategic viewpoints on financial markets for the firm’s ETF business. In this role, he is also responsible for developing, marketing and positioning the firm’s ETF strategy and training key sales personnel on the use of these products.
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Tony joined the firm from IndexIQ, where he was executive vice president and head of
distribution. Tony was responsible for building and managing IndexIQ’s distribution business. He was responsible for creating content, gaining platform approvals and educating advisors about the role and use of their unique solutions. Previously, Tony was managing director and director of sales and training for Morgan Stanley’s Consulting Services Group. He was responsible for CSG’s training programs, including the CSG University Program, conducted at the University of Chicago. He was also executive director and director of business development for Graystone Wealth Management and senior vice president and director for Morgan Stanley’s Institutional Consulting Group.

Tony is frequently interviewed and quoted in the media, including; CNBC, Bloomberg, Barron’s, Financial Times, Investment News and Investment Advisor among others. He has authored several white papers and strategy pieces, including: “The Merits of Core-Satellite Investing”, “Asset Allocation & Manager Selection: Adaptive Allocation,” “Alpha-Beta Separation”, “Equal Weight Investing: A Better Beta?” and “Currency as an Asset Class” among others. Tony is a frequent speaker at industry conferences, including Investment Management Consultant’s Association, Money Management Institute, Investment
Management Institute, Inside ETFs, The Super Bowl of Indexing and Inside Commodities among others.

Tony holds a bachelor’s degree in finance and investments from Bernard M. Baruch College, and has earned the Certified Investment Management Analyst (CIMA) designation from the Investment Management Consultant’s Association (IMCA) and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He sits on the board of directors for the IMCA. He has earned FINRA series 7, 24 and 63 licenses.


Bill Gross, CFA

PIMCO
Founder, Managing Director and co-CIO

William H. Gross, CFA Mr. Gross is a founder, managing director and co-CIO of PIMCO based in the Newport Beach office. He has been with PIMCO since he co-founded the firm in 1971 and oversees the management of more than $1 trillion of securities. He is the author of numerous articles on the bond market, as well as the book, “Everything You’ve Heard About Investing is Wrong,” published in 1997. Among the awards he has received, Morningstar named Mr. Gross and his investment team Fixed Income Manager of the Decade for 2000-2009 and Fixed Income Manager of the Year for 1998, 2000, and 2007 (the first three-time recipient).
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He received the Bond Market Association’s Distinguished Service Award in 2000 and became the first portfolio manager inducted into the Fixed Income Analysts Society’s hall of fame in 1996. Mr. Gross is a seven-time Barron’s Roundtable panelist (2005-2011), appearing in the annual issue featuring the industry’s top investment experts, and he received the Money Management Lifetime Achievement Award from Institutional Investor magazine in 2011. In a survey conducted by Pensions and Investments magazine in 1993, he was recognized by his peers as the most influential authority on the bond market in the U.S. He has 42 years of investment experience and holds an MBA from the Anderson School of Management at the University of California, Los Angeles. He received his undergraduate degree from Duke University.


Joanne Hill, Ph.D

ProShares Advisors, LLC
Head of Investment Strategy

Joanne spent over 25 years on Wall Street after starting her career in the academic world. Since early 2009 she has served as Head of Investment Strategy at ProShare Advisors, a premier provider of alternative exchange-traded funds, including leverage and inverse ETFs. Her responsibilities include portfolio strategy, research, and product development.
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Prior to joining ProShares, Ms. Hill spent 17 years at Goldman Sachs, where she was a Managing Director, leading global equity index and derivatives research, focusing on institutional strategies and implementation tools. Ms. Hill has published extensively on quantitative investment topics, index products, and derivatives. She serves on the board and heads the research committee for the “Q” Group, and is on the editorial board of the Financial Analysts Journal, Journal of Indexes, Journal of Alternative Investing, and Journal of Index Investing. Prior to coming to Wall Street, she was on the faculty of the University of Massachusetts (Amherst) and received a Ph.D. in Finance from Syracuse University.


Matt Hougan

Index Universe
President and Global Head of Editorial

Matt Hougan is president of ETF Analytics and the global head of editorial for Index Universe LLC. In this position, he oversees the company’s editorial efforts, including serving as editor-in-chief of the Exchange-Traded Funds Report and senior editor of the Journal of Indexes. He also spearheads the development of the ETF Analytics project. Hougan is quoted regularly in the Wall Street Journal, Barron’s, Investor’s Business Daily, Fortune, Forbes, TheStreet.com, MarketWatch.com and the Associated Press, and was recently named one of the 25 most influential people in the ETF industry. He is a regular guest on CNBC, and was recently named to Registered Rep’s “Ten to Watch in 2012″ list.
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Prior to Index Universe LLC, Hougan ran his own strategic communications firm providing PR and speechwriting services to Fortune 500 companies, U.S. and foreign government agencies, and select nonprofits. Earlier, he was the lead biotech analyst for MetaMarkets.com, which ran the world’s first transparent mutual fund. Hougan is a 1998 graduate of Bowdoin College.


Michael Kim

Genworth Financial
Senior Vice President

Michael is responsible for Business and Channel Development. Michael has over 20 years of experience working with financial advisors in various different capacities. Prior to joining Genworth, Michael was a Senior Vice President at Fidelity Investments, responsible for functions including Sales Management, Relationship Management and Practice Management. For over 12 years, Michael provided solutions and leadership in working with independent investment advisors that used Fidelity Investments for custody of client accounts. Michael started his professional career at Coopers & Lybrand, LLC, a national public accounting firm, where he specialized in providing audit and consulting services to investment advisors, broker-dealers and mutual fund companies. Michael is a member of American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, and received his BA in Economics from UCLA.


Martin Kremenstein

Deutsche Bank
Director in DBX / CIO

Martin Kremenstein is a Director of Deutsche Bank’s DBX North America business and serves as COO and CIO of three investment entities: DB Commodity Services LLC, a Commodity Pool Operator and Commodity Trading Advisor; DBX Strategic advisors, a Registered Investment Advisor; and DBX Advisors, a Registered Investment Advisor.
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Across Martin’s three businesses he oversees the management of $14bn in ETF assets, primarily in commodity and currency funds, but also in equities and fixed income, too. Products managed include the PowerShares DB Commodity Index Tracking Fund (DBC), the PowerShares DB Agriculture Fund (DBA), The db-X MSCI EAFE Currency-Hedged Equity Fund (DBEF) and the PowerShares DB US Dollar Index Bullish Fund (UUP).

Prior to joining Deutsche Bank in 2006, Mr. Kremenstein worked for JPMorgan Chase from September 1998 to August 2006, initially in London and then, from June 2003, in New York. From February 2005 to August 2006, Mr. Kremenstein worked in Market Risk Management, covering the Credit Portfolio division initially as an Associate, and later as a Vice President. Mr. Kremenstein received his B.A. from the University of Leeds in 1998.


Jim Lowell

Chief Investment Officer, Adviser Investments
Editor, Fidelity Investor
Editor in Chief, The Forbes ETF Advisor

James Lowell is a Money and Investing columnist for Forbes Magazine, and the Editor of the multiple award-winning independent newsletter, Fidelity Investor.

Mr. Lowell is also partner and Chief investment Officer of Adviser Investments, a private money management firm advising on over $2.3 billion, based in Newton, MA. (Adviser Investments receives no fees or compensation from any fund family, nor does it sell or promote investment or insurance products. It is a fee-only firm.) Before joining Adviser Investments, Lowell was the Chief Portfolio Strategist for the Boston-based investment bank of Adams, Harkness & Hill.
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Lowell also pens the weekly electronic Fidelity Sector Investor, and the customized, independent 401(k) Focus service. He is also the founding Editor of The ETF Trader on Marketwatch from Dow Jones. Lowell is featured monthly as an investment strategist columnist on Marketwatch. Lowell is also the Editor-in-Chief of The Forbes ETF Advisor by Jim Lowell, an independent investment advisory service exclusively focused on exchange traded funds.

Lowell is a weekly contributor on Fox Business News, and has written and lectured extensively on investing and personal finance for national audiences, magazines, TV, radio, and on-line media including Bloomberg (radio and TV), CNN, CNBC, and PBS’ Nightly Business Report. His market views and opinions appear frequently in such publications as Barrons, Business Week, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Fortune, Investment News, Money and Smart Money to name but a few. He has given numerous speeches; most recently to the annual CFA Boston Chapter event and the AAII.

He is also the President of FundWorks, Inc., a financial publishing firm, and was the featured Contributing Editor for Investment Advisor magazine, where he focused on equities, closed- and open-end funds, and exchange traded funds. Mr. Lowell’s columns were frequently used for the CFP (Certified Financial Planner) credit requirement for continuing education. He is also the author of the College of Financial Planning’s Exchange Traded Funds curricula.


Tom Lydon

Global Trends Investments & ETF Trends
President

Tom Lydon is president of Global Trends Investments, editor and proprietor of ETFtrends.com. With more than 25 years experience in asset management, Mr. Lydon began his career with Fidelity Investments Institutional Division prior to launching Global Trends Investments and ETF Trends. Mr. Lydon is a frequent contributor to major print, radio and television media including Investor’s Business Daily, Barron’s, MarketWatch and Investment News. His popular seminar, “How to Manage a Million Dollar Portfolio” has been attended by thousands of investors around the country.
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Tom is also co-author of iMoney: Profitable ETF Strategies for Every Investor and The ETF Trend Following Playbook.

Mr. Lydon’s extensive professional and vocational affiliations include:

  • Board of Directors for U.S. Global Investors, Inc. (GROW), a publicly traded San Antonio, TX, investment advisory firm managing a diverse family of no-load mutual funds
  • Board of Directors for Rydex|SGI, a Rockville, MD, mutual fund company
  • Pacific Investment Management Co., LLC (PIMCO) Advisory Board
  • Founding member of The Skip Viragh Award, presented annually to a company or individual who offers a new and innovative service, benefit or product that positively impacts the financial advisor community and its clients
  • Orange County Register Finance and Economic Panel
  • Chairman of the Board for the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Orange County and the Inland Empire (2003 – 2005)
  • Founding member of Charles Schwab’s Institutional Advisory Board
  • Chair of the Finance Council at Sts. Simon and Jude Church, Huntington Beach, CA
  • Mr. Lydon holds a BS in Management from Babson College in Wellesley, MA.


Dr. Burton G. Malkiel

Baochuan Capital Management, LLC
Co-Founder, Chief Investment Officer

Dr. Burton G. Malkiel is the Co-Founder and Chairman of the Index Committee of AlphaShares, LLC a Chinese index creation firm which provides innovative equity and fixed income indexes to ETF sponsors. Dr. Malkiel is also Co-Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Baochuan Capital Management (“BaoCap”), a privately held investment management firm focused on China. Dr. Malkiel is also the Chemical Bank Chairman’s Professor Emeritus of Economics at Princeton University.
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He is the author of the widely read investment classic, A Random Walk Down Wall Street, and more recently From Wall Street to the Great Wall. He was dean of the Yale School of Management and was the William S. Beinecke Professor of Management Studies from 1981–1988. He is a past appointee to the President’s Council of Economic Advisors under the administration of U.S. President Gerald R. Ford, and is a past director of Princeton University Investment Management Company (PRINCO). He was the Chairman of the New Products Committee of the American Stock Exchange, served as Chairman of the Investment Committee of Prudential Financial, and was the Chairman of the Pension Fund Committee of Southern New England Telecommunications. He has long been associated with the Vanguard Group, one of world’s largest mutual fund companies. He currently serves on the boards of directors of Vanguard Europe, Genmab A/S, and Theravance, Inc. He received his B.A. degree in Economics from Harvard University, a Masters of Business Administration (MBA) from Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration, and a Doctorate (Ph.D.) in Economics and Finance from Princeton University. Dr. Malkiel began his career in the investment banking department of Smith Barney & Co.


Anthony Rochte

State Street Global Advisors
Senior Managing Director
Head of North American Intermediary Business Group

Anthony is Senior Managing Director and Head of the North American Intermediary Business Group for State Street Global Advisors (SSgA). He is responsible for leading the distribution, client service and strategy effort focused on financial intermediaries, banks and insurance companies. His efforts are focused on the SSgA mutual funds, SPDR exchange traded funds, alternative strategies and sub-advisory strategies. Anthony is on the Board of Directors within State Street Global Markets while also serving as an officer on the SPDR ETF Board. He is also a member of the Senior Management Group within State Street Global Advisors (SSgA).
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Prior to joining SSgA, Anthony served as National Sales Manager with the iShares business unit within Barclays Global Investors. He joined BGI as one of the initial business development hires within the newly formed iShares business unit in early 2000. He was instrumental in the launch of iShares while serving in several leadership roles during his tenure. Prior to joining BGI, Anthony served as Vice President of Investment Services within the Fidelity Investments Institutional Brokerage Group where he was responsible for business development within the Registered Investment Advisor segment of the intermediary marketplace.

Anthony is an experienced public speaker, facilitator and moderator on topics related to the intermediary business and the exchange traded fund industry. He is often quoted in major investment publications and has appeared regularly on CNBC and Fox Business News.

Anthony received his BA in Economics and Political Science from Indiana University. He is a Certified Investment Management Analyst (CIMA) and holds series 7, 24 and 63 securities license.


Sam Stovall

S&P Capital IQ
Chief Equity Strategist

As chief investment strategist, Sam Stovall serves as analyst, publisher and communicator of S&P’s outlooks for the economy, market, sectors and stocks.

Stovall is a member of the S&P Investment Policy Committee, where he focuses on market history and valuations, as well as sector and industry recommendations.
Read more about Sam

Stovall is also the author of The Standard & Poor’s Guide to Sector Investing and “Stovall’s Sector Watch,” a page on businessweek.com, which focuses on market/sector history and sector/industry momentum.

Stovall joined Standard & Poor’s (S&P) in April 1989. Prior to S&P, he served Editor In Chief at Argus Research, an independent investment research firm in New York City.

Stovall received an M.B.A. in Finance from New York University and a B.A. in History/Education from Muhlenberg College, in Allentown, PA. He is also a Certified Financial Planner.


Sue Thompson

iShares
Head of the Registered Investment Advisor Group and 401(k) Sales

Sue is overseeing the firm’s iShares efforts with registered investment advisors, independent broker/dealers and asset managers.

Prior to joining Barclays Global Investors (BGI, which merged with BlackRock in 2009) in 2007, Sue was a principal at Vanguard, heading the national sales team focused on national full service brokerage firms. She joined Vanguard in August 1999 as Senior Counsel, specializing in tax law and structured products. Prior to joining Vanguard, Sue was an attorney at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, LLP in California, specializing in public finance. She received her B.A. in Accounting from the University of Washington and J.D. from the University of California, Davis. In addition to holding her Series 7, 63 and 24 FINRA licenses, Sue is also a C.P.A. and holds her Certified Investment Management Analyst (CIMA) designation through the Investment Management Consultants Association in conjunction with the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.


Morgan White

Osborne Partners Capital Management, LLC
Managing Director: Investment Team Member

Morgan is a Managing Director and Portfolio Manager in the Silicon Valley office of Osborne Partners Capital Management, LLC. In addition to working with his group of clients in planning and implementing their financial and investment programs, he also has responsibility for research on exchange traded funds and alternative assets.
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Morgan began managing personal and family assets in 1966. He began his professional career in 1974 with Bailard, Biehl & Kaiser, Inc. (now Bailard). While at BB&K, he was a portfolio manager and served on both the investment and financial planning committees. He also designed and implemented the company’s portfolio management system. His research responsibilities included cash and debt equivalents and oil and gas programs, and he was instrumental in the development of sophisticated risk analysis models.

In 1979, Morgan left BB&K with two colleagues to form The Portola Group, Inc., where he continued to serve a growing list of individual and institutional clients. He was also responsible for research in the areas of growth stocks and managed commodity programs, in addition to continuing his work with interest-sensitive securities and oil and gas programs. He left the firm in 1987 to form Woodside Asset Management. Woodside was acquired by Silicon Valley Bank in 2002 and subsequently acquired by Osborne Partners Capital Management LLC in 2006.

In addition to both BS and MS degrees in electrical engineering from Stanford University, Morgan holds anMBA, with specialization in finance and investments, from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. He served on active duty as a Naval officer and taught in the Polaris program from 1969-1971.

Morgan has held numerous volunteer positions at Stanford University including a term on the Advisory Board of the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research. He also served twice on the Schwab Institutional Advisory Board.


Douglas Wolfe

Saddle River Capital Management, LLC
Managing Director

Douglas Wolfe is Co-Owner and CIO of Saddle River Capital Management. Saddle River Capital manages 5 ETF portfolios for its retail and advisor clientele. He also is responsible for the management of an all ETF Hedge Fund. Doug received his BS in finance from Pennsylvania State University. He worked for 4 years as an equity and fixed income trader at Asiel & Co., in risk arbitrate and convertible arbitrage; then for 12 years, he was an equities trader at Salomon Smith Barney.