Board of Governors

Purpose

The Board of Governors is the most senior corporate body, with ultimate responsibility for the strategy and the management of the organization.

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Board of Governors nominations

The FY2024 Board of Governor application period is now closed. The FY2025 application form will be available in the fall of 2024. Below are the qualifications and expected duties, along with the FY2024 search priorities for reference.

If you have any questions about the CFA Institute Board of Governors application process, or would like to recommend a qualified candidate in the interim, please contact our Associate Manager at [email protected] .

Qualifications and expected duties

In advance of the FY2024 governor recruitment cycle, the Board reviewed both the likely number of vacancies and skill sets that would be needed. Accordingly, the Board directed the Nominating Committee to give priority in its search process to the following:

Functional leadership experience in business operations (e.g., AI, Marketing, IT, Data Systems)
Association education leadership and technology (EdTech) skills
Regional knowledge and strategic understanding
India
Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA)
CFA society expertise
Board and Governance experience

Learn more about the Nominating Committee

Members

Non-executive Chairman, MUFG Securities EMEA plc, and Non-executive Chair, Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS)

Marshall has substantial experience of leading complex international committees and boards. His background spans a range of sectors, including banking and capital markets, insurance, and regulation. His career spans over 30 years on three continents. In June 2018, he was made an Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE) for his contribution to financial services, and to charity. He cares passionately for financial literacy, market confidence, and good outcomes for investors.

Marshall Bailey is Chairman of MUFG Securities EMEA and MUS(Asia) in Hong Kong, and also Chairs the Financial Services Compensation Scheme, as appointed by the FCA and Bank of England. In the past he has been Chairman of CIBC World Markets Plc in London, a Representative of the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund (PIF), on the board of the largest bank in the Kingdom, National Commercial Bank, Jeddah, where he was Chair of the Group Risk Committee, announcing a $15 billion merger with Samba Financial Group. Also, as Chairman, he completed a consolidation of LCH Group Holdings, the world’s largest derivatives central clearing house, while on the Board of its parent, the London Stock Exchange Group, during their $29 billion acquisition of Refinitiv. On these boards he has Chaired, or been a member of the Nominations, Risk and Remuneration Committee.

Marshall holds a BA in Political Science from the University of Winnipeg, a Master of Arts in International Affairs and History from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva, Switzerland, and is a Chartered Financial Analyst. He has also completed the FT Non-Executive Directors' Diploma, and is currently completing the Certificate in ESG Investing, offered by CFA Institute via the UK. In his spare time, Marshall is a sailor and is a qualified Ocean Yachtmaster with the Royal Yachting Association. He also buys himself a new putter each year in his seemingly futile pursuit of lower golf scores.

President and CEO

Margaret Franklin, CFA, leads CFA Institute and its more than 170,000 members worldwide in promoting the highest standards of education, ethics, and professional excellence in the investment profession. She assumed her role in September 2019 and has more than 25 years of investment and wealth management experience.

Before joining CFA Institute, Ms. Franklin led International Wealth Management for North America and was president of BNY Mellon Wealth Management, Advisory Services in Canada. She also served as a board member of BNY Mellon Trust Company (Cayman). Margaret joined BNY Mellon in 2016.

Prior to joining BNY Mellon, Ms. Franklin held multiple senior management positions, including president of Marret Private Wealth and COO of Marret Asset Management, a credit and hedge fund asset manager in Toronto. During that six-year tenure, she had direct oversight of all aspects of the private wealth business. Prior to joining Marret, Margaret was a partner with KJ Harrison & Partners.

Ms. Franklin began her career in the institutional business and has worked with pension plans, endowments, foundations, and government agencies at State Street Global Advisors, Mercer, and Barclays Global Investors.

She previously served as chair of CFA Institute Board of Governors and is a former president of the CFA Society Toronto Board. Ms. Franklin is a founding member of the CFA Institute Women in Investment Initiative, a past recipient of the Alfred C. Morley Distinguished Service Award in 2014, and a member of its Future of Finance Content Council.

Ms. Franklin earned a Bachelor of Administration in Economics from McMaster University in Ontario. She is a CFA charterholder and a member of the CFA Society Toronto.

Advisor, The TIFIN Group

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.

Managing Director, Chief Operating Officer, The Bulfinch Companies, Inc.

Senior Director, Africa Finance Corporation

Banji is a Senior Director and Head of Treasury & Financial Institutions at Africa Finance Corporation (AFC), a pan-African multilateral development finance institution created by sovereign African states to provide solutions to Africa’s infrastructure deficit. In his role, he oversees the management of AFC’s balance sheet with total assets of about US$10.5 billion as of the end of 2022. He leads the implementation of AFC’s annual funding program in the international capital markets. He is also responsible for AFC’s financial institutions and trade business as well as the investor relations function. Banji joined AFC in January 2008 as the pioneer Treasurer of the Corporation, and he was instrumental in setting up the corporation’s treasury function and leading AFC to become one of the leading African credits in the international loan and debt capital markets. Banji has over two decades of experience in banking, advisory, and capital markets.

Banji has led several landmark funding transactions for AFC, raising over US$10 billion in funding for the corporation since 2015. He manages AFC’s relationship with its rating agencies, global relationship banks, central banks, investors, and asset managers. Prior to joining AFC, Banji worked with the Fixed Income, Currencies, and Commodities team of Citibank Nigeria and the Tax and Business Advisory Division of former Arthur Andersen.

Banji is a past board member and president of CFA Society Nigeria. He is a frequent speaker at global conferences on capital markets, and he also spends a considerable amount of his time teaching finance-related courses and mentoring young investment professionals.

Banji has a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, an MPhil degree in International Finance from the University of Glasgow, United Kingdom, and an MPhil degree in International Business from the International School of Management, Paris. In addition to being a CFA charterholder, Banji is also a Chartered Accountant.

Partner & Portfolio Manager at IDG Capital

Mei Gao joined IDG Capital, a preeminent China-focused alternative asset management firm with over USD 30 billion of assets under management (AUM), as a Partner in 2016 to focus on cross-border investments. From 2003-2016, Mei held various leadership roles, including President and Head of Portfolio Management, at Fore Research & Management, a New York City-based hedge fund with over USD 3 billion of peak AUM, and gained extensive investment experience. In 2013, she was listed as one of “the 25 Most Powerful Women on Wall Street” by bussinessinsider.com. Mei started her career in finance at TD Securities where she spent five years managing the bank’s convertible arbitrage portfolio.

Mei currently serves on the board and investment committee of Cavamont Investment Advisors. She is a director of Generation Asia Acquisition Limited. She was also a board member of TCFA (The Chinese Finance Association) from 2004-2006.

Mei is a graduate of Wilfrid Laurier University (MBA) and Shantou University (BA). She is also a CFA charterholder.

Chief Advisor for Research and Strategy, CBOE Vest LLC

Joanne M. Hill is chief advisor for research and strategy at CBOE Vest Financial, which provides investments that target return profiles aimed at risk reduction, return enhancement or consistent income. Previously, Dr. Hill served as head of institutional investment strategy at ProShares, managing director at Goldman Sachs, and as a faculty member at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She is a coauthor of A Comprehensive Guide to Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) published by the CFA Institute Research Foundation. In addition to serving on the board and heading the research committee for the “Q” Group of the CFA Institute Research Foundation, Dr. Hill serves on the editorial boards of the Financial Analysts Journal®, Journal of Index Investing, and Journal of Alternative Investments. Dr. Hill was a founder and copresident of Women in ETFS, where she continues to serve on the board. She received the William F. Sharpe Indexing Lifetime Achievement Award and the Top Women in Asset Management Award from Money Management Executive. Dr. Hill holds an undergraduate degree from American University, an MA in international affairs from George Washington University, and an MBA and PhD in finance from Syracuse University.

Advisory Council Member, Lovell Minnick Partners

Dr. Heinz J. Hockmann is a member of the Advisory Council of Lovell Minnick Partners LLC, a private equity company and buyout manager focusing on financial services and business services.

Heinz was an executive officer at Commerzbank AG in Germany for nearly twenty years and was a Member of the Management Board of the Bank with responsibilities for asset management, private banking, and investment banking. Earlier in his career at Commerzbank, he formed its asset management business for international institutional clients and later built the bank’s global asset management platform. Afterwards, he ran the Management Board of Westfalenbank AG, a midsize bank for corporate and private clients, investment banking, and asset management. He then joined Fortis Investments and expanded its asset management business in Germany, Austria, and Eastern Europe.

In 2008, Heinz co-founded Silk Invest, an investment management company specialized in frontier markets and became its Non-Executive Chairman. He serves on the boards of several German companies in the financial services sector including WWK, a major German insurance company, Ökoworld, a pioneer in the field of ecological and ethical investments, as well as GET Capital, a quantitative asset management company with a focus on artificial intelligence.

Heinz holds a master’s degree from Bochum University, where he also received his PhD in 1983. He became Professor for Banking and Finance at Justus-Liebig University in Giessen in 2017.

CEO, China Asset Management Co. Ltd.

Yimei Li, CFA, is Chief Executive Officer at China Asset Management Co., Ltd. Ms. Li has been in that role since May 2018, serving one of the largest mutual fund companies in China with more than USD 240 billion AUM and 200 million investors. Before that, she was the CMO of ChinaAMC for 6 years, leading a team of more than 200 people. She started with international business, then worked in human resources, marketing, sales management, and the fintech business. She served as the founder of ChinaAMC Wealth Management Company. She is also now in charge of the operation and IT functions of ChinaAMC.

Ms. Li also serves as the Vice Chair of Asset Management Association of China (AMAC) and is a member of that organization’s pension investment committee. She is very committed to bridging ideas and practices between regulators and market participants. She is a regular conference speaker and has given lectures to high officials of NGOs and charity groups on fundraising and marketing techniques.

Ms. Li graduated from Harvard University with a Masters in Public Policy and from Renmin University of China with a Masters in Economics. She holds the Chartered Financial Analyst® charter and is a member of CFA Society Beijing.

Director, Victorian Funds Management Corporation

Maria Wilton, CFA, has a 30-year history in the investment industry with leadership experience in asset management and pension funds. She is a member of the CFA Institute Board of Governors, deputy chair of Infrastructure Victoria, and a director of Victorian Funds Management Corporation, Australia Post Super and Dexus Wholesale Property Fund. Maria is the former managing director and chair of Franklin Templeton Investments Australia. Prior to joining Franklin Templeton, Ms. Wilton was with BT Financial Group (formerly Rothschild) and County Investment Management, where she was a diversified fund and fixed income portfolio manager. She began her investment management career at JP Morgan Investment Management as an economist and portfolio manager. Before joining the investment management industry, Ms. Wilton worked for the Commonwealth Treasury in Canberra in an economic research capacity. Maria is a fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and the Australian Institute of Superannuation Trustees. She holds a Bachelor of Economics from the University of Tasmania and is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA®) Charterholder. In 2019, Maria became a Member of the Order of Australia for significant service to business and finance and to the community.

West Florida Market President, BNY Mellon Wealth Management

Jennifer Garbowicz is a Senior Vice President and Private Client Advisor with Bank of America Private Bank based in St. Petersburg, Florida. She leads a team of seasoned professionals who work closely with clients to create strategies for managing the complexities of significant wealth, today and for future generations, and is committed to placing clients’ dreams, goals, and priorities first. Together with her team, Jennifer can provide a range of services uniquely tailored to each client’s objectives, including strategies for investment management, preparing for liquidity events and philanthropy, trust and estate planning services and credit solutions.

Jennifer enjoyed a ten-year career in the healthcare industry, and has almost two decades of wealth management experience. She joined the Private Bank (formerly U.S. Trust) in 2019 from an independent trust and investment management firm, where she was a principal. In that role, she managed portfolios that included equities and fixed-income assets for high-net-worth individuals, trusts, and charitable organizations. She also served on the investment committee and was responsible for developing new client relationships.

Jennifer earned a B.A. degree in management at Eckerd College and an M.B.A. with a finance concentration at the University of Tampa. She is a graduate of the ABA National Trust School and completed a certificate program in leadership and strategic impact at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College. In addition, Jennifer Garbowicz is a CFA® charterholder and is a member of the CFA Institute.

Passionate about her community, Jennifer has been involved with many non-profit organizations. She has served on the board of trustees of St. Anthony's Hospital Foundation and American Stage Theatre Company, and currently serves as a board member of the Florida Holocaust Museum and Homeless Empowerment Program. In addition, she serves as chair of the Board of Trustees for HCA Florida St. Petersburg Hospital, and is on the advisory board of both Webtalk, Inc. and Airyvl. Jennifer is a past president of the board of directors of CFA® Society Tampa Bay, and was elected by her peers through CFA® Institute as the chair of the Presidents Council after serving two consecutive terms as the Presidents Council Representative for the Southeastern U.S. Region.

Senior Vice President, Head of Northern Trust Asset Management, India

Ravi A. Gautham, CFA is a Senior Vice President and Head of Northern Trust Asset Management (NTAM) in India. In this capacity, he is responsible for playing multiple roles- the build out and expansion of several front and middle office functions that relate to the investment business of Northern Trust, as well as positioning the business appropriately in the market. He serves on the Executive Management Team and the Boards of Northern Trust’s two India subsidiaries, with a combined workforce of over 8000 employees.

Prior to his executive leadership role in India, Ravi spent 17 years at Northern Trust’s global headquarters in Chicago in a variety of leadership roles across several other Nothern Trust areas and businesses on the institutional side. Ravi began his career in 1994 as a investment performance analyst and subsequently became a founding member of the allied investment risk consulting team. That was followed by capital markets activity- securities lending and transition management. In 2003, Ravi moved to Northern Trust Asset Management as Senior Vice President and Director of Investment Risk Management, at Norther Trust Global Advisors Inc. In that capacity, Ravi was responsible for the management of investment risk and its integration into the portfolio management process, globally, across multiple assets classes. Additionally, as a senior member of the Global Investment Solutions team and investment policy committee, he was responsible for formulating and evaluating custom investment solutions and hedging strategies around the management of pension assets and liabilities for large pension plan sponsors across North America and EMEA. Ravi moved to Bangalore, India in 2010 to establish and grow the NTAM India team across most investment functions, further supporting global regions and legal entities. In addition he provides broad Executive leadership and Board level oversight of the India legal entity.

Ravi has written articles on, published papers, and spoken on investment risk and portfolio management issues at several investment conferences and panels worldwide.

Ravi holds an MSc. (Hons.) in Economics and Management Studies from the Birla Institute of Technology & Science and an MBA in Finance with a full Finance research scholarship from the University of Ohio, Toledo.

Ravi is a CFA charterholder and a member of CFA Society Chicago and CFA Society India. He is also a member of the Global Association of Risk Management Professionals.

Chief Risk Officer, USS Ltd.

Lindsey is Chief Risk Officer at Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS). He worked at UBS for 27 years in various roles across Asset Management, Wealth Management, Investment Banking and Risk Control, having started his career at O’Connor Partners. Lindsey is a regular speaker at industry events including several CFA Investment Conferences and is a member of the CFA UK Exams and Education Committee.

He has an MA in Natural Sciences and Computer Science from the University of Cambridge, received his CFA Charter in 2001 and also holds the CIPM designation. He volunteers teaching Maths and Statistics to A level students in an inner London school and is a visiting fellow at the ICMA Centre, Henley Business School, University of Reading. Lindsey is a member of the Management Committee. He was appointed to the board in 2017 and elected as chair of the board in 2021.

Executive Vice President, Head of AI Innovation, Fidelity Investments

Vipin Mayar is a sought-after industry expert interested in Board Roles. His board experience includes - board member at MIT Computer Science AI Lab (CSAIL), Advertising Research Federation’s (ARF) Board of Directors, McCann Global Board (leading marketing company in 100+ countries with 15K employees).

Vipin has been at Fidelity Investments for 18+ years, currently leading AI innovation for the company reporting to the Corporate CIO. As part of the CIO Council, Vipin helps oversee $6B in annual IT expenditure. With AI, he has established and led the Enterprise AI Center of Excellence which included building the practices, use cases, AI learning programs with Harvard and MIT, running a 5000+ AI club and developing an AI online academy.

Vipin’s AI team has worked closely with Portfolio Managers in Asset Management to provide AI based tools to augment the research process- solutions that provide the latest NLP based search, Generative AI capabilities and screening tools that use image recognition.

Throughout his career across Fidelity Investments, Bank of America, McCann WorldGroup Vipin has led large global Big Data, digital, analytics and AI teams of over a thousand associates. At Fidelity, his team in India for over ten years has included 200+ technologist/analysts in Bengaluru, Chennai and Gurgaon, He is a frequent visitor to India, presented at events and has actively engaged with AI companies in the market.

Vipin has been recognized over the years for his contributions - selected iMedia Top 25, an annual list of 25 thought leaders in the field of digital marketing, ‘Top 100 under 50’ diversity leaders by DiversityMBA Magazine, awarded the highest award at McCann for Extraordinary Excellence in analytics. Vipin has authored a book, published by Wiley & Co on driving measurable ROI and digital engagement through all major digital channels. Vipin has given guest lectures at MIT and Harvard Business School and is a frequent presenter to external boards and industry conferences.

Vipin’s experience on the consulting and agency side includes AARP, Department of Defense, US Army and several Fortune 500 Companies that include Dell, Microsoft, Intel, Verizon, Time Warner Cable, Coke, J&J, MasterCard, American Airlines, Nestle, General Mills, iShares, AT&T, Showtime, General Motors, Kohl’s, BMS, Whirlpool, PACCAR and Exxon Mobil. Vipin has been a keynote

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