Presidents Council Representatives

Purpose

The Presidents Council is made up of a chair and an elected representative from each society region. These PCRs facilitate communication between member societies and the Board of Governors.

Members

Presidents Council Chair

PCR, Canada

PCR, Central & Southwest US

PCR, Middle East & Africa
ETF Strategist & Advisor, Director, Co-owner of etfSA Portfolio Management Company (Pty) Ltd, President, CFA Society South Africa

Nerina Visser, CFA, is an ETF strategist and adviser and a director of the etfSA Portfolio Management Company, where she oversees the management of specialist investment portfolios of exchange-traded products for a broad range of clients. She serves as president on the board of CFA Society South Africa, chair of the ETF Standing Committee of the Association of Savings and Investments in South Africa, and a member of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange Issuer Regulation Advisory Committee. Ms. Visser is a co-founder of the South Africa chapter of Women in ETFs, serves on the Editorial Advisory Committee of the Collective Insight publication, and is a retirement fund trustee. She was recognized by the Financial Mail in its Analyst of the Year Awards and by CEO Magazine as one of the Most Influential Women in Business and Government in the Financial Services (Banking) category in South Africa. Ms. Visser was also recognized by CFA Institute as Volunteer of the Year in the EMEA region. She earned a BSc in mathematical statistics and applied mathematics from the University of Stellenbosch and an MBA specialising in finance from the Stellenbosch Graduate School of Business.

PCR, Western US

APAC South

Abhishek Loonker, CFA, is a principal at South Asia Advisors, a subadviser to GEF Capital Partners. Loonker joined the firm in 2020 and is based in Mumbai, India. He focuses on mid-market growth opportunities in South Asia and is responsible for sourcing, evaluating, and managing investments at the firm. Loonker has more than 17 years of professional experience in the Indian private equity and venture capital Industry. Before joining GEF Capital, he spent 16 years at Ascent Capital, a leading Indian mid-market private equity firm and was part of the founding team. While there, he also was involved in raising and managing three funds and worked on a number of investments across multiple sectors, including BigBasket.com, National Stock Exchange, RBL Bank, Cure Fit, and GMR Energy. Previously, he worked as a project manager with JGI Ventures where he consulted with several start-up firms.
Loonker serves on the board of Concord Enviro Systems, a Global Environment Fund portfolio company. He also serves as a director on the board of CFA Society India. Loonker received an MBA from MATS School of Business, where he was a gold medallist, and earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration from HL College, Gujarat University. He also has completed an executive education program in corporate restructuring and mergers and acquisitions from Harvard Business School. Loonker is a CFA charterholder and has been recognized as a “40 under 40” in the alternative investment industry by the Association of International Wealth Management of India (AIWMI) and the Indian Association of Alternative Investment Funds (IAAIF).

PCR, Atlantic Islands & Latin America
Professor of Wealth Management, Torcuato Di Tella University (Argentina), ORT University (Uruguay) Speaker, Independent Advisor and Columnist

Barbara Mainzer, CFA, is a Professor of Finance at Torcuato Di Tella in Argentina, where she teaches Wealth Management at the MBA, and is the Director of Wealth Management in the Executive Education School. In her 27 year tenure as University Professor, she held the roles of Associate Chair of Finance, Capital Markets and Academic Coordinator of Finance at ORT University in Uruguay, where she taught for more than 20 years.
She is currently speaker and independent Advisor to Finance and Wealth Management Institutions and Columnist for El Observador and VTV.
Her experience in private banking includes client service, portfolio analysis, fiduciary and business management roles with institutions such as Merrill Lynch, where she held the position of Sales Manager for Argentina, Chile and Uruguay and with Julius Bär where she was business manager for the Latin America Southern Cone and Head of the local Uruguayan Office. She holds an Economics Degree from Universidad de la República (Uruguay).

PCR, Central & Eastern Europe
Banking Supervision, Bank of Greece

PCR, Eastern US
Director, Black School of Business Samuel P. Black III Professor of Finance and Risk Management Penn State Erie, the Behrend College

PCR, Midwestern US
Senior Vice President Investment Services, Corporate Central Credit Union

PCR, Southeastern US
Manager, Red Tortoise, LLC

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