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.
Board Committees
Board of Governors Meeting Summaries
Past Chairs of the Board of Governors
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Board of Governors nominations
The application form is available throughout the year for candidates to submit applications for the Board of Governors. Below are the qualifications and expected duties. The FY26 search priorities will be added in the fall of 2025.
To access the application, please click here. Note that you will need to log in on the application page to view the form.
Qualifications and expected duties
Here is an overview of a governor’s role and responsibilities. For reference, the Board-directed FY2025 search priorities are below. FY26 search priorities will be added in the fall of 2025.
- Board Leadership and Governance Experience
- Time Capacity and Commitment
- Audit and/or Risk Experience
Members
Board Chair
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 was Chairman of MUFG Securities EMEA and MUS(Asia) in Hong Kong, and also Chaired the Financial Services Compensation Scheme, as appointed by the FCA and Bank of England. In the past he has also 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 200,000 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.
Independent Director, Canoe Intelligence
Ms. Rothschild is an independent board director and operating partner at private-equity firm Advent International, with expertise in wealth-management technology and investment-research data and analytics. 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 is also a co-founder of the Chicago Giving Circle, and resides in Chicago and San Diego.
Independent Trustee, Litman Gregory Funds Trust
Pamela is the former Chief Operating Officer of The Bulfinch Companies, Inc., a commercial real estate firm where she led asset management, property management, financial reporting, HR, and IT. Pamela founded the firm’s Sustainability Committee and established the Affirmative Action Plan. Before Bulfinch, Pamela served as Managing Director and head of the Charitable Asset Management group at State Street Global Advisors, where she was responsible for overseeing and growing investment assets for non-profit clients. During her tenure at SSGA, Pamela successfully expanded the client base and gained high client ratings. She was actively involved in the SSGA Foundation and Gender Diversity ETF. A frequent public speaker at high-profile industry events, Pamela’s contributions were marked by her commitment to growth, excellence, philanthropy, and promoting sustainability.
Pamela spent eighteen years at Harvard Management Company, leading the Trusts and Gifts group as SVP and Head of Trust Investment and Operations while serving as a fiduciary for Harvard University’s charitable assets and employees’ pension plan. During her tenure, she successfully doubled the size of the charitable assets and established the firm’s first internal control function. Before Harvard, she spent four years at PricewaterhouseCoopers as an auditor serving financial services clients.
Pamela currently serves as an independent trustee of Litman Gregory Funds Trust. She is also on the Advisory Board of Longfellow Investment Management, a $20B fixed-income manager in Boston. She previously chaired the Board of Boston Securities Analysts Society and is a long-time trustee of Boston Ballet. Pamela did PhD Studies in French Literature at New York University. In addition to the CFA Charter, Pamela holds a Chartered Global Management Accountant designation and is a Certified Public Accountant since 1998. She is an avid reader and a daily distance swimmer.
Executive Board Member & Head, Financial Services, Africa Finance Corporation
Banji is an Executive Board Member and Head, Financial Services at Africa Finance Corporation (AFC). He is responsible for leading several business lines at AFC, including Treasury & Funding, Financial Institutions & Trade, Syndications, Capital Mobilization & Partnerships and Financial Advisory. He was previously a Senior Director and Head of Treasury & Financial Institutions at AFC.
Banji joined AFC in January 2008 as the pioneer Treasurer of the Corporation. He was instrumental in setting up the Corporation’s treasury function and leading AFC to become one of the leading investment grade African credits in the international loan and debt capital markets. AFC has a credit rating of A3/P2 from Moody’s Investor Services. Banji is responsible for overseeing the prudent management of the Corporation’s balance sheet and providing strategic leadership for the implementation of AFC’s annual funding program. He has led several landmark transactions that AFC has executed in global capital markets, which enabled AFC to significantly diversify its funding sources and tap new sources of capital. He is also responsible for the management of AFC’s relationship with rating agencies, bankers, 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 chartered accountant and CFA charterholder, with a first degree in Economics (University of Ibadan), a master’s degree in International Finance (University of Glasgow) and a master’s degree in International Business (International School of Management, Paris). He is also an alumnus of the prestigious Harvard Business School. He sits on the board of several companies including the Board of Governors of CFA Institute.
Partner & Portfolio Manager at IDG Capital
Mei Gao joined IDG Capital, a preeminent Asia-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 serves on the board and chairs the investment committee of Cavamont Investment Advisors, a multi-billion-dollar family office. She served as a board member of The Chinese Finance Association (TCFA) from 2004-2006. Mei holds an MBA from Wilfrid Laurier University and a BA from Shantou University. She is also a CFA charterholder.
Chief Advisor, Research and Strategy, Vest Financial
Joanne has over 30 years of experience in leadership roles in investment strategy at investment banks and asset managers with a focus on index and quantitative products, derivatives, along with risk management. She currently serves as Chief Advisor for Research and Strategy at Vest, a fund manager specializing in option-based investments. She is also a Managing Director at SEDA Experts, an expert witness firm specializing in financial services and serves on the Board of Governors of the CFA Institute. Prior to these roles, she was Head of Institutional Investment Strategy at ProShares, 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 index and risk management strategies.
She is honored to be a recipient of the 2023 etf.com Lifetime Achievement Award, and the William F. Sharpe Indexing Lifetime Achievement Award. She was one of the ten inaugural recipients of the Top Women in Asset Management Awards (Money Management Executive 2019). Joanne is a co-author of A Comprehensive Guide to Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) published in 2015 by the CFA Institute Research Foundation and has published extensively on quantitative investment topics, index products, and derivatives. Since 2021, she has served as a Governor on the Board of the CFA Institute. She was a Founding Member and the first Co-President of Women in ETFs, which has grown in 10 years to be a global networking organization with 10,000 members. She has served as Chair and is now a board member of the CFA Institute Research Foundation. She served for 12 years on the Board of the "Q" Group (Institute for Quantitative Finance) and now serves on the Board Nominating Committee. She is an Adjunct Professor at the College of Charleston, working with students in the Investment Program. Prior to her career on Wall Street, she was on the faculty of the University of Massachusetts (Amherst). and is currently an Adjunct Professor at College of Charleston. She has a Ph.D. in Finance and M.B.A, from Syracuse University, an M.A. in International Affairs from George Washington University, and graduated with honors from American University’s School of International Service.
Joanne resides near Charleston, South Carolina where she serves on the board of Bishop Gadsden, the largest, life plan community in the region, the Charleston Jazz Orchestra, and Arts, etc., an organization sponsoring arts education in the local schools.
Board Vice Chair
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. Furthermore, he served 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. He is the Chairman of the Board of 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 355 billion AUM and 229 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, chair of Growth Farms Australia Pty Ltd and the Queensland Investment Corporation’s State Investments and State Initiatives Committee, and a director of Victorian Funds Management Corporation 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. 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 Wealth
Jennifer Garbowicz is the West Florida Market President for BNY Wealth. She is responsible for implementing investment and wealth management solutions for our clients in Tampa, Naples and Winter Park, including individuals, families, business owners and family offices.
Jennifer joined the firm in 2024 and has over 20 years of experience in the financial services industry. Her previous experience includes serving as a Private Client Advisor for Bank of America Private Bank. Prior to that, Jennifer was a Principal and Senior Vice President for Sabal Trust Company.
Jennifer received a bachelor’s degree from Eckerd College and a master of business administration from the University of Tampa – John H. Sykes College of Business. She also received a certificate in leadership and strategic impact from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth.
Senior Vice President and Head – Alternative Investments and Multi-Asset Investment
Risk Management, Northern Trust Asset Management
Ravi A. Gautham, CFA is a Senior Vice President and Head of Alternatives and Multi-Asset Risk Management at Northern Trust Asset Management, Chicago, a role he assumed as of October 2024. Previously, Ravi was head of Northern Trust Asset Management (NTAM) in India. In that capacity, he was 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 and USS Investment Management Ltd
Lindsey is Chief Risk Officer for Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) and its dedicated investment management arm, USSIM. Prior to joining USS in 2020, he worked at UBS for 28 years in various roles across Asset Management, Wealth Management, Investment Banking and Risk Control, latterly as Global Head of Investment Risk and UK and Europe CRO. Lindsey was a member of the board of CFA Society of the UK from 2017, and Chair of the board from 2021, until the end of his term in November 2023. He also chaired the CFA UK Exams and Education Committee overseeing the various certificates run by CFA UK. 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.
Executive Vice President, Head of AI Innovation, Fidelity Investments
Vipin Mayar is a sought-after industry expert in the AI, Data, Analytics, and Digital Areas. 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 was recently on the Top AI Execs to Watch in 2025 and Top AI Execs leading Innovation globally .Vipin has been at Fidelity Investments for 19+ years, currently leading AI innovation for the company reporting to the Corporate CIO. 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 on 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. 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.
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