Event Speakers

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John serves as Senior Managing Director for the CAIA Association, overseeing the industry leading CAIA charter as well as stewarding CAIA’s global growth aspirations. John has devoted over 20 years to the asset management industry to recover the narrative of the value that the investment profession bring to society. He is a staunch public advocate for market integrity, long-termism, investor outcomes, diversity, human dignity and educational standards, as necessary ingredients to building a sustainable and healthy profession. John previously served as Managing Director for the Americas for CFA Institute, a region comprised of 40+ countries from Canada, the U.S., Central America, South America and the Caribbean. Bowman joined CFA Institute in 2004 after holding several industry positions. He served as a portfolio manager at Mellon Growth Advisors (MGA), where he was responsible for portfolio construction and stock selection for the MGA International Growth and MGA Global Growth strategies. Bowman also served as a portfolio manager for the International Growth Opportunities Strategy at State Street Global Advisors (SSgA) in its Global Fundamental Strategies Group. Before moving into portfolio management at SSgA, he was an equity analyst focused on domestic and international John is a prolific writer and commentator, frequently appearing in industry and business publications such as the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Pension and Investments, Financial Advisor, The Independent, Wealthmanagement.com and CNBC. Bowman earned a BS in Business Administration from Mary Washington College and is a CFA charterholder.

Thomas Brigandi, CFA, is a Lead Analyst in the Global Project and Infrastructure Finance Group at Moody’s Investors Service, where he is responsible for a portfolio of 34 power, toll-road, airport, port, water, wastewater, natural gas pipeline and project finance credits that collectively have over $15 billion of debt outstanding. Brigandi also serves on Moody’s public pension steering committee, ESG Americas working group and formerly served on the veteran recruiting sub-committee. Brigandi previously worked at the ~$200bn NYC Pension Fund, where he focused on energy and natural resources and reported directly to the chief investment officer. Brigandi is a Board Director of the roughly 12,000 investment professional member CFA Society New York (CFANY), the largest CFA Institute Society globally. Brigandi, the CFA Institute Inaugural Global Outstanding Young Leader and CFANY’s 2016 Benjamin Graham Distinguished Service Award recipient, has organized 89 CFA Society conferences globally that were attended in-person by over 16,000 investment professionals. These events featured over 400 senior asset owner and investment consultant speakers who represent organizations that collectively oversee or advise on more than $72 trillion in fiduciary assets, in addition to over 200 senior asset manager speakers who represent firms that collectively manage in excess of $30 trillion in assets. Brigandi, the founder of CFANY’s Asset Owner Series, Emerging and Frontier Market Series, Investment Employment Outlook and Professional Development Series, Putting Beneficiaries First Series and Global Infrastructure Conference Series, leads a team of over 500 investment professional CFA Society volunteers globally. While serving as the Director of Global Volunteers of the American Foundation for African Children’s Education, Brigandi organized the NASDAQ Closing Bell Ceremony on September 23, 2011, hosted for the President of Sierra Leone. Brigandi maintains over 13,000 connections ‎on Li

Robert Discolo, CFA, CAIA, is CEO and CIO of River Partners Family Office, a $1 billion+ registered investment advisor, whom he joined in 2016. Previously he was Executive Vice President, Investments, at Permal Group (a $22 billion alternative investment firm) and prior to that he spent 14 years working at Pinebridge Investments (formerly AIG Investments) where he was Managing Director and Head of Hedge Fund Solutions Group, ultimately responsible for managing $10 billion+ in proprietary and client assets in hedge funds and other alternative asset classes. Prior to joining AIG, Mr. Discolo spent seven years at Bank Julius Baer where he was Head of the Public/Private Funds Group, and before that was at Merrill Lynch in Partnership Financing, having started his career at Drexel Burnham Lambert in their Fund Services Group. He has authored and co-authored several papers and magazine articles on alternative investing and is a frequent speaker at investment conferences. Mr. Discolo is a CFA® and CAIA Charterholder, and holds an M.B.A. from Pace University, Lubin School of Business, New York, and a B.S. in Accounting from St John’s University, Jamaica, New York.