Event Speakers

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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

Tom Collimore is Head, Institutional Relationships, for CFA Institute, the global not-for-profit association of investment professionals. In this role, he is responsible for managing institutional investment organization partnerships with CFA Institute. Previously, Mr. Collimore managed the investor education group of CFA Institute. He also co-leads an externally focused initiative on diversity and inclusion in investment management and since 2015 has served on the advisory board of Girls Who Invest, a not-for-profit organization supporting opportunities for young women in investment management. Before joining CFA Institute, he served as Managing Director, Investor Relations, for CIFG Holding, a group of bond insurance companies based in Paris and Bermuda. In past positions, Mr. Collimore managed private asset-backed sales for Société Générale and Radian Group. Earlier in his career, he managed portfolios of financial institution and real estate credits for Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce and predecessors of J.P. Morgan Chase. Mr. Collimore previously served as adjunct professor of finance at St. John’s University School of Risk Management, Insurance and Actuarial Science (then, the College of Insurance). Mr. Collimore holds a Master’s in Business Administration, with a finance concentration, from New York University’s Stern School of Business and a Bachelor’s in Foreign Service, with a concentration in international finance and commerce, from Georgetown University. He has held the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation since 1997.

Kris J. Thiessen, CFA, CAIA, EA, is the Founder and Managing Partner of Helix Management and serves as Chair of the Board of Directors of the CFA Society New York. He founded Helix in 2002 to focus on investments in public and private life sciences companies, royalties, structured transactions and investment funds. He also advises individuals and business owners on tax matters, including compliance, controversy and planning. Kris began his investment career at Goldman Sachs, where he helped build a new proprietary trading effort, and worked in equity derivatives and healthcare investment banking. Prior to his business life, Kris was a principal investigator for experiments on two Space Shuttle missions. At the CFA Society New York, Kris has been recognized as Chair Emeritus of the Alternative Investments Group, our largest member interest group. During his two years as Co-Chair, the Alternative Investments Group hosted or co-hosted 22 events which reached an audience of over 11,400 participants. Kris co-created the Annual Private Equity and Venture Capital Conference and received the CFANY 2018 Volunteer of the Year award. Kris received his BA in Economics from Harvard College and his MS in Taxation from Baruch College Zicklin School of Business. He has earned the right to use the Chartered Financial Analyst, Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst and Enrolled Agent designations..