TraderForum 2019: The ETF Revolution

Lewis Knox

Executive Director

Institutional Investor, Inc.

Lew Knox is Executive Director of TraderForum and Financial Technology Forum (FTF), membership groups run by Institutional Investor. As executive director, Knox is responsible for product content and event programming. Before joining II Memberships, he was assistant managing editor, technology and development at Institutional Investor magazine, where he was responsible for technology coverage and for developing new research features. Before taking over the technology beat, Knox was the research editor at the magazine, where he was responsible for the editorial components of II’s signature research rankings, including the All-America Research Team. He is on his second tour at II: from 1984 until 1997, he worked in various divisions of the company, including a 10-year stint in Newsletters, where he was part of the team that launched Global Money Management and Derivatives Week. Knox has an A.B. in romance languages and literatures from Princeton University.

Richard Vigsnes

Global Head of Equity Trading

Northern Trust Global Investments

Richard A. Vigsnes is a Senior Vice President at Northern Trust Global Investments in Chicago. He heads the global equity trading effort for NTGI as well as executing for the Transition Management International group. Rich previously worked at UBS in Stamford, Connecticut from 1992 to 2004, most recently as an Executive Director.Rich received a BA degree in Economics from North Central College and a MS degree in Financial Economics from Marquette University.

Sean O'Brien

Managing Director, Equity Trading

Merrill Lynch

Will Llamas

Director, Relationship Manager

Greenwich Associates

Will Llamas is responsible for supporting Greenwich Associates’ relationship management and marketing initiatives with key decision-makers at priority buy-side institutions. Will, who is also an avid chef and a private volleyball coach, graduated from Elon University with a BSBA in Marketing with a minor in Finance.

Richard Wan

Director and Head Trader, Public Equities

Alberta Investment Management Corporation

Richard is a Director and the Head Trader for the Public Equities group at AIMCo (Alberta Investment Management Corporation).  Responsible for all equity related trading activities within the group and for the total fund, Richard joined AIMCo in September 2009 from a large pension fund in Ontario where he was a Senior Portfolio Manager within their Derivatives and Fixed Income group. Richard has a Bachelor of Applied Science (Aerospace) from the University of Toronto, a Master of Business Administration from Queen's University, and is a CFA charter holder. He has over 20 years of front office industry experience from both sides of the street managing relative and absolute return strategies with an emphasis on equity products.

Peter O'Malley

Global Portfolio Trading and Head of US ETF Distribution

Bank of America Merrill Lynch

Peter is head of US ETF Distribution and an Equity Global Portfolio Products Sales Trader at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. In this role he is responsible for targeting clients across all portfolio products solutions including ETF’s, portfolio rebalancing and asset allocation.Peter re-joined the firm in 2013 after having worked for Bank of America Securities from 2005-2008. In between he worked at both Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley in global portfolio products sales roles. Earlier in his career he did Transaction Cost Analysis (TCA) sales for ITG Inc. He started his career doing quantitative research for a division of Reuters.Peter holds the Chartered Financial Analyst designation and a B.S. in Finance from Syracuse University.

Ashutosh Thaker

Chief Operating Officer

Sakonnet Point Capital

Mark Van Meter

Head Trader

Victory Capital Management

Mark Van Meter is managing director and head of equity trading at Cleveland-based Victory Capital Management, which is the asset management arm of Key Corp. The firm manages about $20 billion in assets and oversees equity and fixed-income assets for institutions and individuals. Mark is responsible for global equity trading, commission management, trade cost analysis and compliance reporting. The firm’s seven-person trading desk utilizes a Charles River order-management system. Mark joined Victory Capital Management in 2005. He was previously an equity trader at Chartwell Investment Partners and an options trader at Van der Moolen. Mark, a CFA designee, earned a BS in economics from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Lewis Knox

Executive Director

Institutional Investor, Inc.

Lew Knox is Executive Director of TraderForum and Financial Technology Forum (FTF), membership groups run by Institutional Investor. As executive director, Knox is responsible for product content and event programming. Before joining II Memberships, he was assistant managing editor, technology and development at Institutional Investor magazine, where he was responsible for technology coverage and for developing new research features. Before taking over the technology beat, Knox was the research editor at the magazine, where he was responsible for the editorial components of II’s signature research rankings, including the All-America Research Team. He is on his second tour at II: from 1984 until 1997, he worked in various divisions of the company, including a 10-year stint in Newsletters, where he was part of the team that launched Global Money Management and Derivatives Week. Knox has an A.B. in romance languages and literatures from Princeton University.

Robert Jackson

Commissioner

U.S Securities and Exchange Commission

Robert J. Jackson Jr. was appointed by President Donald Trump to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and was sworn in on January 11, 2018.Commissioner Jackson has extensive experience as a legal scholar, policy professional, and corporate lawyer. He comes to the SEC from NYU School of Law, where he is a Professor of Law. Previously, he was Professor of Law at Columbia Law School and Director of its Program on Corporate Law and Policy. Commissioner Jackson’s academic work has focused on corporate governance and the use of advanced data science techniques to improve transparency in securities markets. He was the founding director of Columbia Law School’s Data Lab, which used cutting-edge technology to study the reliability of corporate disclosures. Commissioner Jackson has written more than 20 articles in the nation’s most prestigious legal and economics journals. His published work includes a study shining light on trading activity before the announcement of major corporate events, the first study of the effect of mandatory disclosure required by the JOBS Act on trading by individual investors, and the first comprehensive study of CEO pay in firms owned by private equity. In 2012, Columbia Law School students honored Commissioner Jackson with the Willis L.M. Reese Prize for Excellence in Teaching. He has testified on his scholarship before the U.S. Senate, and his work was previously the subject of rulemaking commentary before federal agencies, including the Federal Reserve and the SEC.Before joining the Columbia Law School faculty in 2010, Commissioner Jackson served as a senior policy advisor at the U.S. Department of Treasury, working with Kenneth Feinberg, the Special Master for TARP Executive Compensation. In this role, he oversaw the development of policies designed to give shareholders a say on pay, improve the disclosure of executive bonuses, and encourage TARP recipients to more closely tie pay to performance. Earlier in his career, Commissioner Jackson practiced law in the executive compensation department of Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz.Commissioner Jackson holds two bachelor’s degrees from the University of Pennsylvania, an MBA in Finance from the Wharton School of Business, a master’s degree from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, and a law degree from Harvard Law School. He was born in the Bronx, New York, and is a lifelong Yankees fan.