Biography
Rebecca Fender, CFA, is chief of staff for Research, Advocacy, and Standards at CFA Institute. Previously she lead the Future of Finance initiative, which is the thought leadership platform for CFA Institute. The group publishes studies to help investment professionals build their careers and serve their clients more effectively. Their paper Investment Professional of the Future was recently awarded Best Investment Industry Paper of 2019 by Savvy Investor. Fender has testified before the US House Financial Services Committee AI Task Force on the impact of artificial intelligence on investment roles. She speaks regularly at industry events and has been quoted in the Financial Times, Bloomberg, and the New York Times, among others. Prior to joining CFA Institute, Fender was a vice president at BlackRock working with pension funds and endowments, and she also worked at Cambridge Associates, where she published research about manager selection. She earned her undergraduate degree in economics from Princeton University and holds an MBA from the Darden School at the University of Virginia.
The future of the investment industry is important for the functioning of the global economy, but there are changes happening in the world that will impact the industry and it needs to prepare.
In Montréal, Rakhi Kumar discussed trends in investor engagement that she has seen in her role as managing director and head of corporate governance at State Street Global Advisors.
Longstanding business practices are under scrutiny, stoked by debates in the US over fiduciary duty and by the availability of low-cost automated financial advice globally. These issues are poised to change the investment industry as we know it.
Long-termism is a hot topic in our profession and the dialogue is now extending to a new era of fiduciary capitalism that emphasizes the role large asset owners can have.
Wade D. Pfau, CFA, reviewed some of the biggest current debates over retirement planning.
The financial industry today faces a crisis of confidence that threatens its future. Without trust, markets don’t function properly and growth prospects are limited. So what can the financial industry do to change its trajectory? A panel at the 66th CFA Institute Annual Conference in Singapore, moderated by CFA Institute CEO John Rogers, CFA, provided some answers.
Three practitioners offer some straightforward suggestions for changing the trajectory of the financial profession.
Question your assumptions and never underestimate the importance of culture, former Olympus CEO Michael Woodford told delegates at the 66th CFA Institute Annual Conference.
The country's boom has been fueled by government investment, said the professor of finance at Peking University's Guanghua School, and the current trajectory cannot continue.
We are moving toward an “Archipelago world,” argues Oxford Analytica CEO Nader Mousavizadeh, a structural shift in which countries act as islands unto themselves.