Meet the team behind the GPTB

“Real transparency is still a rare commodity in the pension industry. The GPTB initiative will help lift the veil on whether pension organisations are really creating value for their stakeholders.. Or not.”

“Transparency will ultimately serve to strengthen the pensions and investments world because we thrive when markets, operations (including costs) are efficient, accurately measured, and effectively managed”

“Transparency is needed because pension funds play a major societal role globally.”

“Public stakeholders may form opinions based on formal disclosures, but they increasingly draw conclusions on what they don’t see, or what is omitted. So transparency is important.”

Griffiths is an analyst at CEM Benchmarking. Prior to joining CEM Benchmarking, he was working for New Zealand’s stock exchange, NZX. Griffiths worked as an analyst across NZX’s capital markets and finance teams. He has a Bachelor of Commerce degree in Finance (Hons) and Economics from Victoria University of Wellington (New Zealand).

David Jennings joined CEM in early 2020 and is responsible for client service and business development in the UK and Europe. He has worked in financial services for more than 20 years building relationships with some of the largest UK pension schemes. Prior to joining CEM, he worked for Fidelity International and Lazard Asset Management as a client relationship manager. He has a deep understanding of the challenges facing asset owners and is experienced in tailoring solutions for a wide variety of situations. He has a Bachelor degree in Archaeology from the University of Southampton

Sadaf Shaikh joined CEM in 2022 and is responsible for elevating CEM’s performance and delivery by creating talent development programs focused on attracting and retaining top talent in the industry. Sadaf brings over 15 years of broad HR and talent experience in the pensions, capital markets, private equity, and real estate industries. Before joining CEM, she ran a consulting practice helping small and medium-sized businesses create a high-performance culture by enhancing their people practices and operational processes. She is a Certified Human Resources Leader (CHRL) and a Certified Executive Coach with an ACC credential through the International Coaching Federation.

Jim Stamper has a primary focus on business development and client service within the U.S west coast. Prior to joining CEM in 2022, he spent over 10 years in the asset management industry in consultant relations and institutional client service roles. He also spent over 10 years as a consultant with AON Hewitt in the defined contribution space where he worked with plan sponsors on investment manager selection and plan design. He received a BA in International Relations from Michigan State University.

Mike Heale is responsible for global business development and client service for CEM’s investment and administration benchmarking clients. His personal clients include leading pension and sovereign wealth funds in Asia, Canada, Europe, the Middle-East, and the United States. He has been with CEM for 21 years. Heale has an undergraduate degree in Physical Health and Education from Laurentian University and an MBA from the Richard Ivey School of Business, University of Western Ontario. Prior to joining CEM in 1999, he had 12 years of pension and life insurance marketing experience. He started his career in education as a basketball coach and teacher at Laurentian University. Heale is a frequent speaker at global pension and investment conferences where he shares performance and best practice insights from the CEM research program.

Recent industry papers that he has co-authored include:

• The bright and dark sides of private equity investing
• The time has come for standardized total cost disclosure for private equity
• Private equity cost disclosure – a problem and the solution
• A hedge fund performance reality check
• Managing costs and optimizing outcomes (chapter in the book: Saving the Next Billion from Old Age Poverty)

He is the creator and leader of CEM’s Global Leaders Service, a research group consisting of leading global pension and sovereign wealth funds.

Franco Wang is a director at CEM Benchmarking Inc. based in Toronto. He holds a dual role and is responsible for both client service in North America and parts of Asia, as well as performing custom analyses and research for large institutional investor clients. He was previously an analyst on the investment benchmarking service team where he developed an extensive familiarity with CEM’s proprietary database. He continues to leverage this experience to deliver insights to clients.

Prior to joining CEM Benchmarking in 2016, Wang was a senior investment consulting analyst at Mercer where he performed performance and governance analytics for Canadian pension plans.

Amanda White is responsible for the content across all Conexus Financial’s institutional media and events. She is responsible for directing the bi-annual Fiduciary Investors Symposium which challenges global investors on investment best practice and aims to place the responsibilities of investors in wider societal, and political contexts, as well as promote the long-term stability of markets and sustainable retirement incomes. She is the editor of www.top1000funds.com, the online news and analysis site for the world’s largest institutional investors. White has been an investment journalist for more than 25 years and has edited industry journals including Investment & Technology, Investor Weekly and MasterFunds Quarterly. She was previously editorial director of InvestorInfo and has worked as a freelance journalist for the Australian Financial Review, CFO, Asset and Asia Asset Management. She has been a columnist for the Canadian publication, Corporate Knights, which is distributed by the Globe and Mail and The Washington Post. White has a Bachelor of Economics from Sydney University and a Master of Arts in Journalism from the University of Technology, Sydney. White is currently a fellow at the Finance Leaders Fellowship Program at the Aspen Institute. The program consisting of 22 fellows seeks to develop the next generation of responsible, community-spirited leaders in the global finance industry.