CFA Society New York Governance

David Allen, CFA, was former chair of CFA Society New York, and is also the Managing Director at Octane Investments, a firm he founded to invest in traditional energy companies. Prior to this, he served large institutions at Schroders and served in a similar position at AB, for nearly a decade at each of those firms. He also has founded and ran two FinTech startups and he traded FX in the 1990s. He earned a bachelor’s degree at the University of Pennsylvania in Economics and completed the Value Investing executive education curriculum at Columbia University. Allen is Chair of the NY Society’s Programming Committee, and recently passed the CFA Institute’s ESG certification.

Andrew Auslander, CFA, FRM, has over 25 years of experience in the global financial markets. He has spent half his career as an enterprise risk manager experienced in developing risk frameworks to support overall business strategy for asset management, private banking, and investment banking. During this time, he managed market, traded credit, counterparty credit, liquidity, operational, vendor, and model risks. He was a repo and securities lending trader for twelve years for global firms Salomon Brothers and BNP Paribas.

Andrew earned a Bachelor of Science degree from the United States Merchant Marine Academy. He holds a Master of Science degree in Computer Science and Information Systems from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and studied Finance at New York University’s Stern School of Business. Andrew is a CFA Charterholder and a Financial Risk Manager (FRM) certified by the Global Association of Risk Professionals. Mr. Auslander holds FINRA Series 7, 24, and 63 licenses.

Paul Benjamin brings a wealth of knowledge and experience from a multi decade career in investment management. Educated at the University of Colorado, where he earned a Bachelor’s degree in Economics, and Cornell Universities Johnson School of Management, where he completed his MBA. Paul has consistently demonstrated a commitment to excellence and continuous learning in the field of finance.

Professionally, Paul has held senior roles at multiple large publicly traded companies. Notably as the Deputy CIO of Alcoa’s Investment Office where he was responsible for portfolio construction and manager due diligence of their complex pension and foundation investment programs. More recently, Paul was the Senior Investment Officer and effective CIO for Cowen. Where he built and ran the investment office and was instrumental in navigating the company through the recent turbulent markets with innovative strategies and a focus on risk management. Paul’s comprehensive understanding of the investment landscape, coupled with his educational achievements position him as a valuable member of the board. He is excited to drive forward the organization’s mission to support the professional advancement of our members.

Thomas Brigandi, CFA, is a Managing Director at RisCura, the largest emerging & frontier market-dedicated investment consultancy by assets under advisement (AUA), with over US$200 billion. RisCura also manages / administers roughly $10 billion in assets. Prior to joining RisCura, Brigandi served as a Vice President in the Global Investor Management Team at Moody’s Investors Service (MIS), where he was responsible for building and maintaining senior level institutional investor relationships. Prior to serving in the Global Investor Management Team, Brigandi served for nearly a decade in the Global Project and Infrastructure Finance Group at MIS, where he was a Lead Analyst responsible for a portfolio of 34 power, toll-road, airport, port, water, wastewater, natural gas pipeline and project finance credits that collectively had over $15 billion of debt outstanding. While a Lead Analyst, Brigandi served on Moody’s public pension steering committee, ESG Americas working group and veteran recruiting sub-committee. Prior to Moody’s, Brigandi worked at the ~$250bn NYC Pension Fund, where he focused on energy and natural resources and reported directly to the chief investment officer.

Brigandi was Chair of the Board of Directors of CFA Society New York (CFANY), one of the largest CFA Institute Societies. Brigandi, the CFA Institute Inaugural Global Outstanding Young Leader & 2021 Americas Volunteer of the Year, has organized over 90 in-person CFA Society conferences globally that were attended by over 17,000 investment professionals, in addition to over 50 virtual conferences that reached many thousands of participants. These events featured over 400 senior asset owner and investment consultant speakers who represent organizations that collectively oversee or advise on more than $75 trillion in fiduciary assets. Brigandi, the founder of CFANY’s Asset Owner Series, Global Policymakers Series, Emerging and Frontier Market Series and Putting Beneficiaries First Series, leads a team of several hundred investment professional volunteers globally.

Brigandi maintains over 14,000 connections on LinkedIn and holds a Bachelor of Science in Finance, Accounting and Economics from the Macaulay Honors College (MHC) at the City University of New York. Brigandi received the college’s inaugural Alumni Pioneer Award and serves on the MHC Foundation Board of Directors as Treasurer. Brigandi serves as a Board Member of The Ocean Foundation, an Advisory Board Member of the Singapore Economic Forum, a Bretton Woods Committee Member and a Fellow of the Foreign Policy Association.

Arthur Fliegelman is a senior financial analyst in the Research & Analysis Center of the Office of Financial Research, a unit of the U.S. Department of the Treasury. Mr. Fliegelman has previously been associated with the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, Moody’s Investors Service, Salomon Brothers, CIGNA Corporation and Hay Associates. He has an MBA from the Wharton School and is a Chartered Financial Analyst. He was awarded the Benjamin Graham Distinguished Service Award by CFA NY in 2018 and has twice been named a CFA NY volunteer of the year for his CFA NY activities.

Danielle is Vice President of Finance and Investor Relations at McGraw Hill, a leading global education company that partners with millions of educators, learners, and professionals around the world.

In her role, Danielle oversees investor relations and corporate finance working closely and providing oversight into financial analysis, treasury, strategy, communications, and ESG. Danielle has leadership experience across many sectors, market capitalizations, and across both public and private companies. During her nearly 25-year career, Danielle has managed and developed relationships with rating agencies, credit and equity investors and research analysts globally.

Prior to rejoining McGraw Hill in 2022, Danielle held financial roles with increasing responsibility at Anywhere Real Estate, Verizon, and Prudential Financial. Danielle’s professional experience includes investor relations, corporate and business unit finance, strategy, mergers and acquisitions, treasury, board oversight, and ESG. Danielle has been instrumental in setting up investor relations functions with the appropriate level of financial and board oversight. Danielle has an astute value creation lens and has advised leaders on capital allocation, shareholder strategies, crisis management, and investor communications. Danielle’s work on credit and equity market transactions has resulted in capital structure improvements, interest savings, rating upgrades, and new investor ownership.

Danielle holds an undergraduate degree from The College of New Jersey, a Master of Business Administration from Fairleigh Dickinson University, and a Master of Accounting from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Danielle is also a CFA Charterholder. Danielle’s commitment to training and mentoring is a cornerstone of her leadership style and includes active participation in CFA Institute and NIRI.

David joined from Schroders where he most recently worked as the Head of US Fixed Income Product Management after joining the firm as Head of Credit Research. Before moving to New York, he helped establish the US asset management business and led the research initiatives for global financials and emerging markets for Legal and General in Chicago. Prior to that David was responsible for financials research at Mason Street Advisors, the investment adviser to Northwestern Mutual. Previously he worked at UBS in risk management, debt capital markets and liability management (restructuring) and earlier started his career at Bank of America as a credit analyst and later as the research manager for Latin America. He is a Board member of the CFA Society of New York and a Board member of the Fixed Income Analyst Society (FIASI). Before leaving the buyside, David was a founder and Chair of the Credit Roundtable, a member of the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board’s Standards Advisory Group and participated on the advisory councils of several rating agencies. He earned the Chartered Financial Analyst, Financial Risk Manager and Chartered Market Technician designations and was a Rotary Scholar at the Universidad Argentina de la Empresa in Buenos Aires and also attended the University of Glasgow while earning a Masters in Finance, Economics and Foreign Languages and a Bachelors in International Studies and Political Science with Minors in History and Foreign Languages from Iowa State University of Science and Technology.

Leo Schmidt, CFA was volunteer of the year for the CFA Institute for the Americas in 2023. In 2020 and 2022, he was volunteer of the year for the CFA Society New York. Starting in 2015, he was the Chair of the Institutional Asset Management group. He developed the Market Outlook series of events and frequently has been a mentor for the CFA Research Challenge.

Leo has been an institutional investor for over 20 years. Most recently for 11 years, he was a Senior Equity Analyst at the Chubb Corporation, a large public insurance company where he was responsible for all analysis on a $2 billion, 70+ stock portfolio (total corporate investment assets of $45 billion). The Chubb equity portfolio had an outstanding record with close to 300 basis points of outperformance versus the S&P 500 for over 10 years. Prior to Chubb, he worked at Advent Capital Management in Convertibles Strategies, at a $20 billion Nuveen managed accounts fund, and at Reich & Tang Capital Management. He graduated from Columbia University, with a BA in Economics and History and earned an MBA from NYU Stern. Before college, he worked in show business for 10 years mainly as dancer where the highlights include the 1980 revival West Story, a night club act at Rockefeller Center Rainbow Room for nearly three years, and several ballet companies including the New York Dance Theater. Currently, Leo is semi-retired and CIO at River Eddy Capital Management, a family office.