Having served in the field of labor relations for thirty-two years, represents numerous union contractors in the negotiation of various construction labor agreements, grievances, trust fund audits and other union issues. Also, serves as a management trustee on the Southern California Cement Masons Pension, IRA, Vacation and Real Estate Trust Funds.

Ms. Cortes joined the firm with 14 years experience in financial services. She is the lead consultant for various defined benefit, defined contribution, and foundation plans. Her focus is on asset allocation policy development, investment policy design, and trustee education.

Prior to joining the firm she was an Account Manager with Axioma Inc. focusing on client relationships. Previously she was Director, Client Solutions with Moody’s KMV, supporting investment managers in their optimal use of analytical tools for equity and fixed income analysis. She has also held roles as Vice President of MMC Securities, managing Structured Credit transactions and as Associate at The Geneva Companies, a subsidiary of Citigroup, performing private company business valuations for M&A transactions.

She holds the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation, is a member of the CFA Institute, Security Analysts Society of San Francisco and Financial Women’s Association. She has served on the Board of Directors of the National Association of Women MBAs. She is a speaker at industry events.

Ms. Cortes earned an M.B.A. in Finance from UC Berkeley and a B.S. summa cum laude in International Business from American University in Washington, DC. She attended the IESE Business School in Barcelona and has passed both Spanish and French business language proficiency certifications.

Ivory day, Jr. is a Senior Consultant with Gray & Company. Ivory joined Gray & Company in 2003 after 12 years as Vice President and Senior Consultant at the Marco Consulting Group.

His career in investments started in 1971 with A.G. Becker and continued with SEI Corporation when they acquired the Funds Evaluation Group of A.G. Becker in 1983. In 1986, he joined the Prudential Asset Management Company (PAMCO) as Director of Marketing.

Ivory has provided consulting and investment management services to Public, Taft-Hartley, Corporate, Endowment, and Foundation Plans. His functional responsibilities have included: Data Analysis, Production Control, Quality Management, Performance Universe Development, Investment Consulting, Investment Marketing, and Investment Program Development including Investment Policy Development, Asset Class Allocation & Rebalancing, and Investment Manager Research & Selection. He has completed many Research Studies such as the Investment Performance of Emerging Money Managers.

Independent Research and Training has been a special interest throughout his career. He has frequently been called upon by Investment Managers, Investment Consultants and Plan Sponsors to research and explain particular investment results and anomalies.

In addition to the annual Marco Consulting Group Client Conferences, Ivory has spoken at various conferences and seminars including the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Funds, National Association of Securities Professionals, Investment Analyst Society of Chicago for the Investment Adviser Association, Association of Investment Managers Sales Executives, Investment Management Institute, FRA Stars & Stripes, FRA Made in America, Midwest Pension Fund Forum, IMN Illinois PERS, NASP, OPAL Emerging Manager Summit and the CONNEX U.S. Strategic Investment Forum.

Awhile at PAMCO, Ivory became a Registered Representative of the NYSE & NASD. His undergraduate studies were in Mathematics at the Illinois Institute of Technology.

In over 35 years of experience working with multiemployer plans, Mr. DeFrehn has served this community as an administrator of national pension and health benefit plans in the U.S. and Canada; an actuarial and benefits consultant; a registered investment advisor; and since 2000, as their lead advocate and chief spokesman on matters of public policy affecting multiemployer plans, participants and their sponsoring organizations. He has organized and coordinates the activities of the Multiemployer Pension Plans Coalition, a diverse group comprised of more than 60 organizations of employer associations, unions, large employers, plans and trade associations concerned with the ongoing viability of multiemployer plans and their sponsoring organizations. The Coalition was largely responsible for the enactment of the multiemployer provisions of the Pension Protection Act in 2006, the Worker, Retiree and Employer Relief Act of 2008, and the subsequent funding relief contained in the recently enacted Preservation of Access to Medicare and Pension Relief Act of 2010.

Mr. DeFrehn also provided leadership and coordinated with several employer groups in the community’s successful opposition to the Financial Accounting Standards Board’s ill conceived exposure draft on the reporting of withdrawal liability for contributing employers.

On the health care front, Mr. DeFrehn was an active participant in discussions relating to the enactment of, and coordinates the multiemployer community’s response to, proposed regulations implementing, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010.

He has testified numerous times before committees of the United States House of Representative and Senate and the full range of administrative agencies with jurisdiction over multiemployer plans, and is often consulted by government officials and the press in the US, Canada and Europe interested in learning the multiemployer perspective on a variety of issues. He is frequently quoted in the mainstream and trade press and has appeared on CNBC’s “The Kudlow Report” and MSNBC’s “The Dylan Ratigan” show on issues regarding the funding of multiemployer defined benefit pension plans.

Mr. DeFrehn served as a delegate to the 2006 White House Savers’ Summit and from 2007-2009, served a three-year term as a member of the Department of Labor’s ERISA Advisory Council. Among other professional affiliations, Randy is currently a member of the Board of the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI); a member of the Government Liaison Committee of the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans; a member of the Health Sector Assembly; and a co-founder of the International Consortium of Advocates for Worker Benefit Security, which brings together advocates for the advancement of multiemployer plans in North America and Europe.

Mr. DeFrehn received his Bachelor of Arts in Social Work from the University of Pittsburgh in 1974, and in 1981, received a Master of Arts in Industrial Relations from St. Francis University where he subsequently taught compensation and benefits administration at the graduate level.

Ms. Granahan, Senior Consultant, joined Wurts & Associates in 2003 as a Performance Analyst in the Seattle office. She transitioned to the Los Angeles office in 2005, where she now provides a broad range of consulting services to Wurts & Associates' clientele. Her areas of specialization include asset allocation, investment policy development, and transition management. Ms. Granahan also assists in new business development efforts and is a shareholder of the firm.

Ms. Granahan is a frequent speaker at industry conferences, including the International Foundation, Made in America, and the National Benefits Forum, where she has presented on a broad range of investment topics.

Ms. Granahan graduated Cum Laude from Central Washington University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Finance and a minor in Economics. She received the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation in 2007 and is a member of the CFA Institute and the CFA Society of Los Angeles.

Chad Hueffmeier is the Chief investment Officer for Buck Consultants’ Pension Investment Risk Management (PIRM) business. Chad, who has over 12 years of pension and financial risk management experience, evaluates alternative methods of transferring risk to external parties and works with the Asset Liability Modeling and Investment Consulting teams to manage risk retained by plan sponsors.

Prior to joining Buck Consultants, Chad served as an Executive Director at Morgan Stanley Investment Management. There, he worked with institutional investors to develop customized solutions utilizing traditional asset, hedge fund, private equity, real estate, and derivative exposures. In addition, he served as liaison between Morgan Stanley’s Investment Management and Investment Banking Divisions.

Chad frequently speaks at investment and actuarial conferences. At Morgan Stanley, he coauthored two published papers: “The Emerging Pension Paradigm” and “Asset Liability Management in a Corporate Finance Framework.” While at Buck Consultants, he has had three published papers: “Dynamic Risk Management for Defined Benefit Plans,” “Come the Revolution! A New Day for Pension Risk Management,” and “’Risk-Free’ Liabilities: Efficient Risk Management Requires the Right Benchmark.”

Chad is the Vice-Chair of the Society of Actuaries’ Investment Section Council. He is an active member on both the American Academy of Actuaries Enterprise Risk Management (AERM) Task Force and the Joint Academy of Actuaries/Society of Actuaries Pension Finance Task Force. He received a B.S. in actuarial sciences from Maryville University. He holds the Chartered Financial Analyst designation, is a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries and an Enrolled Actuary. Chad is also a member of the CFA Institute, Society of Actuaries, American Academy of Actuaries, and Conference of Consulting Actuaries.

Andy Johnson is the Fund Administrator of the Teamster Center Services Fund, a Taft-Hartley trust fund located in Manhattan. He is responsible for the overall management of the Fund’s operations.

The Teamster Center Services Fund provides employee assistance, behavioral health management, and a variety of other services to Teamster trust funds in the metro New York area. The fund presently serves seventeen Teamster welfare funds and the 28,000 Teamster families covered by those plans.

During his tenure as the Fund’s Administrator, Mr. Johnson has expanded the scope of the Fund’s member assistance program, developed a variety of group purchasing discount products for the member Funds and designed and implemented an ongoing educational seminar program for Fund administrators in the New York City area.

Mr. Johnson holds a B.A. degree from the State University of New York at Oswego and an M.A. degree from the Teachers College of Columbia University.

• Principal of Hewitt Ennis Knupp
• Manages one of the firm’s client advisory groups and works with a wide variety of client types with a focus on public and union-related benefit plans
• Has spoken frequently before industry groups on a broad range of topics pertaining to institutional investors and the firm’s policy and manager research
• Contributed to the firms policy research on infrastructure, enhanced indexation, and global equity
• Past member of the advisory council for real estate, private equity, opportunistic strategies and trust services
• B.S. degree in finance from Northern Illinois University
• CFA charterholder and a member of CFA Institute and the CFA Society of Chicago
• Joined the firm in 1996
• Named Money Management Letter’s 2010 Public Fund Consultant of the Year
• Former member of the Ennis, Knupp & Associates Board of Directors
• Active member of the finance and investment committees for the Make-A-Wish Foundation® of Illinois

Profile

profile

Executive Director, Greater Cleveland Chapter, NECA (retired), MBA-Syracuse University, BA-Bethany College, First Lieutenant-US Army (Vietnam), Trustee for over 30 years on HW ,Pension , JATC Funds, Negotiated labor contracts with the IBEW.

Labor Trustee 21 years
Local Union 105 Trustee 3 years
Fringe Fund Trustee 18 years current
Sheet Metal Workers Pension and Health Plans of Southern California
Arizona and Nevada serving currently on Executive Committee and Board of Directors
Served on Appeals Committee
Served on Employer Accounts Committee
Served on Eligibility Committee
Served as 4k01 Trustee Local Union
Southern California Sheet Metal Joint Apprenticeship Training Committee Trustee for 18 years current

Ms. Sanderson serves as the Administrative Manager of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 655 Health and Welfare Fund. The Fund administers health benefits for UFCW plan participants and dependents in the Missouri and Illinois area. Ms. Sanderson received a B.S. degree in Health Management from Lindenwood University. She is also President of the Employee Benefit Administrators Association and Vice President of the Midwest Labor Health Coalition.

Mr. Shanklin joined NEPC in 2006 and has over twenty-six years of investment experience working with corporate, Taft-Hartley, public and endowment funds. Prior to joining NEPC, John was a Senior Consultant with Segal Advisors and with Alan D. Biller & Associates.

John was a Vice President with Prudential Investment Management, where he worked for 13 years prior to joining Segal Advisors in 2000. John is a veteran of the United States Marine Corps.

John earned a Masters of Management in Finance and Marketing from Northwestern University’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management and a BS in Biology from the University of Illinois. John is a CFA charter holder and a Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA) designee. He is a Board member of the CFA Society of Nevada.

Denise Sikes is the Benefits Manager at Ohio Laborers’ Fringe Benefits Programs. She has more than 14 years of industry experience including: plan design and administration for multi and single employer plans (health and welfare, disability, and retirement), organizational strategy development, conflict resolution, union negotiations, and employee development.

Denise is a member of the Society of Human Resources and received her BA degree from University of Richmond.

Cranston RI HS 1950
University of Pennsylvania Wharton School 1954
US Air Force Pilot, Capt.US Strategic Air Command
Owner Pres Eagle Cornice Construction Co.1958-1995
Arbitrator- American Arbitration Association.
Pres.RI Subcontractors Association
Graduate of Harvard Business School 1988
Emeriti member of the Board of Directors of Harvard Business School
Lifetime Governor of Life span Hospital System in RI
Angel Flight Pilot 100 Missions
Board of Directors of the RI Alliance
Business Manager of The Voice and Herald Newspaper
Wright Brothers Award from the FAA for 50+ years of accident and violation free flying(over 11,000 hrs)
Lindbergh Medal for contribution of excellence to aviation
President of The RI Holocaust Education Center
Trustee- Pension, Annuity,,Health & Welfare Funds IBEW Local 99

Lennie Wyatt is President of United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW) Local 75, representing nearly 30,000 members along the I-75 corridor in Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky. Members of UFCW Local 75 work mostly in supermarkets, drug stores, packing, processing, and manufacturing plants, and health care facilities. Lennie serves as Vice President of UFCW International Union, and as Secretary-Treasurer of the UFCW Four State Regional Council. He is a Trustee on Taft-Hartley Pension Funds and Health and Welfare Insurance Funds. Governor Ted Strickland appointed Lennie to a position on the Board of Ohio Public Employees Retirement System (OPERS), one of the largest public employee benefit funds in the country. Lennie is a former Chairman of the Cincinnati United Way Campaign and Board Member of the University of Cincinnati Business and Industry Council.

Lennie received his Master of Arts Degree in Labor Studies from the University of Massachusetts and his Bachelor of Arts Degree, also in Labor Studies, from Antioch University.