Influential Investors Forum

Michael Ashmore is CEO of Rondeivu, a fintech platform reimagining how institutional investors source, diligence, transact and monitor investments across private markets. Michael is also chair of the finance and investment committee at the University of Waterloo, leading the committee overseeing C$800 million in endowment assets since 2022.

Michael was previously director of the external managers program at OMERS, the C$134 billion Canadian pension plan. While at OMERS, Michael was selected as a member of the OMERS Future Leaders program. Prior to OMERS, Michael was a vice president at the Carlyle Group – DGAM, and from 2010 to 2012, Michael was an investment analyst at PGGM, the 240-billion-euro Dutch pension plan.

Adam Berk is a principal in Ernst & Young LLP’s people consulting practice, bringing more than 30 years of experience in retirement and investment consulting. He serves as the EY Americas retirement service leader and has conducted numerous financial management studies for funds with assets up to $400 billion.

Adam earned a bachelor of arts degree with honors in mathematics from the University of Texas. He is an associate of the Society of Actuaries, an enrolled actuary and a chartered financial analyst. Additionally, he serves on the advisory committee to the dean of sciences at the University of Texas at Austin

Hernando Cortina, CFA is Managing Director, Head of Index Strategy at ISS Sustainability. Previously, he was Director of Indexes & Analytics at JUST Capital and portfolio strategist and equity index trader with Morgan Stanley. He started his career in Latin America equity research at Goldman Sachs. Hernando earned Bachelor of Science degrees in Electrical Engineering and Economics from MIT and an M.A. in Mathematical Finance from Columbia University.

Robin Diamonte joined Raytheon Technologies (RTX) as Chief Investment Officer in December 2004. She is responsible for overseeing Raytheon’s more than $104B in global retirement assets, including its domestic pension plans, foreign and non-qualified pension plans and defined contribution plan.

Prior to joining Raytheon, Diamonte spent 13 years with Verizon Investment Management. She served as Managing Director of Global Investments, responsible for asset allocation and management for its pension plan.

In 2013, Diamonte was appointed by President Obama and served as a member and chair of the Advisory Committee for the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation for six years. She has been an Independent Director of Morningstar, Inc. since December 2015.  She also serves on the board for the Committee on Investment of Employee Benefit Assets (CIEBA), representing more than 100 of the country’s largest private-sector retirement funds on fiduciary and investment issues in Washington.

With four decades of comprehensive experience in both sell-side and buy-side investment management, Walter serves as the Chief Investment Officer at EY U.S., leading the team of five responsible for overseeing EY’s circa $30 billion of qualified and non-qualified retirement plans. Walter is also a member of the Investment Committee for EY Global’s captive insurance company.

Before joining EY, Walter spent a decade at JPMorgan, where he was a key member of the Retirement Plan Investment Group. His roles included Chief Operating Officer and portfolio manager for private equity, real estate, and real assets, as well as serving as a designated advisor to the investment committees of the firm’s largest international retirement plans.

Walter’s earlier career included leadership roles at Mellon and its Dreyfus subsidiary, where he was National Sales Manager of Retail at Dreyfus and Executive Vice President of Defined Contribution Distribution at Mellon Institutional Asset Management. His investment career began at Prudential Securities, where he spent 14 years in roles including Branch Manager and Associate Regional Director. He has focused on the ERISA retirement plan market since 1990.

Chief Investment Officer honored Walter with their Lifetime Achievement Award in 2022, their Most Collaborative Award in 2021 and included him in their Power 100 list from 2021 to 2025. He has been nominated as a finalist for their 2025 Industry Innovation Award for Corporate Plans. Institutional Investor awarded him their Excellence in Retirement Structure Award in 2016 and their Visionary Award in 2025.

Walter is on the Board and Chair of the Defined Contribution Committee for CIEBA (the Committee for the Investment of Employee Benefit Assets). He sits on the Board for Catch-a-Lift, a Veteran’s support organization, and has served on the Board for The Corinthians Endowment Fund since 2007. Walter is a member of and Secretary for the New York Yacht Club Investment Committee. Elected to the Board of Finance in Wilton, CT, in 2015, he served as Vice Chair from 2018 to 2019. Walter earned a B.S. in Finance from Syracuse University.

As Chief Investment Officer and Deputy Comptroller for Asset Management, Steven Meier oversees investments for the five New York City retirement systems.

Meier brings more than 40 years of experience in both the public and private sectors, previously serving as Assistant Treasurer and Interim Chief Investment Officer for the Connecticut Office of the State Treasurer Shawn T. Wooden, overseeing the investments of Connecticut’s $40 billion public pension system. Previously, Meier spent 17 years at State Street and State Street Global Advisors, where he rose to Executive Vice President and Chief Investment Officer for Global Fixed Income, Currency, and Cash Management, overseeing over $900 billion in assets. In addition, he was a member of SSGA’s Investment Committee for over 10 years, with responsibility for more than $2.3 trillion in Global Investments.

Prior to his time at State Street, he worked at Credit Suisse First Boston as Director, Global Head of Fixed Income & Money Market Electronic Trading and Senior Trader in their Global Financing Group. His experience also includes roles at Oppenheimer Capital, Merrill Lynch Capital Markets, and Irving Trust Company.

Meier is a CFA Charter Holder and certified Financial Risk Manager. He holds an MBA from Indiana University’s Kelly School of Business and a BBA from Hofstra University’s Zarb School of Business.

Jennifer Neppel serves as the Vice President & Chief Investment Officer for Pinnacol Assurance. She is responsible for managing the $3 billion investment portfolio and the Treasury department. Before joining Pinnacol, Jennifer served as the director of investments for CommonSpirit Health where she assisted in the management of approximately $50 billion in operating, pension, insurance, defined contribution, and foundation assets.

Jennifer also led the investment team at Catholic Health Initiatives for 22 years, managing the centralized investment pools for operating, pension, insurance, and defined contribution plans with aggregate assets of approximately $17 billion.

She holds a bachelor’s degree in information management with an emphasis in finance from the University of North Dakota and a master’s degree in finance from the University of Colorado. Jennifer earned her Chartered Financial Analyst designation in 2001 and is a Certified Cash Manager.

Jennifer serves on the board and as the Chair of the Investment Committee for the Catholic Foundation of Northern Colorado. She is also a board member for the Pinnacol Foundation and the University of Colorado School of Public Health. Jennifer has served on numerous private equity and real estate advisory boards along with chairing the investment committee for a university foundation.

Brenna Noble is a Portfolio Manager for the Public School and Education Employees Retirement Systems of Missouri (PSRS/PEERS). In this role, she is responsible for the management of the Systems’ Hedged Assets and Portable Alpha investment programs. She also contributes to the private markets team, conducting due diligence on private equity and private credit funds and co-investments. Prior to joining PSRS/PEERS, Brenna was a Senior Investment Analyst at Atlanta Consulting Group, managing portfolios for the firm’s institutional clients. She began her career at Goldman Sachs Asset Management, where she was responsible for hedge fund manager selection, focusing on event driven and credit strategies. Brenna graduated magna cum laude from the University of Missouri and holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration. She is a CFA charterholder.

Lauren A. Ormsbee is a Partner in the New York office of Labaton Keller Sucharow LLP.  Leading one of the Firm’s Securities Litigation teams, her practice focuses on prosecuting complex securities fraud cases on behalf of institutional investors.  She is actively overseeing cases against New York Community Bancorp, Extreme Networks, and QuidelOrtho Corporation.

Lauren has been recognized as one of “The Top 50 Attorneys of New York” by Attorney Intel and as a “Leading Plaintiff Financial Lawyer” by Lawdragon.  Crain’s New York Business selected her to its list of “Notable Litigators and Trial Attorneys.”

Lauren has obtained hundreds of millions of dollars in recoveries representing institutional investors and individuals in a variety of class and direct actions involving securities fraud and other fiduciary violations, including In re HealthSouth Bondholder Litigation, resulting in a $230 million recovery; In re Wilmington Trust Securities Litigation, resulting in a $210 million recovery; In re SCANA Corporation Securities Litigation, resulting in a $192.5 million recovery; In re Allergan Generic Drug Pricing Securities Litigation, resulting in a $130 million recovery; In re New Century Securities Litigation, resulting in a $125 million recover; and Lilien v. Olaplex Holdings, Inc., resulting in a $47.5 million recovery, among others.

Gene Podkaminer is a Senior Asset Allocation Strategist at Capital Group. He has 25 years of investment industry experience and joined Capital Group in 2025. Prior to joining Capital, Gene worked as an executive vice president and head of research at Franklin Templeton Investment Solutions, where he chaired the global investment committee and directed research activities across markets and asset classes, strategic and tactical asset allocation, and manager due diligence, using quantitative and fundamental approaches. Before that, he was a senior vice president in the Capital Markets Research group at Callan Associates and a principal in the Client Advisory Group at Barclays Global Investors. Gene has authored numerous articles published in the Journal of Portfolio Management and Journal of Investing focusing on risk factors in portfolio construction, asset allocation methodologies and the impact of macroeconomic shocks to multi-asset portfolios. He also writes curriculum for the CFA Institute. He holds an MBA from Yale School of Management and a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of San Francisco. He also holds the Chartered Financial Analyst® designation and is a member of the CFA Society of San Francisco. Gene is based in San Francisco.

Shawn Pope is Senior Director of Investments at Cox Enterprises where he is involved in all aspects of managing the investment portfolios for the defined benefit and defined contribution retirement plans. Previously, he worked at Invesco, where he developed systematic fixed income credit strategies. Shawn is a CFA Charterholder and holds an MS in Quantitative and Computational Finance, along with MS and BS degrees in Civil Engineering from Georgia Tech.

Joe Siprut is the Founder, Chief Executive Officer, and Chief Investment Officer of Kerberos Capital Management. As the CEO and CIO of Kerberos, he is responsible for ensuring the firm’s adherence to its core investment philosophies; communicating closely with clients on products and strategies; and overseeing firm operations.

Prior to founding Kerberos, Joe was a nationally recognized attorney. He was named to the LawDragon 500 (the top 500 attorneys in the United States across all practice areas); was repeatedly named a “Super Lawyer” and “Leading Lawyer” for litigation, class actions, and mass torts practice; was listed in America’s Top 100 High Stakes Litigators; and holds an AV Preeminent rating by Martindale-Hubbell, the highest possible peer review rating. He was called a “fearless game-changer” by the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin. Earlier in his career, Joe was named one of the Top 40 attorneys in Illinois under the age of 40 and was named one of the “Top 40 Under 40” by the National Trial Lawyers Association. Joe was selected for membership in the Multi-Million Dollar Advocates forum, limited to attorneys who have won million and multi-million-dollar verdicts and settlements.

Joe is a frequent speaker and panelist at private credit and alternative investment conferences worldwide. Joe’s national television appearances include Legal View with Ashleigh Banfield; Fault Lines; and Fox Sports, among others. Joe has also published numerous articles in well-known law journals. Joe is a graduate of the Northwestern University School of Law, where he served as the Managing Editor of the Northwestern Law Review.

Laura is partner and head of family offices at BFA Family Offices, overseeing strategy, investments and operations for the firm’s family offices. She also serves as general partner of the BFA Private Opportunities Fund, leading venture capital and private equity sourcing and due diligence. Previously, Laura was a managing director at Cambridge Associates in the private client group and founded Prevail, the firm’s women’s group. She holds an MBA from Cornell University and a B.A. from Boston College and is a dedicated advocate for diversity and inclusion in finance.

Christine Wilson is a principal in Ernst & Young LLP’s People Consulting practice in Cleveland. She has more than 19 years of experience working with large organizations to manage the cost and risk of their retirement programs in both the private and public sectors across a variety of industries, including energy, transportation, defense contracting, consumer products and manufacturing.

Christine is EY Americas Pension Investment Governance Solutions Leader and has served as engagement leader supporting multibillion-dollar investment governance initiatives for her clients. As part of her role, she meets regularly with major investment advisors and investment management providers.

Christine has experience advising clients on pension risk management, investment strategy and governance, evaluation of investment governance models, and vendor management and selection, as well as collaborating with them on their transformation journeys, providing HR advisory services.

Christine earned a Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics from John Carroll University. She is a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries (FSA) and an Enrolled Actuary (EA).