Mary Byrom
FPPTA Education Committee

Mary McTague Byrom is a Senior Relationship Manager for Atlanta Capital Management Company, LLC.

Prior to joining Atlanta Capital in 1990, Ms. Byrom was an Account Controller in the mutual funds division at State Street Bank & Trust.  She was responsible for various bond funds, the largest having net assets over $1.5 billion.

Ms. Byrom is a graduate of Loyola University New Orleans where she earned a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in Finance.  She obtained her MBA from Thunderbird School of Global Management.  Ms. Byrom serves on the Advisory Board and Education Committee of the Florida Public Pension Trustees Association.

David Settles
State Street Global Advisors

David has nearly 30 years of experience in the investment business. He began his career in fixed income sales with Salomon Brothers and today, David is a Vice President of State Street Global Advisors working as a Relationship Manager in the Atlanta office. He is responsible for managing existing client relationships as well as developing new relationships in multiple market channels in the Southeast.

Prior to joining SSGA in 2013, David spent nearly 10 years with Wellington Management Co., LLP as a Business Developer covering Public Funds, Corporate pension and investment plans, endowments, foundations and other institutional plan sponsors. Also, David was with INVESCO from 1996-2002 where he worked exclusively with insurance companies as well as other alternative risk transfer facilities (i.e. Captives).

David holds a BS from Georgia Southern University and he also holds his FINRA Series 3, 7, and 63 licenses.

William Adams
Managing Director, Global Investment Strategist
Mellon

Bill is a global investment strategist for the firm’s equity, Small Cap Value, Non-US and Emerging Markets investment disciplines, responsible for communicating the teams’ strategies to clients, prospective clients and consultants. He is a critical interface between client-facing staff and investment teams and guides the messaging and positioning of these investment strategies. Before joining the firm, Bill was an associate at Deutsche Bank, where he was responsible for European equity research sales. Previously, he was a senior account officer at Putnam Investments, where he managed 401(k) relationships, and a senior account administrator at State Street Research and Management Co. Bill has been in the investment industry since 1995. Bill earned a BA in political science from Boston College and an MBA in finance from the University of Maryland.

Robert A. Failla, CFA
Managing Director, Portfolio Manager/Analyst
Lazard Asset Management LLC (New York)

Robert Failla is a Managing Director and Portfolio Manager/Analyst on the International and Global Equity platforms. He is a member of the International Quality Growth portfolio management team as well as the Global, International and European Small Cap Equity teams. He began working in the investment field in 1993. Prior to joining Lazard in 2003, Robert was a Portfolio Manager with AllianceBernstein. He has an MBA from NYU’s Stern School of Business and a BA (Hons) from Harvard. Robert was previously on the Board of Trustees at Delbarton School in Morristown, NJ from 2007 to 2019. Robert is a CFA® charterholder.

Meredith Despins
FPPTA Education Committee

Meredith Despins is senior vice president, Investment Affairs & Investor Education for the Nareit, the not-for-profit trade association of the real estate investment trust (REIT) and publicly traded real estate industry.

Ms. Despins leads Nareit’s institutional investor education and outreach for the pension, endowment, foundation, and sovereign fund investor markets.  She is a frequent speaker at industry events, delivering a research-based perspective on the role REITs can play to build portfolio value, deliver income, and manage risk within the real estate investment program.

Prior to joining Nareit, Ms. Despins held executive positions with State Street Corporation’s Institutional Investor Services and Wealth Management Services divisions; and with State Street Global Advisors where she was responsible for delivering integrated fiduciary and investment management solutions including asset allocation and investment manager selection, strategic and tactical portfolio implementation, and risk management to pension and retirement plans, endowments, and foundations.

A graduate of Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut, with honors, Ms. Despins is a member of Phi Beta Kappa.

Paul Lundmark, CFA
Managing Director
Portfolio Manager

Paul is a portfolio manager at Richmond Capital Management. With over 34 years of fixed income experience, Paul joined Richmond Capital Management in 2003.  As a generalist in fixed income, Paul focuses on a broad spectrum of the market, in particular, credit and mortgage-backed securities.  He began his career at Washington Square Capital as a fixed income analyst. He then went to Home Life Insurance as a fixed income analyst.  Paul then went to USAA as a fixed income analyst and was promoted to a portfolio manager.

Paul received his BSB and MBA from the University of Minnesota.  He is a member of the Richmond Society of Financial Analysts and is a Chartered Financial Analyst.  He is a regular speaker on fixed income at the Florida Public Pension Trustees Association and is a Certified Public Pension Trustee (CPPT).

Dan Johnson
Director/Senior Consultant
AndCo Consulting

Daniel provides all aspects of the firm’s consulting services. He serves as the primary consultant for various institutional plans including defined benefit, defined contribution, and private foundation investment portfolios. His duties include serving as the primary point of contact for various Plan Sponsors and Boards of Trustees, and assisting them with their investment decisions and fiduciary responsibilities. Through his involvement with these plans, Daniel coordinates all components of AndCo’s consulting services including providing investment recommendations, asset allocation and investment manager evaluations, developing investment policy guidelines, and delivering investment policy compliance and performance reviews. He has been responsible for leading the firm’s monthly consultant’s call, which is used to discuss market and industry events with our firm’s entire consulting team.

He also serves on the firm’s Investment Committee which defines the investment philosophy of the firm as well as the policy for investment related topics, adds a check and balance to the research group and provides feedback on investment oriented topics and client related deliverables. As a Director of Consulting Services, Daniel works to oversee and support the operations of seven of the firm’s consultants. In this role he works to ensure that his team’s client’s service expectations are met and that consultants are appropriately utilizing the firm’s resources to deliver consistent client experiences and investment solutions.

Daniel has over 10 years of institutional investment experience. Prior to joining AndCo, he worked at a national consulting firm where his responsibilities included preparing asset allocation models, conducting manager searches, producing performance reports, and developing investment policies for institutional clients. Daniel is a speaker at various conferences including the Florida Public Pension Trustees Association (FPPTA), Georgia Association of Public Pension Trustees (GAPPT), and the Florida Department of Management Services (DMS) Bureau of Local Retirement Systems Conference.

Daniel H. Clare
Partner and Head of Credit
Constitution Capital

Mr. Clare heads the Constitution Capital Credit Partners team. From 2010 to 2016, he was a Managing Director at Ascribe Capital, formerly known as American Securities Opportunities Fund. Previously, he was a Senior Managing Director at Diamond Castle Partners, which he joined alongside other investment professionals from DLJ Merchant Banking Partners. He held prior roles as a management consultant at Bain & Company and in the investment banking division at Goldman Sachs. Mr. Clare earned his MBA from Harvard Business School and his undergraduate degree from Haverford College.

Tyler Grumbles
AndCo Consulting

Tyler Grumbles helps his clients simplify their fiduciary duty by optimizing investment portfolios, preparing investment manager due diligence reviews, selecting investment managers, developing investment policy guidelines, and preparing performance-monitoring reports.

Tyler started with AndCo in 2007 and has held the roles of performance analyst and internal consultant. In his previous roles, Tyler was responsible for investment research, performance analysis, plan administration, compliance monitoring, and operational and administrative support.

Paul J. Nasser
Chief Financial Officer & Chief Operating Officer
Intercontinental Real Estate

Paul J. Nasser is responsible for managing the firm’s resources across investment and operating disciplines. As Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer of Intercontinental, he is a member of the Senior Management Committee, Investment Committee, Valuation Committee, and oversees Performance Reporting, Investor Relations, Accounting, Finance, Marketing, Human Resources, Technology and Administration.

Prior to joining Intercontinental in 2000, Paul Nasser was Senior Vice President and Team Leader in Fleet’s Real Estate Finance Group handling a real estate portfolio of over $1 billion. In this capacity, Mr. Nasser managed construction and acquisition loans, private placements, mezzanine debt, retail real estate, REITs and residential real estate development. Before joining Fleet in 1991, he held various senior management positions in the banking industry.

Active in many civic and charitable organizations, Mr. Nasser is on the Board of Directors of the Massachusetts Chapter of the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties (NAIOP); is on the Board of Directors for the Greater Boston Board of Real Estate Finance Association (REFA); and Mr. Nasser serves as the Chairman of the Board of Trustees for St. John’s Preparatory School, Danvers, MA and is on the Board of Trustees for Tufts Medical Center, Boston MA. Mr. Nasser holds memberships with the Treasurer’s Club of Boston, National Council of Real Estate Investment Fiduciaries (NCREIF), National Association of Real Estate Investment Managers (NAREIM), and the Pension Real Estate Advisory (PREA). Mr. Nasser was the former Chairman of the Advisory Board for St. John the Evangelist School, Beverly, MA; former Chairman and President of the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties Massachusetts Chapter, former President of the Greater Boston Board of Real Estate Finance Association (REFA); a former member of the National Board of Directors of the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties (NAIOP) Washington D.C; and former member of the Board of Directors of Junior Achievement of Eastern Massachusetts. In 2015, Mr. Nasser was named the CFO of the Year for Midsize Private Companies by the Boston Business Journal. Mr. Nasser is a guest lecturer at the University of New Hampshire, Boston University and Roger Williams University.

Mr. Nasser received his BA in Urban Planning from the University of Rhode Island in 1983 and his MBA from Suffolk University in 1998

Meena A. Gandhi
Managing Director, Portfolio Manager,
J.P. Morgan Asset Management

Meena A. Gandhi, Managing Director, Portfolio Manager, has portfolio management, business development and investor relations responsibilities within the Private Equity Group, which she joined in 2006. Prior to joining the Group, she was an analyst for the J.P. Morgan Private Bank, where she advised senior executives on wealth management strategies including investments and estate planning. Ms. Gandhi also worked in J.P. Morgan’s Corporate Banking Group, where she was responsible for middle market banking activities such as treasury management and single bank credit facilities, as well as investment banking opportunities such as syndicated credit facilities, private placements, and merger & acquisition advisory. Ms. Gandhi earned a BA from the University of Texas at Austin, an MBA from Columbia University, and has completed her Series 3, 7, 24, 30 and 63 certifications.

Brian Casey
Business Development/Relationship Management
Cohen & Steers

Brian J. Casey, Vice President, is responsible for institutional sales and relationship management in the Southeast territory.  He joined Cohen & Steers in February of 2017.  Prior to joining Cohen & Steers in 2017, Mr. Casey was a senior marketing and client service associate at DePrince, Race & Zollo.  He has been in the investment management business for seventeen years.  He holds FINRA Series 3, 7 and 63 licenses.  Mr. Casey received his Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Rollins College in Winter Park, FL.