GARP 2026 Financial Risk Symposium

Viral V. Acharya is the C.V. Starr Professor of Economics in the Department of Finance at New York University Stern School of Business (NYU-Stern). He was a Deputy Governor at the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) during January 2017 to 23rd July 2019 in charge of Monetary Policy, Financial Markets, Financial Stability, and Research. He is a Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) in Corporate Finance and International Finance and Macroeconomics, a Research Affiliate at the Center for Economic Policy Research (CEPR), and Research Associate of the European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI). He is a member of the Bundesbank Research Council since January 2025 and an invited member of the Bellagio Group of academics and policy-makers from central banks and finance ministries since 2021.

He is or has been an Academic Advisor to the Federal Reserve Banks of Chicago, Cleveland, Kansas City, New York and Philadelphia, and the Board of Governors, and has provided Academic Expert service to the Bank for International Settlements, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. He was a member of the Climate-related Financial Risk Advisory Committee (CFRAC) of the Financial Stability Oversight Council for 2023-26, a Scientific Advisor to the Sveriges Riksbank (February 2024-January 2026), and also a member of the Financial Advisory Roundtable (FAR) of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York for 2020-25.

His primary research interest is in theoretical and empirical analysis of systemic risk of the financial sector, its regulation and its genesis in government- and policy-induced distortions, an inquiry that cuts across several other strands of research – credit risk and liquidity risk, their interactions and agency-theoretic foundations, as well as their general equilibrium consequences. In recent work, he has also studied inflation uncertainty and the impact of pandemic and climate-change related risks.

Nikos Andrikogiannopoulos is the Founder & CEO of Metrika, the leading SaaS platform for real-time risk management and compliance in digital assets. Under his leadership, Metrika has enabled financial institutions, custodians, and regulators to seamlessly onboard digital assets, establish continuous risk monitoring, and navigate evolving regulatory frameworks with confidence.

Nikos served the U.S. CFTC as a member of its Technology Advisory Committee (TAC) and Subcommittee on Digital Assets and Blockchain Technology, helping shape policy discussions on blockchain risk, DeFi, and AI-driven compliance. He played a key role in the CFTC’s DeFi Report, contributing to operational risk frameworks that support regulatory clarity and financial stability in digital markets.

Beyond his regulatory contributions, Nikos has been a recognized leader in the convergence of blockchain, AI, and financial risk management. His insights have been sought after by industry leaders, policymakers, and financial institutions navigating the rapidly evolving digital asset landscape.

Prior to Metrika, Nikos was a Principal at Cartesian, where he advised telecom and technology companies on market strategy, digital transformation, and regulatory affairs, including engagements with the FCC on 5G policy development. His work at the intersection of technology and regulation continues to inform Metrika’s approach to bridging compliance and innovation.

Nikos holds an MSc. from MIT EECS, an MBA from MIT Sloan, and a BSc. in EECS with honors from NTUA.

Jo Ann Barefoot is CEO & Co-founder of the Alliance for Innovative Regulation (AIR), a nonprofit organization working globally to promote a more fair, inclusive and resilient financial system by helping adapt financial regulation for the digital age. She hosts the global podcast show Barefoot Innovation and is Senior Fellow Emerita at the Harvard Kennedy School Center for Business & Government. She has been Deputy Comptroller of the Currency, partner at KPMG, Co-Chairman of Treliant Risk Advisors, and a staff member at the U.S. Senate Banking Committee.

Jo Ann currently serves on the board of Oportun. She is a member of advisory bodies for FinRegLab and the Milken Institute. She was formerly on the board of the National Foundation for Credit Counseling and FINRA, chaired the boards of the Financial Health Network and FinRegLab, and served on the CFPB’s inaugural Consumer Advisory Board. She co-founded the regtech firm, Hummingbird.

In 2024, Jo Ann was the first non-lawyer recipient of the Proxmire Award. In 2023, American Banker named Jo Ann one of the most Influential Women in Fintech. Other honors include being recognized as Fintech Woman of the Year, selected to the Forbes magazine list of 50 Over 50, and named to the Fintech Hall of Fame and the Women in Fintech Power List (twice). Fast Company magazine has honored AIR in its World Changing Ideas awards. 

Jackie Brady is a Managing Director in the Real Estate Institutional Client Solutions group, based in New York, and she serves as the lead product specialist for Blackstone Real Estate Debt Strategies (“BREDS”).

Prior to joining Blackstone, Ms. Brady led the Global Debt Solutions team of PGIM Private Alternatives where she was responsible for capital formation and product initiatives across private credit and real estate strategies. Ms. Brady also previously held senior roles at CenterSquare Investment Management and Capmark Investments and co-founded Canopy Investment Advisors, a registered investment advisor focused on real estate debt investments.

Ms. Brady received an MA from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies and a BA from Haverford College where she currently serves on the Investment Committee. Ms. Brady is also Vice Chair of the Urban Land Institute's Global Exchange Council.

Peter Cai is EVP, Chief Market Risk Officer at KeyBank, where he oversees corporate treasury risk and trading-related risk management activities. Cai has more than 25 years of enterprise risk oversight and recently served as Global Head of Risk Data, Analytics, Reporting, and Tech for Citigroup across all risk stripes and products. In this role, he led a global team covering modeling and analytics for enterprise-level risk aggregation and stress testing. 

Previously, Cai served as the Global Head of Asset Liability and Investment Risk for Barclays, Chief Risk Officer for Global Atlantic (formerly Goldman Sachs Reinsurance), and Managing Director, Firmwide Portfolio Risk Management for Morgan Stanley. He has taught at master’s level financial mathematics programs at Carnegie Mellon University, Columbia University, and New York University.

Cai holds a Ph.D. in Materials Science from Pennsylvania State University and a B.S. in Mathematics and Applied Mechanics from Fudan University in China.

Prashanth Challa is a Managing Director of Morgan Stanley

and Head of Wealth Management Cybersecurity. Prashanth and his team are responsible for addressing the risks

cyberattacks present to client data and assets. In this role, he manages

the security of all Wealth Management applications and infrastructure

and oversees end user security controls designed to ensure sensitive

digital data is protected and funds cannot be stolen.

Prior to joining Morgan Stanley in 2017, Prashanth was Head of

Cybersecurity at a startup focused on using artificial intelligence for

threat detection. Prashanth began his career at the National Security

Agency (NSA), where he led a team performing computer network

operations, developed implants and researched vulnerabilities through

reverse engineering. Specializing in the exploitation of cryptographic

devices, he delivered new and unique tools to enable foreign intelligence

collection from the highest-value targets. He holds a master’s degree in

theoretical mathematics and a bachelor’s degree in computer engineering from The Johns Hopkins University.

Eun Ah has over 25 years of experience through her work in private practice and public service, focusing on capital markets, securities regulation, corporate law, and market risk monitoring. She currently manages Global Regulatory Operations at Nasdaq, with the goal of facilitating capital formation, maintaining efficient and orderly marketplace and protecting investors. She manages multi-disciplinary teams in the U.S. and Europe responsible for assessing the qualification of listed companies, ETFs, options and other securities and their continued compliance with Nasdaq’s comprehensive listing standards. She also leads Nasdaq’s global surveillance program over equities, ETFs, options and other securities markets to help ensure fair and equal access to our trading markets and level the playing field for investors, market participants, and listed companies. Eun Ah is often involved in collaboration with U.S. and overseas regulators and exchanges on policy matters and regulatory decisions.

As former in-house counsel at Willis Towers Watson and Northrop Grumman, she has in-depth experience leading complex projects and managing legal matters related to domestic and international M&A, antitrust, venture capital and strategic alliances, while serving as a trusted partner and advisor to business leaders and board of directors.

Eun Ah also served as a senior executive at the Securities and Exchange Commission, overseeing a wide range of business operations, IT strategy and regulatory policy initiatives. During her tenure, she managed and significantly expanded a new office that performed risk monitoring and data analytics related to the asset management industry. She also led special projects related to capital raising transactions receiving heightened attention from the U.S. Congress, the press and other external parties.

Prior to joining the SEC, Eun Ah was a partner at Hogan Lovells, where she represented publicly and privately held companies, boards of directors and investment banks in a broad range of securities law matters, capital raising transactions, M&A, and corporate governance topics. She started her career on Wall Street as an analyst at Goldman Sachs.

Eun Ah received her Bachelor of Science in International Economics and Juris Doctor from Georgetown University, both magna cum laude. She also studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics at the University of Oxford.

Tim Corbett is Senior Vice President and Chief Risk Officer of State Street Global Advisors and a member of the firm’s Executive Management Group. He leads a global team responsible for managing investment, liquidity, counterparty, model, and operational risks across State Street Global Advisors. Tim’s primary objective is to provide independent oversight and ensure risks are known, quantified, communicated, and prudently managed. He is a member of the Senior Leadership Team and co-chair of the State Street Global Advisors' Risk Committee.

Prior to assuming his current role Tim was the Global Head of Investment and Liquidity Risk at SSGA. He has over 27 years of experience and has held a wide variety of roles within operations, equity research, portfolio management, and risk management at State Street.

Tim holds a BS in Finance from Boston College, and an MBA and an MS in Corporate Finance from Bentley University. He is a frequent speaker on a variety of investment and risk topics at industry conferences including Pension Bridge, Risk Minds, Institute of International Finance (IIF), and The Professional Risk Manager's International Association (PRMIA).

Paul Fabara is Visa’s Chief Risk and Client Services Officer; in this capacity he leads the client operations and global risk functions. Both functions share the common goal of putting Visa’s clients first, whether it is protecting them and keeping them safe, or providing operational support and valued services across our clients’ needs. Mr. Fabara is responsible for maintaining the integrity and security of the Visa payment system, while also serving as the principal liaison with regulatory agencies. He ensures that Visa continues to deliver industry-leading services to prevent, detect and mitigate the impact of fraud and security attacks on Visa’s clients and other payment system stakeholders. Mr. Fabara joined Visa in 2019.

Prior to Visa, Mr. Fabara held a number of key leadership roles at American Express Company (Amex) during his eight-year tenure. Most recently, he held the position of president of the global services group for Amex. As a member of the Amex executive committee, he was responsible for the company’s global servicing functions, including customer service, credit, and fraud operations, as well as enterprise-wide strategic initiatives. Most notably, as chief risk officer, Mr. Fabara promoted strong capabilities and disciplined, integrated risk controls. He improved corporate control and compliance in order to identify, monitor and manage risks and led the company’s broad-based activities to meet the requirements of regulatory orders.

Previously, Mr. Fabara served as global chief operating officer for Barclays’ credit card business, based in London, where he was responsible for card operations across 71 countries. Earlier, he was the chief operating officer of Alliance Data Systems, servicing more than 400 private label credit card programs ranging from retail to travel and entertainment. Mr. Fabara started his career at Providian Financial Corporation, where he served in many capacities including risk management, underwriting, marketing, sales and service, and credit administration.

Caio Ferreira is the Deputy Division Chief of the Global Markets Analysis Division at the International Monetary Fund (IMF). In this role, he assesses market developments, gathers market intelligence, and analyzes the activities and risks to financial stability. Previously, he served as the Deputy Chief of the Financial Supervision and Regulation Division, where he was actively involved in financial sector surveillance, prudential policy development, and providing technical assistance to numerous countries worldwide. He has led and participated in several Financial Sector Assessments Programs (FSAP) and authored papers on climate risk, prudential supervision, regulatory proportionality, and the sovereign-bank nexus.

Before joining the IMF, Caio was the Director of the Prudential and Foreign Exchange Regulation Department at the Central Bank of Brazil. He has actively participated in numerous international supervisory and regulatory forums and was a member of the Basel Committee from 2011 to 2015. He holds a PhD in Economics and an MSc in Finance from São Paulo University.

Edward Fishman is senior fellow and director of the Maurice R. Greenberg Center for Geoeconomic Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). A leading authority on economic statecraft, Fishman brings experience spanning government service, the technology industry, media, and academia. His New York Times–bestselling book, Chokepoints: American Power in the Age of Economic Warfare, was named a best book of 2025 by the Economist, the Financial Times, Bloomberg, and NPR and was a finalist for the Financial Times Business Book of the Year Award. It is being translated into more than half a dozen languages.

Between 2011 and 2017, Fishman served in key foreign policy roles across the U.S. government. At the State Department, he served as a member of the Secretary of State’s Policy Planning Staff, where he advised Secretary John Kerry on Europe and Eurasia and led the staff’s work on economic sanctions, long-range strategic planning, and international order and norms. Fishman was also the Russia and Europe Lead in the State Department’s Office of Economic Sanctions Policy and Implementation, where he played a central role in designing and negotiating international sanctions in response to Russia’s aggression in Ukraine. Earlier, Fishman served as a member of the Iran sanctions team, where he developed policies to strengthen sanctions against Iran and maintain pressure during the negotiations that led to the Iran nuclear deal. Outside of the State Department, Fishman has served at the Pentagon as special assistant to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, at the Treasury Department as special assistant to the Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, and at Foreign Affairs as a member of the editorial staff. Fishman is a recipient of the State Department’s Superior Honor Award (twice) and its Meritorious Honor Award, having been recognized for his contributions to U.S. policy toward Ukraine, Russia, Belarus, and Iran.

In the private sector, Fishman has worked in operating roles at several high-growth technology companies, including Via and Zoox. At Via, he built and managed the company’s health transportation business, which provides software and services to public agencies and health-care systems to increase access to care among underserved communities. He also led initiatives to commercialize autonomous vehicles and integrate them into public transit systems. Fishman actively invests in and advises mission-driven, early-stage technology companies that aim to improve American society and advance U.S. national interests.

Fishman teaches courses on economic statecraft and geoeconomics at Columbia University, where he is an adjunct professor of international and public affairs and a senior research scholar at the Center on Global Energy Policy.

Fishman’s analysis is regularly featured by outlets such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and NPR, and he frequently writes for publications such as Foreign Affairs and Politico. He holds a B.A. in History from Yale, an M.Phil. in International Relations from Cambridge, and an M.B.A. from Stanford.

With over 15 years of specialization in Investment Risk Management, Karim began his career as a Risk Manager at Credit Agricole Indosuez Luxembourg, where he monitored Multi Asset Class portfolios risk for both Private Banking and Asset Management divisions.

Since joining APTimum in 2010 - a risk measurement service company and the official FIS-APT representative for French-speaking markets - Karim provides technical and methodological support for Market and Liquidity risk calculations. He plays a crucial role in helping clients enhance investment processes through risk analysis, stress testing, simulation, and optimization. His responsibilities also include conducting independent risk analysis for institutional clients, supervising risk analysis teams, and implementing APT risk software with performance attribution modules.

Complementing his industry work, Karim actively contributes to academia as a Visiting Lecturer at IAE Nancy School of Management (since 2022) and Université Paris Dauphine-PSL (since 2019), where he teaches Risk Management with APT and Financial Risk Management, integrating both theory and practical application.

Karim's academic credentials include a Post Graduate Program in Financial Markets and Econometrics from Queen's University and a Financial Markets program from NEOMA Business School, both completed in 2007. He is also a CFA® Charterholder and holds both FRM and GFR certifications.

Trevor Kavanaugh is Vice President of Third-Party Risk Management at First Foundation Bank, where he oversees a portfolio of over 500 vendor relationships and leads the institution's approach to technology dependency risk. In this role, he is responsible for bridging the gap between traditional vendor oversight and the technical realities of modern software dependencies.

With a background in software development and over a decade of experience spanning compliance, BSA/AML, internal audit, and third-party risk management, Kavanaugh brings a technical perspective to vendor oversight that challenges the conventional compliance-focused frameworks prevalent across financial services. His work focuses on the risks that exist beneath traditional vendor assessments: software supply chain vulnerabilities, nth-party dependencies, and the concentration risks created when financial institutions and their vendors converge on shared technology infrastructure.

Prior to leading TPRM, Kavanaugh held progressive roles across First Foundation's risk and compliance organization, where he built cross-functional expertise in regulatory examination preparation, control testing, and operational risk assessment. Under his leadership, First Foundation's TPRM program maintains an 8:2 ratio of self-identified control gaps to audit findings—meaning the program identifies the substantial majority of its own issues before auditors or examiners discover them, a metric he views as the clearest indicator of program maturity.

Kavanaugh's current research focuses on the structural gaps between entity-focused TPRM frameworks and the dependency-level risks exposed by incidents like Log4j, SolarWinds, and CrowdStrike, arguing that the industry manages "parties" when it should be managing "dependencies."

JACOB KOSOFF is a Data Science and Model Development Executive at Bank of America. He leads the Data Science for Technology, Risk and Operations department, which advances Data Science and Artificial Intelligence (AI) capabilities at Bank of America, including in Generative AI. 

Jacob serves as the Model Development Executive and Artificial Intelligence Model Development Executive (AI MDE) for multiple lines of business, ensuring compliance with model governance standards and identifying opportunities to improve model performance. Additionally, Jacob and his team are responsible for developing, enhancing, and maintaining the Enterprise Information Product (EIP) datasets. Furthermore, they leverage artificial intelligence and robotic process automation to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of Enterprise Independent Testing (EIT). 

Jacob also serves as the Global Risk Management (GRM) Site Leader for Atlanta and the Co-Executive Sponsor for the Global Risk Development Program. 

Prior to joining Bank of America, Jacob served for eight years as the Head of Model Risk at Regions. In that role, he was responsible for the strategic vision and management of the model governance, model validation, and AI risk teams. Jacob oversaw the governance and validation of all models and analytics at Regions Bank. 

Jacob has 20 years of experience in the financial services industry, including in data science, model development, model risk management and credit review. Prior to Regions, Jacob served in roles at PNC, Freddie Mac, and Genesis Analytics. 

Andrew Liebowitz is a Google Workspace Global Architect and Information Security Specialist at Google. He specializes in helping global enterprises reduce risk through Zero Trust architectures, Chrome Enterprise security, and threat-informed detection. His recent work includes integrating AI capabilities with Mandiant Threat Intelligence and helping bridge customer needs with product roadmaps. Andrew holds a B.S. in Applied Cybersecurity from the SANS Technology Institute and multiple GIAC certifications.

Jeff McMillan is Head of Firmwide Artificial Intelligence at Morgan Stanley, where he leads the firm’s AI strategy, governance, innovation and deployment. He has overseen the rollout of secure generative AI platforms to over 80,000 employees and delivered embedded AI solutions across all areas of the firm to include institutional securities, wealth management, operations, HR, legal, and marketing.

Previously, Jeff served as Chief Analytics & Data Officer for Wealth Management, where he built and scaled Next Best Action, the industry’s first ML-powered personalized advice engine. Over his 25-year career, he has held leadership roles across investment products, research, operations, digital strategy, and technology, including at Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley.

In addition to his role at Morgan Stanley, Jeff is an Adjunct Professor of Management at Columbia University, teaching AI in Financial Services. He is a graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point, where he earned a BS in economics before serving as an Armor Officer and scout platoon leader in South Korea and Fort Knox. Jeff is also a competitive boxer with a lifetime record of 1-0.

William Nelson is an Executive Vice President and Chief Economist at the Bank Policy Institute and an adjunct professor at Georgetown University. Previously he served as Executive Managing Director, Chief Economist, and Head of Research at the Clearing House Association and Chief Economist of the Clearing House Payments Company. Mr. Nelson contributed to and oversaw research and analysis to support the advocacy of the Association on behalf of TCH’s owner banks.

Prior to joining The Clearing House in 2016, Mr. Nelson was a deputy director of the Division of Monetary Affairs at the Federal Reserve Board where his responsibilities included monetary policy analysis, discount window policy analysis, and financial institution supervision. Mr. Nelson attended Federal Open Market Committee meetings and regularly briefed the Board and FOMC. He was a member of the Large Institution Supervision Coordinating Committee (LISCC) and the steering committee of the Comprehensive Liquidity Analysis and Review (CLAR). He has chaired and participated in several BIS working groups on the design of liquidity regulations and most recently chaired the CGFS-Markets Committee working group on regulatory change and monetary policy. Mr. Nelson joined the Board in 1993 as an economist in the Banking section of Monetary Affairs. In 2004, he was the founding chief of the new Monetary and Financial Stability section of Monetary Affairs. In 2007 and 2008, he visited the Bank for International Settlements, in Basel, Switzerland, where his responsibilities included analyzing central banks’ responses to the financial crisis and researching the use of forward guidance by central banks. He returned to the Board in the fall of 2008 where he helped design and manage several of the Federal Reserve’s emergency liquidity facilities.

Mr. Nelson earned a Ph.D., an M.S., and an M.A. in economics from Yale University and a B.A. from the University of Virginia. He has published research on a wide range of topics including monetary policy rules; monetary policy communications; and the intersection of monetary policy, lender of last resort policy, financial stability, and bank supervision and regulation.

Anand Rao is Adjunct Professor in BITS Pilani’s APPCAIR AI Center. He also serves on the Advisory Board of Oxford University’s Institute for Ethics in AI, World Economic Forum’s Global AI Council, OECD’s Network of Experts on AI, OECD’s AI Compute initiative, Advisory Board of Northwestern’s MBAi program, Responsible AI Institute, Nordic AI Institute, and International Congress for the Governance of AI.

Anand focuses on research, innovation, applications, and adoption of data, analytics, and AI. He was Global Artificial Intelligence Leader for PwC. Before consulting Anand was Chief Research Scientist at the Australian Artificial Intelligence Institute.

He earned his Ph.D from University of Sydney and an MBA from Melbourne Business School. Anand has co-edited four books on Intelligent Agents and has published over fifty papers on Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence in major journals, conferences, and workshops. In addition, he has authored over 100 articles in the business and trade press. Among Anand’s awards include Most Influential Paper Award for the Decade in 2007 from the Autonomous Agents & Multi-Agent Systems organization. He was listed among the Top 50 Data & Analytics professionals in USA and Canada, Top 50 professionals in InsureTech, and Top 25 Technology Leaders in Consulting.

Christophe is an expert in analytics who helped global organizations ensure effective and sustainable management of their analytics, through robust oversight governance.

Christophe previously co-led McKinsey's Model Risk Management service line. Since 2024, he joined TD Bank Group as a Model Risk Management Executive. Today, he is heading globally the model and AI Risk Governance.

Robert Rowe is a managing director, the US Regional Director of Research and head of the Global Strategy and Macro Group, which encompasses all of Citi’s fixed income strategists as well as global economics and commodities. Rob has been with Citi for 30+years serving in various capacities. He originally joined Smith Barney Harris Upham & Company in 1989 working in investment banking, fixed income sales and research. His previous research responsibilities included overseeing the Global Bond Portfolio Analysis Group as well as working as a US rate and agency strategist.  He continues to provide portfolio strategy for select clients. He has written numerous articles and publications on fixed income and portfolio strategy.  

Arya Sekhar is the Chief Risk Officer for U.S. Banks and Wealth Management Business Segment at Morgan Stanley. Arya brings over two decades of expertise in risk management and quantitative finance, with a career spanning global leadership roles across major financial hubs.

Prior to his current role, Arya served as EMEA Chief Risk Officer from May 2020 to October 2025, after transferring to London as EMEA Deputy Chief Risk Officer in 2019. Earlier, he held pivotal positions including Global Head of Liquidity Risk, Global Head of Market Risk Analytics, and Global Head of Market Risk for Fixed Income Securities. Arya began his career as a mortgage quant at various banks in 2003.

He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Delhi University and earned a Ph.D. in Finance from Oklahoma State University.

Wee Kee is Executive Director and Global Head of Business Architecture for Kinexys Digital Payments at J.P. Morgan, where he is responsible for architecting business capabilities for digital payments, and developing strategies to address current needs and capture future opportunities. He works closely with the product team to develop product vision and strategies, and with the technology team on aligning technical solutions with business needs.

Prior to joining J.P. Morgan in 2022, Wee Kee was the Specialist Leader for Distributed Ledger Technology at the Monetary Authority of Singapore, and led Project Ubin, a collaborative industry project exploring the use of blockchain and DLT for clearing and settlement of payments and securities. He was also Advisor at the BIS Innovation Hub, where he led Project Dunbar with a vision of enabling interoperable CBDCs and connected multi-CBDC platforms.

Nick Vassilos is a Managing Director and Chief Risk Officer for Schwab Asset Management. Mr. Vassilos leads the teams responsible for Schwab Asset Management’s investment and operational risk, credit research, and performance analytics functions. Primary risk management activities include measuring and monitoring portfolio risks and maintaining operational risk processes and standards. Credit research efforts include providing independent judgment regarding the credit quality of investments. Performance analytics activities include providing performance, attribution, and competitive analysis.

Mr. Vassilos has over 20 years of experience in risk management. Before joining Schwab in 2018, he was the global portfolio acquisition and analytics leader at Morningstar. In this role, he drove portfolio data improvements and generated new multi-asset analytics. Prior to that, Mr. Vassilos managed his own equity options focused fund, Wave Options. Preceding this experience, he worked at Citigroup in London, where he started the company’s European Delta One trading desk.

Mr. Vassilos earned a Bachelor of Science in finance from the University of Virginia’s McIntire School of Commerce. He is a CFA® charterholder and sits on the Board of Directors for CFA Society Chicago.

Kristen Walters is a recognized Chief Risk Officer (CRO) and leader in the financial services sector across both buy-side firms (asset managers, hedge funds and asset owners) and large trading and commercial banks with breadth and depth in public and private markets. 

She is currently Senior Advisor, Institutional Investor Risk at the Global Association of Risk Professionals, and a Lecturer at Columbia University’s School of Professional Studies. Previously, she was the first stand-alone CRO of Canadian Pension Plan Investments, the world’s 6th largest pension fund, where she enhanced governance, controls, transparency, and board reporting. Prior to CPP Investments, Kristen was the first stand-alone CRO of Natixis Investment Managers (with $1.4 trillion in AUM and ~25 global asset management subsidiaries) where she introduced risk oversight and built a supporting team “de novo” during COVID. 

Prior roles included 11 years at BlackRock working directly for the CRO and founding partner to evolve BlackRock’s investment and enterprise risk frameworks, systems, analytics, and reporting. Kristen also worked for Goldman Sachs leading “firm-wide” market risk and provided daily analysis across the trading platform to senior management during the 2008 financial crisis. Earlier in her career she held risk roles at PIMCO, Barclays Capital and KPMG. She started her career in Supervision and Regulation at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston during the 1990s banking crisis. Ms. Walters holds a BBA in Accounting with honors from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and an MBA with Distinction from Babson College, Wellesley, MA).

Richard Apostolik has led the world’s premiere association for risk professionals for 16 years. Previously with Bankers Trust’s (Deutsche Bank) strategic ventures group, Apostolik developed financial risk management initiatives designed to provide credit risk mitigation and management services to financial service companies. He also served as JPMorgan & Co.’s global head of energy brokerage activities and chief operating officer of its global listed product businesses. Apostolik ran his own consulting firm and was responsible for the start-up of SG Warburg & Co.’s North American futures and options business. He was an attorney with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, practiced law with a private law firm in Chicago, and was the Chicago Mercantile Exchange’s house counsel. Apostolik holds a BSBA, MBA, and JD from the University of Dayton.

Michael was appointed CEO of Credit Benchmark in June 2023 after serving in several key executive roles including most recently as Chief Operating Officer and Head of Risk. He is also a member of the Executive Committee.

Prior to joining Credit Benchmark in 2016, Michael worked at Goldman Sachs in the Credit Risk Management & Advisory group covering a diverse portfolio of entities across the natural resources and public finance sectors. Before Goldman, Michael spent over 10 years in other credit risk and banking roles at Barclays, Dexia and Moody’s Investors Service focused primarily on energy, infrastructure and U.S. public finance. Michael holds a Master of International Affairs from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs and a Bachelor of English Literature from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

ChristopherDonohue is the Managing Director of the GARP Benchmarking Initiative, a datautility for financial services companies to compare sensitive data. Previously,he led GARP’s Educational and Research Programs, with oversight including the FinancialRisk Manager (FRM®) and Energy Risk Professional (ERP®).

Prior tojoining GARP, Donohue’s roles include hedge fund partner responsible for thedevelopment of asset allocation tools for pension funds and automated tradingsystems; director in the Global Research Center at Deutsche Asset Management, leadingproduct research and development; and Director of Optimization Technology atAlphatech, a technology and research defense contractor, where he led algorithmdevelopment for intelligence aircraft path planning and sensor scheduling systems.

Greg Hopper is a senior fellow at the Bank Policy Institute. He focuses on bank capital issues, climate change risk, digital asset risk, and risks associated with ML/AI.

Previously, Mr. Hopper was a managing director at Goldman Sachs, where he was Head of the Office of New and Emerging Risks and Global Head of Enterprise Risk Management. In those roles, he oversaw the Sovereign and Economic Risk Group, Firmwide Risk Identification, Firmwide Limits and Risk Appetite, ESG Quantitative Analysis, Firmwide Stress Testing, and the Risk Economics Group. He led the Comprehensive Capital Analysis and Review process for the Risk Division and co-chaired the Firmwide Stress Test Committee. During his 18-year career at Goldman Sachs, Mr. Hopper also led quantitative risk modeling groups in credit, operational, and liquidity risk management, as well as counterparty credit risk and hedge fund risk management groups. Before joining Goldman Sachs, Mr. Hopper spent seven years at Morgan Stanley, focusing on market and credit risk management. Mr. Hopper was a senior economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia before joining Morgan Stanley.

He has been on the Advisory Committee of the Office of Financial Research since 2017 and is a frequent speaker and writer on risk management issues. Mr. Hopper has a B.A. in Physics, and M.S. in Applied Mathematics, and a PhD in economics, all from the University of Virginia.

Ronald Ratcliffe, PhD, is a Managing Director and Head Strategist for Portfolio Analytics at BlackRock. He focuses on multi-asset portfolio risk, stress testing, and portfolio construction.

Dr. Ratcliffe's service with BlackRock dates back to 2004, including his years with Barclays Global Investors (BGI), which merged with BlackRock in 2009. Prior to joining the Aladdin business, he led the Market-Driven Scenarios (MDS) initiative as Head of Cross-Platform Scenario Analysis in the Risk & Quantitative Analysis (RQA) group. Earlier in RQA, he was Head of Multi-Asset Investment Risk for the Americas West region. In the Portfolio Management Group (PMG), he was a portfolio manager and developed asset allocation strategies. Prior to joining BGI, his roles included Senior Manager in international transfer pricing at KPMG, Chief Economist for Latin America at SG Cowen Securities, and Economist at Bankers Trust Company.

Dr. Ratcliffe earned dual BA degrees from Stanford University, with university distinction—one in economics (with departmental honors) and one in political science. He received a PhD in economics from the University of Pennsylvania.