New York Breakfast Briefing: A Search For The Holy Grail Of Uncorrelated Assets – How To Genuinely Diversify A Portfolio In Uncertain Times

Tom Burroughes is group editor of ClearView Financial Media, publisher of WealthBriefing, WealthBriefingAsia and Family Wealth Report. Tom has worked at ClearView since 2008, reporting on news stories, interviewing industry leaders, writing features and comment pieces, and has spoken at conferences in London, Guernsey and Vienna, among other locations. He has discussed the industry’s issues on Reuters television and the BBC. Previously, Tom was wealth management editor of The Business, the weekly UK magazine run by the Telegraph Group, from 2007 to 2008. Before that, he was a correspondent in various roles at Reuters, the global newswire. Between 1994 and 2000, he was a reporter for Market News International, a New York-headquartered newswire.

John Loffredo joined MacKay Shields in July 2009 when the firm acquired the assets of Mariner Municipal Managers. He was the chairman and co-founder of Mariner Municipal Managers from 2007 to 2009.

He has been a municipal portfolio manager and/or municipal analyst on Wall Street since 1990, with a broad range of portfolio management and analytic experience in the municipal markets. John was a managing director and co-head of BlackRock’s Municipal Portfolio Management Group from 2006 to 2007. Prior to BlackRock’s merger with Merrill Lynch Investment Managers, he served as chief investment officer of the Municipal Products Group. He was employed by Merrill Lynch from 1990 to 2006, and before this he worked for the City of Boston Treasury Department.

Dennis Moon is a managing director and the head of Specialty Asset Management Group at US Trust, Bank of America Private Wealth Management. In this role, Dennis is responsible for building and managing the sales initiative integrating the sophisticated and disciplined investment approaches of real estate, timberland, farm & ranch, oil & gas, minerals and private business group solutions across the nation. He oversees a team of specialty asset professionals that develop, implement and execute these strategic, non-financial assets into a broader asset allocation and investment strategy for individuals, families and institutions.

Joseph Morgart serves as client portfolio manager for alternative investments at Pioneer Investments. Prior to joining Pioneer, Joseph was a senior vice president at Pyramis Global Advisors, where he focused on the firm’s alternatives capabilities. He led the firm’s efforts to build and develop its alternatives infrastructure, including product development, product management and operational support.

Prior to Pyramis, Joseph was co-founder and managing partner of Boldwater Capital Management, a start-up alternatives manager focusing on high yield credit strategies for institutional investors. As co-founder, he was involved in all aspects of the company’s investment and business efforts, including sales, consultant and investor relations, and marketing. Prior to Boldwater he was vice president at Deutsche Banc Alex. Brown, where he implemented an alternative investment-focused business platform for institutional clients. He has also held positions at Anchor Russell Capital Advisors, Bank of Boston, and IBM.

Richard Christopher Whalen is an investment banker and author who lives in New York City. He is Chairman of Whalen Global Advisors LLC and focuses on the financial services, mortgage finance and technology sectors.  From 2014 through 2017, Christopher was Senior Managing Director and Head of Research at Kroll Bond Rating Agency, where he was responsible for ratings by the firm’s Financial Institutions and Corporate Ratings Groups. He was a co-founder and principal of Institutional Risk Analytics from 2003 through 2013.