Keynote Speakers

John W. Rogers, Jr.

Chairman & Co-CEO, Ariel Investments

John’s passion for investing began at age 12 when his father began buying him stocks as Christmas and birthday gifts. His interest in equities grew at Princeton University, where he majored in economics, and over the two-plus years he worked as a stockbroker for William Blair & Company, LLC. In 1983, John founded Ariel to focus on patient, value investing within small- and medium-sized companies. While our research capabilities have expanded across the globe, patience is still the disciplined approach that drives the firm today.

Early in his career, John’s investment acumen brought him to the forefront of media attention and culminated in him being selected as Co-Mutual Fund Manager of the Year by Sylvia Porter’s Personal Finance magazine as well as an All-Star Mutual Fund Manager by USA TODAY. Furthermore, John has been highlighted alongside legendary investors Warren Buffett, Sir John Templeton and Ben Graham in the distinguished book:The World’s 99 Greatest Investors by Magnus Angenfelt. His professional accomplishments extend to the boardroom where he is a member of the board of directors of McDonald’s, NIKE, The New York Times Company and Ryan Specialty Group Holdings.

John also serves as vice chair of the board of trustees of the University of Chicago. In 2008, John was awarded Princeton University’s highest honor, the Woodrow Wilson Award, presented each year to the alumnus or alumna whose career embodies a commitment to national service. Following the election of President Barack Obama, John served as co-chair for the Presidential Inaugural Committee 2009, and more recently, he joined the Barack Obama Foundation’s Board of Directors. John received an AB in economics from Princeton University, where he was also captain of the varsity basketball team.

Andrew Opdyke, CFA

Senior Economist, First Trust

Andrew is a Senior Economist and a member of the First Trust Economics Team that Bloomberg has ranked as one of the top forecasters of the U.S. economy over the past several years.

At First Trust, Andrew is responsible for analyzing economic indicators, writing economic commentaries and producing articles on the First Trust Economics Blog. Andrew regularly presents economic commentary to financial professionals, CFA Societies, and Financial Planning Association (FPA) chapters across the United States. Andrew also provides research and analysis to Chief Economist Brian Wesbury, Chief Market Strategist Bob Carey, and First Trust CEO Jim Bowen. Cogent’s 2017 Survey of Advisors rated First Trust’s thought leadership material as number one for most read and most shared by financial professionals with colleagues or clients.*

Andrew received an MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management and a BA in Business and Economics from Hope College. He holds the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation and is a member of the CFA Institute and the CFA Society of Chicago.

*Cogent Reports conducted an online survey of a representative cross section of 1,078 financial professionals in April through June 2017. Survey participants were required to have an active book of business of at least $5 million and offer investment advice or planning services to individual investors on a fee or transactional basis.

Matt Moran

Head of Index Insights, Cboe Options Institute

Matt is focused on the exchange's educational efforts for pension funds, Registered Investment Advisors (RIAs), mutual funds, and other institutional investors. He has traveled to more than 100 cities worldwide to educate investors and deliver financial presentations. Prior to joining Cboe, Matt served as Trust Counsel at Harris Bank and Vice President at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. He is an associate editor of The Journal of Index Investing and has written articles for several financial publications, including The Journal of Trading and The Journal of Alternative Investments. Matt holds MBA and JD degrees from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Kristan Rowland, CFA

Portfolio Manager, UBS Global

Kristan Rowland, CFA, is a portfolio manager at UBS Wealth Management. Previously she was a member of the Global Equity investment team at William Blair covering the Financials sector. Prior to joining William Blair, she was a buy-side research analyst at Mesirow Financial where she had primary coverage of the Financials sector and supported three institutional value equity strategies. Earlier, she was a generalist equity analyst at Morningstar and published research reports on companies in a variety of industries. Rowland earned a BA from the University of Notre Dame in economics and French and an MBA from the University of Chicago in finance, accounting and economics. She holds the Chartered Financial Analyst designation and is a member of CFA Institute and CFA Society Chicago. Kristan is Immediate Past Chair of CFA Society Chicago, and has served on its Board of Directors since 2018.

Brian R. Bruce

Chair of the Board of Directors, The Center for Investment Research

Brian is Chair of the Board of Directors of The Center for Investment Research. The Center is a 501(c3) founded in 1993 to support academic research in investing. The Center has funded research projects at a number of universities and currently is supporting efforts to promote student managed investment funds.

Previously, Brian was CEO and Chief Investment Officer of Hillcrest Asset Management. Under Brian, Hillcrest won numerous awards for outstanding investment performance. Before founding Hillcrest, Brian was Chief Investment Officer at PanAgora Asset Management, a subsidiary of Putnam Investments. Previously, Brian held senior investment roles at State Street Global Advisors and the Northern Trust Co.

Brian received his M.B.A. from the University of Chicago, M.S. from DePaul University, and B.S. from Illinois State University. He is a member of the Illinois State University College of Business Hall of Fame, is a recipient of the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business CEO Award, and was awarded the SMU Cox School of Business Media Expert of the Year Award.

Brian has published numerous scholarly articles and books including Analysts, Lies, and Statistics which he co-authored with former Harvard Business School Professor Mark Bradshaw. He co-authored the only textbook for student managed portfolios, Student-Managed Investment Funds. He is the Editor of Journal of Investing, the Journal of Index Investing, the Journal of Impact & ESG Investing and the Journal of Behavioral Finance.

Brian has been an adjunct professor at Baylor University and was Director of the Finance Institute and Founding Director of the Alternative Asset Management Center at the Cox School of Business at Southern Methodist University.

Tiffany Dolby

Relationship Manager, Advisor Services Relationship Management, Charles Schwab & Co.

Tiffany has been with Charles Schwab & Co. for 14 years including multiple roles within the Sales and Business Development teams. About 5 years ago, she moved to Chicago to serve as the North Shore Branch leader and managed the Winnetka and Kenilworth branches.

As a native of San Diego, she loves the sun, outdoors, mountains and being near or in a large body of water. Currently, she and her dog Luna can be found walking around Chicago’s West Loop looking for new restaurants.

Tiffany graduated from Purdue University, Krannert School of Management, located in West Lafayette, IN with a degree in economics. She holds the series 7, 63, 66, 9, and 10 financial licenses.

Buff Dormeier, CMT

Partner and Chief Technical Analyst, Kingsview Partners

Buff Dormeier, CMT® provides four important roles to our clientele that of a financial advisor, consultant, analyst, and a portfolio manager. Armed with proprietary indicators and investment programs, Buff dynamically advises affluent and institutional clientele on strategies to help meet their specific investment objectives in what are often uncertain investment climates. As an advisor, Buff has been named a “Best in State Wealth Advisor” by Forbes*. As an analyst in 2007, Buff’s technical research was awarded the Charles H. Dow Award**, distinguishing him as the only financial advisor to thus far win the Award. The Charles H. Dow Award is considered one of the most important recognitions in the field of technical analysis. As an accomplished portfolio manager applying advanced technical/quant analysis, some simply refer to Buff as “the geek”.

However, Buff considers himself to be an evangelist of sorts. He enjoys sharing his investment theories as a foremost expert on volume analysis presenting at international conferences such as TradeStation’s World Conference, Latin America’s Portfolio Manager’s Conference, and the World Money Show.

An award-winning author (2012’s Technical Analyst Book of the Year / Trader Planet’s Top Book Resource 2011), Buff literally wrote the book on “Investing with Volume Analysis” partnering with the Financial Times Press, Pearson Publishing and the Wharton School. Buff’s research has been further featured with press partners including Barron’s, Stock’s & Commodities, Futures and Active Trader magazines, The Financial Times, C-NBC, Market Watch as well as a variety of technical journals. Buff is featured in “Technical Analysis and Behavior Finance in Fund Management” – a European book comprised of interviews with 21 esteemed portfolio managers.

Buff is a former Fort Wayne / Indiana Marathon champion. Although his competitive distance training is on hold, Buff still enjoys a good long run on occasion. Buff is a member of the Chartered Market Technicians Association and Emmanuel Community Church. He is married to his beloved bride Kathy, father of two adored children Hadassah and Kaleo, and best friend to his Rhodesian Ridgeback Dutch.

Alvin Kressler

Executive Director and CEO, CMT Association

Alvin Kressler is the Executive Director and CEO of the CMT Association, a global credentialing body for Technical Analysis. Previously he was a consultant to Brinson Patrick, a financial advisory firm specializing in ATM’s. Prior to Brinson Patrick he was Director of Research and Corporate Access at Bloomberg Trade book. Before joining Bloomberg he was the Executive Director and CEO of CFA Society New York. At over 10,500 members, CFA-NY is the largest CFA Institute Member Society.

Prior to joining CFA-NY, Mr. Kressler was the product manager for telecom and media equity research at Lehman Brothers. Before working at Lehman Brothers, Mr. Kressler was a senior research analyst at B. Riley (formerly Friedman, Billings, Ramsey & Company) as well as at Kaufman Bros., LP, where he covered small- and mid-cap semiconductor and component stocks. In addition to his sell-side experience, he covered the broader technology sector as a buy-side analyst at The Burridge Group and Institutional Capital Corp.

Preceding his work in the financial services industry, Mr. Kressler was an officer in the U.S. Army, serving first as an armor officer in Germany and in Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm, and then as a finance officer in Germany. He holds an MBA from the University of Chicago and a BS from Drexel University.

Moderators

Dr. Anne Drougas

Professor of Finance/Quantitative Methods & Department Chair of Accounting, Finance, and Entrepreneurship, Dominican University

Dr. Anne Drougas is a professor of finance/quantitative methods and the Department Chair of Accounting, Finance, and Entrepreneurship at Dominican University of Illinois. Since joining the faculty of Dominican’s AACSB-accredited Brennan School of Business, she has received four institutional teaching awards, at both the undergraduate and graduate level. She has served on many university and business committees, including service as a University Senator, chairing committees on High Impact Practices and Faculty Development. In 2021, she and her department collaboratively launched the first Brennan Business School of Business Investment Challenge, where student investment portfolios were judged by an alumni panel of experts from financial corporations and investment banks.

Her research focuses primarily on issues of teaching pedagogy and case studies that can be used in the classroom as well as topics encompassing financial education, data analytics, assessment, sustainable finance, and entrepreneurial finance. She is a coauthor of the text Business Statistics and Analytics in Practice (9th edition, 2019, McGraw Hill: New York).

In addition to her academic accomplishments, Dr. Drougas served on the Board of Directors for the Financial Education Association from 2001-2007 and is member of many organizations, including the Academy of International Business and the Decision Science Institute. As a peer reviewer for the Higher Learning Commission for the past ten years, Dr. Drougas has also developed a passion for uniting innovative course curricula with assessment to ensure a quality education for all her students.

Education

Ph.D., M.A., Economics, University of Illinois at Chicago
B.A., Mathematics, University of Illinois at Chicago

Dr. Mahmoud Haddad

Professor of Finance, College of Business and Public Affairs, University of Tennessee at Martin

Mahmoud Haddad, PhD. is a professor of Finance at the college of Business and Public Affairs, University of Tennessee at Martin. Dr. Haddad has published numerous financial economic refereed journal articles. Dr. Haddad is certified in e-teaching and learning, he has broad experience in Distant and Online teaching at both the graduate and undergraduate levels. Haddad was the Financial and Accounting Manager at the American Family Insurance Co., the Executive Director of Research at the Palestinian Monetary Authority, the Vice President for Administrative and Financial Affairs and Dean of College of Business and Financial Sciences at Arab American University and Member of the Board of Trustee and research fellow at the Economic Research Forum (ERF). Dr. Haddad Is Managing Director of the UT-Martin TVA Investment Challenge Program and the University of Tennessee Alumni Distinguished Service Professor.

Dr. Terry Daugherty

Dean, Scott College of Business, Indiana State University

Daugherty earned his B.A. at Western Kentucky University, his M.A. at the University of Alabama, and his Ph.D. at Michigan State University.

He was a postdoctoral fellow at Vanderbilt University’s Owen Graduate School of Management. After that, he went to the University of Texas at Austin as an assistant professor in the Department of Advertising. He started at the University of Akron in 2009 where he served on the faculty and in various administrative capacities, including department chair and assistant dean.

Daugherty’s scholarship is focused on examining consumer psychology and persuasion within digital marketing and advertising. He theorizes and empirically tests how individual characteristics and media properties influence cognitive processing and consumer behavior.

Dr. Jin Park

Chairperson - Accounting, Finance, and Insurance and Risk Management (AFIRM), Scott College of Business, Indiana State University

Dr. Jin Park joined the Scott College of Business in fall 2009 and has been the chair of Accounting, Finance, Insurance and Risk Management Department since March 2019. He teaches classes relating to risk management, property and liability insurance, and employee benefits. His research areas of interest include asset-liability management, performance, and organizational efficiency. He has awarded Best in Track Award three years in a row (2007 – 2009) at Academy of Finance. He earned his Ph.D. from Temple University, Philadelphia, PA in 2003, and was an assistant professor (2003-2009) at Illinois Wesleyan University, Bloomington, IL.

Dr. Tarek Zaher

Professor of Finance, Scott College of Business, Indiana State University

Tarek Zaher has held a number of professional positions with the industry and provided consulting services to a number of international institutions including the World Bank, the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan, and the Academy for Educational Development in the United States and the Ministry of Work in Dubai. He has also offered a number of seminars in investment and international financial management at a number of institutions around the world.

Dr. Zaher is SMIFC Managing Director and Co-founder and Co-Advisor of the Investment Club at Indiana State University. He also manages and supervises other international portfolios for individuals and institutions. Dr. Zaher’s research has been published in numerous prestigious professional and scholarly journals, including the Journal of Financial Research and Journal of Banking and Finance. Dr. Zaher received three research awards from professional conferences and one research certificate of excellence. He was also recognized by the Scott College of Business as the winner of the faculty research award in 2002 and the winner of the exemplary service award in 2004.