Speaker Profiles

Prior to joining Rydex|SGI, Dr. Abernathy was founding partner and chief investment officer at Stonebrook Capital Management, a New York-based alternative investment firm. There, he developed and managed a number of groundbreaking alternative investment products for institutional investors. Previously, Dr. Abernathy was director of research at Moore Capital Management, Inc. He also managed the analytical trading group at Merrill Lynch, where he was responsible for trading the fi rm's proprietary capital pursuant to quantitative techniques. Dr. Abernathy started his career as a trader and member of the research group in the derivative trading group at Morgan Stanley & Co., where he developed and traded quantitative strategies in the derivative and currency markets.

Dr. Abernathy holds a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Howard University as well as a master's degree and a doctorate in electrical engineering and computer science from The Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Prior to joining Allegiant, Mr. Abunassar spent 11 years with Banc One Investment Advisors, where he was senior managing director of institutional asset management, a member of the board of directors, and a member of the investment management policy committee. Earlier in his career, Mr. Abunassar was an investment consultant with The Capital Control Group. He began his career as a pension consultant at Hewitt Associates. Mr. Abunassar holds his B.A. degree in business from Lake Forest College and an M.B.A. in finance from Keller Graduate School of Management.

Mr. Benjamin began his career in Maryland where he worked as a business reporter for a number of news organizations, including The Baltimore Daily Record. He holds a bachelor's degree in journalism from Central Michigan University. During his career, Mr. Benjamin has received more than two dozen national and regional awards for news reporting.

Mr. Bregman is a Chartered Financial Analyst and a member of the New York Society of Security Analysts. He holds a B.A. in Economics from Cornell University (1978), a J.D. from George Washington University (1981) and an M.B.A. in Finance with honors from New York University (1989). Previously, Richard practiced law in New York City.

Mr. Bregman has appeared on CNN's Business Day and WABC-TV's Eyewitness News, and has been quoted frequently in business publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Barron's, Business Week, Investor's Business Daily, Bottom Line Personal, Financial Planning magazine, Crain's New York and Crain's InvestmentNews. He also has been the subject of featured articles in Morningstar Advisor and The Wall Street Transcript.

In this role, Mr. Brynjolfsson ran PIMCO's 2nd, 3rd and 4th largest public funds which included the world's largest commodities fund and two large inflation-linked bond funds. Mr. Brynjolfsson is regarded as one of the world's foremost authorities on inflation linked investing, having written several books on the topic and worked with the US Treasury to design the TIPS market in 1996.

Prior to his current role, Mr. Brynjolfsson was the Managing Director at PIMCO from 2003 to 2008. Before that, from 1989-2003, his positions at PIMCO included Portfolio Manager, Vice President, Senior Vice President and Executive Vice President.

He is author of alternative strategy books in US and Japan, visiting professor in alternative investments at Cass Business School London, featured in Financial Times, InvestmentNews, CNN, CNBC, Fox etc

He also served as Assistant Managing Editor of Institutional Investor magazine, where he was in charge of the annual "All-America Research Team" coverage. He began his career as a reporter at Fairchild Publications and The Miami Herald, and has contributed to Financial Planning, Registered Rep and Advertising Age.

In addition to having held senior public relations positions at the Securities Industry Association and the New York Stock Exchange, Mr. Cooper is co-author of "Attract and Retain the Affluent Investor: Winning Tactics for Today's Financial Advisor," published by Kaplan Publishing. He holds a BBA degree from Baruch College of the City University of New York and an MS in Journalism from The Medill School of Northwestern University.

Prior to Russell, Ms. Cormier was an executive director at Goldman Sachs in London for 10 years, most recently as a senior investment professional providing advice to institutional investors, charities, foundations, endowments and ultra high net worth individuals regarding portfolio construction, asset allocation and risk management across alternative and traditional asset classes. Ms. Cormier joined Goldman Sachs in 1993 and implemented the private wealth management division's first discretionary investment management program worldwide.

Before Goldman, Ms. Cormier was a vice president at Northern Trust Company in both London and Chicago, during which she had a number of significant client relationship and business development roles. Ms. Cormier was a member of the management committee of Northern Trust's London Branch.

Mr. Cortez began his career with Merrill Lynch as a stock market analyst and was Senior Portfolio Manager and President of Liberty Capital Management, a $500 million investment management firm located in New York City.

Mr. Cortez graduated BA cum laude from Queens College of the City University of New York. He is a guest lecturer on risk management at Queens College as well as serving on the College's Business Advisory Board. He has also taught Investment Policy and Hedge Funds at the Wharton School of University of Pennsylvania and at Harvard University. Rick holds the CIMA designation (Certified Investment Management Analyst) and is the author of numerous published articles on hedge funds.

In 2002, Mr. Dilworth established Dilworth Capital Management — an independent alternative investment specialist focused on sourcing alternative investment funds for high net-worth individuals and institutions. Prior to establishing Dilworth Capital, he served as the CEO and Managing Director of London-based Middlebury Capital Partners International, a holding company partially owned by and managing investments for the Charles Schwab family, other wealthy families and European financial institutions. He received his MBA from Northwestern University's Kellogg Graduate School of Business.

Mr. Dilworth is an active member of Walnut Hill Community Church, a director of the EngageHIV Foundation, and involved with the Greenwich Leadership Forum. He is married and has six children.

Mr. Hanson joined Grubb & Ellis in 1997, serving as a senior vice president in the company's Institutional Investment Group before being named head of the company's investment subsidiary in 2008. One of the commercial real estate industry's most respected leaders, Mr. Hanson has been named “Rising Leader” and “Net Lease Executive of the Year” by Commercial Property News, one of “10 to Watch” by National Real Estate Investor magazine, and one of the “20 Rising Stars of U.S. Real Estate” by Institutional Investor magazine. Mr. Hanson is a graduate of the University of Southern California and a member of the boards of the Southern California Chapter of YPO and the Forum of Christian Business leaders.

Mr. Holland is a 15-year industry veteran in the capital markets arena. Prior to joining Cole, Mr. Holland was the chief operating officer of BlackRock's U.S. Retail division, a $275 billion AUM business focused on financial advisor-intermediated distribution channels. He was primarily responsible for corporate strategy, financial management and leading new business initiatives across multiple distribution channels. He previously served as Co-Head of Product Development and Management at BlackRock's U.S. Retail division. Mr. Holland earned a JD from Harvard Law School and a BA from the University of Puget Sound.

Mr. Hussey received his BA from Williams College and his MBA from Duke University's Fuqua School of Business. He is FINRA Series 7, 24, and 65 licensed.

Mr. Lydon is a frequent contributor to major print, radio and television media in-cluding Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, Investor's Business Daily, Barron's, MarketWatch and Investment News. His popular seminar, "How to Manage a Million Dollar Portfolio" has been attended by thousands of investors around the country.

As the author of iMoney and The ETF Trend Following Playbook Tom Lydon is a highly sought after speaker. His frequent appearances on CNBC make him one of the most recognized and well-respected commentators in the ETF industry. Tom has been a high profile presenter at the largest industry trade shows and invest-ment conferences as well as a moderator of webinars.

Ms. Mack played a critical role in CNBC's strategic alliance with Dow Jones. As Senior Correspondent of CNBC she provided viewers with a daily "Strategy Session" during the business day as well as a series of VIP interviews including investment legends such as Sir John Templeton, Vanguard's Jack Bogle, Pimco's Bill Gross and Legg Mason's Bill Miller.

She also anchored Louis Rukeyser's Wall Street in its final months on both CNBC and PBS, covering the week's top market news.

Ms. Mack's international experience includes being the Anchor and Editor of "The Asian Wall Street Journal Report", a weekly business program syndicated throughout Asia, and hosting the 1996 PBS documentary series "Emerging Powers" and the 1994 PBS special "Pacific Rift".

Ms. Mack is a pioneer in business television. She was one of the founding partners of "Today's Business", where she was Anchor and Executive Editor of television's first daily, nationally syndicated business news program. She was founding news editor and co-anchor of Business Times, the first national morning business program. In its first year Business Times won the ACE award, cable television's highest honor. Early in her television career she was a contributing reporter to NBC's Today Show.

Prior to her television career, Ms. Mack worked for several prominent research and money management firms including Mitchell Hutchins and Merrill Lynch. She is a member of the Economics Club of New York, the Council on Foreign Relations and The Women's Forum.

She has received several honors including the first Lifetime Achievement Award for Women in Print and Electronic Financial Journalism awarded by the Women's Economic Roundtable. Ms. Mack graduated from Sarah Lawrence College with a bachelor's degree in English Literature, History and Political Science.