Honoring Industry Leaders at IWI's 2021 ACE Academy Awards

Denver, CO — April 27, 2021  — The Investments & Wealth Institute^® presented five prestigious awards during the 2021 ACE Academy Livestream + On-demand conference recognizing outstanding contributions to the investment and wealth management industry.
 
Investment Consulting Impact Award
The Investment Consulting Impact Award honors individuals who have made an outstanding contribution and demonstrated commitment to the field of investment consulting, including contributions to industry-specific technology or advances in the advisor skill set.
 
The 2021 honoree is Jeffrey F. Jaffe, Ph.D., for his contribution to the development of the Certified Investment Management Analyst^® (CIMA^®) certification educational program. Jaffe is the former Academic Director of Investment Strategies and Portfolio Management Program and Associate Professor of Finance, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. Jaffe helped to create the Certified Investment Management Analyst (CIMA) Certification program. He began teaching at the Wharton School in 1973, winning the Outstanding Professor Award, Evening School, in 1990. He is the author of many research publications. Jaffe earned his Ph.D., MBA, and BA degrees from the University of Chicago.
 
Wealth Management Impact Award
This award honors individuals who have contributed exceptional advancements in the field of private wealth management, embodied by the Investments & Wealth Institute Certified Private Wealth Advisor^® (CPWA^®) program. The award recognizes key innovations and thought leadership in any of the following CPWA knowledge domains: human dynamics, wealth management strategies, client specialization, and legacy planning.
 
The 2021 recipient is Garry W. Bridgeman, CIMA^®, for his dedication to the industry and the Institute for over 30 years. Bridgeman recently retired following a successful 40-year career as an Institutional Consultant and Private Wealth Advisor. He is serving as Co-Chair of the Investments & Wealth Institute’s THRIVE Coalition, seeking to advance diversity and inclusion in the financial services industry. He was a senior vice president for Merrill Lynch from 1979 to 2013; he became an advisor to the senior management of Merrill Lynch early in his career and later chaired the firm’s diversity effort. He was honored with the distinction of being the firm’s Top African American Financial Advisor in the country. After 34 years with Merrill Lynch, he joined Morgan Stanley’s Graystone Consulting-Atlanta’s business helping to lead its team of investment consultants. He was selected by Barron’s magazine as one of the “Top 1000 Advisors” in the country for three consecutive years. He has served on the board of directors of a number of not-for-profits, including the University of Georgia Foundation, where he was named an Emeritus Trustee. Recently, he joined the Advisory Council for Columbia University’s Master of Professional Studies in Wealth Management. Bridgeman earned a BS from Indiana University. He was elected President of the Institute’s board of directors in 2008 and was awarded the title Director Emeritus in 2014 for his service distinguished service.

Governance Insight Award
The Governance Insight Award honors the author(s) of a written work (e.g., article, paper, book) published in the previous year that has made significant contributions in ethics, legal, regulatory, or other relevant areas that affect the investment and wealth management professions.
 
The 2021 recipients are Marcel Kahan, JD, the George T. Lowy Professor of Law at New York University School of Law, and Edward B. Rock, JD, the Martin Lipton Professor of Law at New York University School of Law for their paper, “Index Funds and Corporate Governance: Let Shareholders be Shareholders.”


Honorable distinction was awarded to Dan Awrey, D.Phil., LL.M., a Professor of Law at Cornell Law School, and Kathryn Judge, J.D., the Harvey J. Goldschmid Professor of Law at Columbia Law School, for their paper, “Why Financial Regulation Keeps Falling Short.”
 
Honorable distinction was awarded to Florian Berg, Ph.D., a research fellow at the MIT Sloan School of Management, Julian F. Kölbel, Ph.D., a research affiliate at the MIT Sloan School of Management, and Roberto Rigobon, Ph.D., the Society of Sloan Fellows Professor of Management and a Professor of Applied Economics at the MIT Sloan School of Management for their paper, “Aggregate Confusion: The Divergence of ESG Ratings.”

Journal Research Award
The Journal Research Award honors the author(s) of an original article representing the best writing for the previous year, is germane to investment consulting and/or private wealth management, and was published in the Journal of Investment Consulting or the Retirement Management Journal.
 
The 2021 recipients are Sid Muralidhar, founder of Risktyle and the chief executive officer of Commodity Investing by Students (COINS) at Virginia Tech and Arun Muralidhar, Ph.D., co-founder of Mcube Investment Technologies, LLC and client chief investment officer of AlphaEngine Global Investment Solutions, LLC for their paper, “Behavioral Finance in Investing: The Existence and Importance of ‘Investment Tribes’ and Risk-Preference Diversity.”
 
Honorable distinction was awarded to Sanne de Boer, Ph.D., CFA^®, director of Quantitative Equity Research at Voya Investment Management for his paper, “Nonlinear Factor Attribution.”
Investments & Wealth Institute Writing Award
This award honors Investments & Wealth Institute members for their excellent editorial contributions to Investments & Wealth Monitor during the previous year. The 2021 recipient John Nersesian, CIMA^®, CPWA^®, CFP^®, is head of advisor education at PIMCO. He is a faculty member for the IWI Certified Private Wealth Advisor® and Certified Investment Management Analyst® education programs held at Yale University and The University of Chicago for his article, “A Practical Approach to Behavioral Guidance.”
Honorable distinction was awarded to two authors.

• Dorothy Bossung, CIMA^®, CPWA^®, RMA^®, CFP^®, executive vice president at Lowery Asset Consulting, LLC, and vice chair of the Investments & Wealth Institute board of directors, serves on the Institute’s Retirement Advisory and Wealth Management Committee, and is a member of the Retirement Management Journal editorial advisory board for her article, “Retirement Policy Statements: A Concrete Plan for Retirement.”

• Margaret M. Towle, Ph.D., CIMA^®, CPWA^®, Yakima River Partners, LLC, for her article, “Environmental, Social, and Governance Investing: Myths versus Reality.”

Click here to learn more about the Institute’s awards and to read the award-winning articles.