Board of Directors

Our Board of Directors represent different facets of the defined contribution industry and multiple alternative investment disciplines. They serve as a collective voice to effectively guide DCALTA`s strategic direction and ensure consistency with the delivery of educational content and information to our members and stakeholders. 

Serge Boccassini

Senior Vice President

Corporate & Institutional Services
Global Product and Strategy

Northern Trust-Chicago

Serge is a Senior Vice President in Northern Trust's Institutional Global Product and Strategy Group. In his current role Serge is responsible for the research, identification, development and operational support of new global products and services for the retirement, insurance, pooled and alternative asset markets. In addition, Serge manages the division’s global footprint research and expansion into new markets. Previously Serge was principal and director of product Management at Northern Trust Retirement Consulting, L.L.C., supporting the firm’s commitment to institutional retirement services. Prior to joining Northern Trust, Serge was an assistant vice president in MetLife’s Institutional Business supporting their Retirement Services Group. In that role, he managed all aspects of product and process development and enhancements, SEC and NASD compliance, as well as being a member of the operational review team for retirement business mergers and acquisitions.

Gary Fencik

Partner & Head of Business Development
Adams St. Partners

Chicago

As Head of Business Development, Gary focuses on the development of institutional client and consultant relationships, working with other members of the Client Service team to serve the needs of our clients. As a member of the Executive Committee, he is also involved in prioritizing the strategic initiatives of the firm.

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Previous Experience
Brinson Partners/UBS Global Asset Management
Wells Fargo 
Chicago Bears

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Academic
Yale University, BA
Northwestern University, MBA

Hayden Gallary

Managing Director

Cambridge Associates

Hayden is a Managing Director in Cambridge Associates’ Pension Practice and is based in the firm’s San Francisco office. Hayden leads Cambridge Associates’ efforts in the defined contribution space, including research on target date providers.  In addition, Hayden advises clients on investment issues such as DC plan design, asset allocation strategy, manager selection, and investment program evaluation. Hayden works with a number of institutional clients in the US ranging in size from $20 million to $2 billion. 
         
Prior to joining Cambridge Associates in 2008, Hayden worked at The Rock Creek Group, a diversified hedge fund-of-funds. Previously, Hayden was a member of the Global Asset Allocation Group at Putnam Investments. While there, he focused on quantitative research regarding short and intermediate term allocation decisions across global equity and fixed income markets.  He also was involved in the management of Putnam's target date retirement and college savings funds.

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Education and Professional Credentials

CFA Charterholder

MBA, Sloan School of Management, MIT
BA, Economics & Mathematics, Yale University

Matthew Garzone, AIF®

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Senior Vice President, Private Placements

Natixis Investment Managers – US Distribution

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Matthew Garzone is a Senior Vice President with the Private Placements group. In this role, he is responsible for the distribution, development and support of the Private Placement offerings under the Natixis- US Distribution umbrella. Primary responsibilities include Institutional, Family Office and RIA clients.

Previously, Mr. Garzone was part of the Retirement Strategies Group at Natixis Investment Managers – US Distribution. In this role, he managed the Strategic Relationships for the retirement business at a national level and was responsible for the platform, distribution partner and retirement consultants. Prior to that, Mr. Garzone was a Managing Regional Director for the Independent Advisor Group Channel covering the Northeast. Additionally, he served as a Managing Regional Director for the Wirehouse, Independent, and RIA channels in the Southwest. Mr. Garzone was a member of the inaugural Natixis Presidents Council in 2008 and has served on the Natixis Executive Sales Committee. Mr. Garzone has been in the investment industry since 2000. Before joining Natixis in 2004, he worked with Putnam Investments

Mr. Garzone earned a BA from Colgate University. He earned an AIF Designation from the Center for Fiduciary Studies in 2011 is FINRA Series 6, 7, 24, 31 and 63 licensed. He is a member of the Natixis Home for Little Wanderers Committee, which helps support the Boston-based non-profit’s mission to ensure the well-being of children and families living in at-risk circumstances.

Jeffrey Hall, CAIA
Head of International Product

Nuveen 

Jeff is Head of International Product at Nuveen. He leads a globally based team responsible for the design and development of investment product across a broad spectrum of traditional and alternative asset classes for Nuveen’s multi-channel client base.

Jeff joined the firm in 2006 and held various senior roles overseeing a spectrum of product structures including closed-end funds (private and public), collective investment trusts, UCITs and registered 1940 act vehicles.

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Jeffrey graduated with a B.S. in Economics and Psychology from St. Lawrence University and a M.S. in Finance from Northeastern University in Boston, MA. He holds the CAIA designation and is a founding board member of the Defined Contribution Alternatives Association.

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Robert W. Long

CEO 

Conversus

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Bob Long is the CEO of Conversus, a StepStone company.  Conversus is an investment platform designed to expand access to the private markets for individual investors.  He is a founding Director of the Defined Contribution Alternatives Association and chairs its Public Policy Committee.

Mr. Long has served as the CEO of a NASDAQ-listed business development company managed by Oak Hill Advisors, a leading global credit investment firm.  He was the co-founder and CEO of the Conversus Capital, and he led its $2 billion IPO that created the largest publicly traded fund of private equity funds. Mr. Long also ran Bank of America’s $7 billion AUM Strategic Capital Division.

Early in his career, Mr. Long served as the lead in-house counsel for a large portion of Bank of America’s Investment Banking Division and worked as a securities lawyer in private practice. He graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill and the University of Virginia School of Law.

Alain Michnick

Head of Defined Contribution

FTSE Russell

Alain is currently Head of Defined Contribution for FTSE Russell, a global leader in index benchmarking, analytics and data solutions. Alain focuses on mega sized asset owners, including pension plans, foundations and endowments. Alain has 25 + years of experience in the financial services industry, primarily focused on the pension plan marketplace. Before FTSE Russell, Alain was a Regional Director at Russell Investments. He has also held senior roles at Stifel Nicolaus, Ryan Beck & Co., Standard & Poor’s and MetLife. Alain holds a BS in Applied Mathematics from SUNY - Stony Brook University and an MBA in Finance and Investments from Baruch College - Zicklin School of Business. He is a Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA), and has also passed the CFA Level I examination.

Michelle L. Rappa

Managing Director

Neuberger Berman 

Michelle joined the firm in 2014.  Michelle is focused on formulating and executing the firm’s overall defined contribution (DC) marketing strategy and promoting our institutional DC investment capabilities. Prior to joining Neuberger Berman, Michelle was the director of DC product and strategy at Russell Investments where she was responsible for the strategic product and marketing direction of the firm’s institutional DC business.  Before that, she was the director of marketing at Seligman Advisors, Inc., where she was responsible for positioning the firm’s asset management and retirement plan products.  Early in her career she was involved in building retirement plan products and marketing strategies at OppenheimerFunds and Oppenheimer Capital. She began her career at Shearson Lehman Hutton. Michelle is a FINRA licensed Registered Representative (Series 7), a Registered Principal (Series 24) and a member of the New York Bar. Michelle earned a BS from the State University of New York at Albany and a JD from Fordham University School of Law

Charles P. Nelson

Vice Chairman and Chief Growth Officer

Voya Financial

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Charles Nelson is vice chairman and chief growth officer of Voya Financial, Inc. (NYSE: VOYA), which helps Americans plan, invest and protect their savings — to get ready to retire better. In this role, Nelson is responsible for shaping Voya’s growth strategy, including customer segmentation — with an enterprise focus on better integrating our customer segments to expand our reach in the workplace, as well as targeting new customer segments and solutions. He also oversees Voya’s enterprise revenue-growth activities, including sales and distribution, relationship management, Health and Wealth marketing and customer solutions. Nelson serves on Voya’s Executive Committee. Previously at Voya, Nelson was chief executive officer of Retirement and Employee Benefits, overseeing Tax-Exempt and Corporate Markets and Retail Wealth Management, which comprises the company’s workplace and individual retirement businesses, including 401(k), 403(b) and 457 plans, as well as its Employee Benefits business. Prior to joining Voya, Nelson served as president of Retirement Services for Great-West Financial through September 2014, and led the legacy Great-West retirement business of Empower Retirement, a business unit of Great-West Life & Annuity Insurance Company. Nelson has more than 30 years of leadership experience in the retirement and employee benefits industry. He was named the second most influential player in the 401(k) market, according to the 401(k) Wire’s 2012 Most Influential ranking list. During his career, Nelson has managed all aspects of defined contribution businesses. He has overseen government, healthcare, nonprofit, 401(k) and FASCore institutional lines of business, while also managing recordkeeping, administration, operations, sales, products, financial results and broker-dealer services. Nelson began his career at Great-West in the employee benefits business marketing retirement plans, healthcare, stop loss and various benefit offerings. Nelson is a graduate of Whitman College with a degree in chemistry and economics, and he was a member of the Whitman College Board of Overseers from 2008 to 2017.

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Kathy Wanner

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Founding Partner

Fairway Capital Management

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Kathy Wanner is a Founding Partner of Fairway Capital Management. Ms. Wanner has served as an Operating Partner and Advisor at Abundant Venture Partners from 2016 to 2020.  Ms. Wanner spent 22 years at Adams Street Partners, a global private markets investment management firm and its predecessor organizations, where she made 100+ primary and secondary investments in venture capital, growth, and buyout funds around the world.  Ms. Wanner managed the US Primary investment team and oversaw deployment of client’s capital into US primary investments, annually totaling between $800 and $1 billion into 20+ funds. She served on the firm’s Global Primary Investment Committee, which was responsible for sourcing, analyzing and monitoring investments in private equity partnerships, implementing strategy and approving all global primary fund investments. Ms. Wanner served on many private equity and venture capital advisory boards and her team was responsible for monitoring all US private equity and venture capital general partner relationships.

Before joining the Adams Street Partners Private Equity Group in 1998, she was at Brinson Partners for five years and served in various roles within the finance, communications and business development groups where she was responsible for the revenue cycle, statistical analysis and market research. From 1989 to 1993, Ms. Wanner earned experience in statistical modeling, reporting, tracking and analysis as a Senior Financial Analyst at Frontier Risk Management, Range Wise, Inc. and Morgan Stanley & Company.  Ms. Wanner received a Bachelor of Science in Finance from Binghamton University and a Master of Business Administration from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.  

Ms. Wanner is a founding board member at DCALTA, a 501(c) non-profit organization created to educate the community on the benefits of including alternative investments within a defined contribution framework to better secure retirement outcomes for plan participants. In addition, she is a board member at CureSearch, a national non-profit foundation that accelerates the search for cures for children’s cancer.  Ms. Wanner serves on the board and is the audit committee chair for New Fortress Energy (NASDAQ: NFE).

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Chris Yau

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Partner

StepStone Group

Chris is a Partner at StepStone Group and is focused on developing and implementing StepStone’s defined contribution and retail distribution strategy and capabilities. In her current role, she manages the execution of StepStone’s high-net-worth wealth management and product development initiatives.  Prior to StepStone, Ms. Yau was a senior vice president at Citi Private Equity, a US$10 billion equity co-investment, mezzanine and fund of private equity funds business, where she was a senior member of the product origination, marketing, and investor relations teams. Before that she was a vice president of marketing in the Global Private Capital group at Salomon Smith Barney.

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Ms. Yau graduated magna cum laude with a BS and an MBA from New York University Stern School of Business

President 

Jonathan R. Epstein, AIF®

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Founder and President 

DCALTA

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 DCALTA is led by Jonathan Epstein, who has served in the defined contribution community for 24 years. DCALTA`s founding can be attributed to Jonathan`s experience working directly with plan sponsors of defined contribution plans on investments, education/communication strategy and plan cost/performance benchmarking. His industry experience includes positions at CEM Benchmarking, Associated Trust, ICMA-RC and ThirtyNorth Investments. He has been invited to speak at the national conferences of PSCA and NAGDCA, and has contributed to several industry articles and research. He received his B.S. from Florida State University and MBA from Nova Southeastern University. He is very proud to be on the top fundraising team for a non-profit in New Orleans that raises money for the families of children with pediatric brain cancer (Team Fleur de Que).  

Counsel 

David N. Levine

Principal

Groom Law Group, Chartered

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David N. Levine is a principal at Groom Law Group, Chartered.  He advises plan sponsors, advisors, and other service providers on a wide range of employee benefits matters, from retirement and executive compensation to health and welfare plan matters. 

Mr. Levine's areas of service include: the redesign of complex retirement, executive, and health and welfare plans; ongoing, day-to-day counseling of plan sponsors; in-depth compliance reviews of corporate and governmental benefit programs; and representation of tax-exempt organizations with respect to issues involving corporate governance, executive compensation, and unrelated business income tax liability.

Mr. Levine was previously the Chair of the IRS Advisory Committee on Tax Exempt and Government Entities (2011-2013) and is currently a member of the Executive Committee of the Defined Contribution Institutional Investment Association and serves in a number of leadership roles in the American Bar Association Tax Section's Employee Benefits Committee.  Mr. Levine regularly speaks on plan design, fiduciary governance, and legislative issues and contributes a recurring column to NAPA Net — The Magazine.  He is recognized in The Legal 500 and USA Chambers guide for Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation.  Mr. Levine received his J.D., from the University of Pennsylvania Law School and his B.A., with general and departmental honors, from Johns Hopkins University.

Kevin L. Walsh

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Principal

Groom Law Group, Chartered

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Kevin L. Walsh advises clients on a wide range of fiduciary matters and other issues involving benefit plans. His practice encompasses helping plan service providers comply with the Department of Labor’s fiduciary rules, working with them as they develop processes for and make investments, and helping them navigate the impact of Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), and SEC regulations. Kevin counsels clients primarily on issues related to Title I of ERISA, but also works with clients on the intersection of ERISA and other federal statutes. He assists insurers in obtaining guidance from the Department of Labor, and helps plan fiduciaries structure investments. He has also worked with plan service providers to structure the distribution of proprietary products in a manner that complies with ERISA’s prohibited transaction provisions. Kevin is also a member of Groom’s Policy and Legislation Group, where he leverages his deep legislative experience on behalf of clients by providing technical legislative drafting services and strategic advice on interacting with the legislative and executive branches.

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