Margaret Franklin, president and CEO of Toronto-based Kinsale Private Wealth, begins her one-year term as chair of the CFA Institute’s board of governors on Wednesday, the institute has announced.

Franklin will head an 18-member board comprised of investment professionals from eight countries: Canada, China, Japan, Singapore, Switzerland, United Arab Emirates, Britain and the United States.

Four new governors were also elected to serve a new three-year term that commences Wednesday, including Beth Hamilton-Keen, director and portfolio manager at Mawer Investment Management, Ltd. in Calgary; Giuseppe Ballocchi, head of financial engineering and risk analytics at the Trading Division of Pictet & Cie in Geneva, Switzerland; James Jones, founder and president of Sterling Investment Advisors, LLC in Bolivar, Missouri; and Aaron Low, principal of Lumen Advisors in Singapore and San Francisco, California.

In addition, Mark Anson, managing partner and chief investment officer of Oak Hill Investments in Menlo Park, California, and Jeffrey Lorenzen, chief investment officer for American Equity Investment Life Holding in West Des Moines, Iowa, were re-elected to serve a second three-year term commencing Wednesday.

Franklin succeeds Tom Welch, managing director and regional manager of the institutional client service team at Wells Capital Management in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Welch will continue to serve on the board as immediate past chair, and Dan Meader, founder and managing partner of Trinity Advisory Group in Southlake, Texas, will act as vice chair.

Franklin has nearly 20 years of investment management experience with both institutional and private clients. She worked with global institutions including Barclays Global Investors, State Street Global Advisors and Mercer before moving to the private client business. She was a partner in a boutique private client firm for eight years before joining Kinsale Private Wealth.

Franklin has served as a CFA Institute board member, has acted as vice chair, and has chaired its audit and risk, external relations and volunteer involvement, and planning committees. She is a past president of the Toronto CFA Society.

“As vice chair, I had the great privilege of seeing CFA Institute’s global impact at work during one of the most volatile markets in recent history,” said Franklin. “This experience has given me tremendous appreciation for the deep need for CFA Institute as a multi-constituent, non-partisan body to lead the investment profession globally. There has never been a more important time for CFA Institute to engage with all serious investment professionals in the restoration of our industry’s trust.”

The CFA Institute administers the CFA program worldwide and advocates for high standards of practice within the global investment industry.

“Interest in the CFA charter is growing not only here in Canada, but internationally as well,” Franklin said. She noted that in June this year, more than 111,000 exam candidates representing 160 countries and territories took a CFA exam.

IE