Advisory Board

ETF Global Research Advisory Board

ETF Global was created to enlighten, educate and empower investors to succeed within the new and rapidly expanding market of Exchange-Traded Funds.  Research at ETF Global is primarily driven by the firm’s Research Advisory Board (RAB) which is comprised of an eclectic group of leading industry and research experts.

The Research Advisory Board provides guidance and insight to optimize the efficacy of the construction, operation and evolution of the firm’s research models inclusive of the portfolio of proprietary algorithms, weightings, analytics, applications and research offerings.  Outside members of the ETFG RAB are elected for two-year terms. The RAB convenes quarterly, including two in-person, meetings to address the objectives and performance of the firm’s research platform.

Inherent in the process of the RAB is the constant feedback and input taken from the various ETFG client segments.  ETFG Research is rooted in the belief that clients’ candid feedback helps shape the direction of our platform and ensures that ETFG products and services remain accurately focused upon the continually changing needs of our clients.

Matthew Litchfield, Director of Research, CFA

Matthew Litchfield is a veteran of exchange-traded-products and investment research.  Matt has been  a member of the Investment Committee for ITS Asset Management, a Pittsburgh-based RIA that offered a variety of portfolio solutions including global macro, tactical and fixed income. At ITS, Matt performed double duty as an investment analyst and in-house product specialist for the mutual fund based portfolio strategies.

Matt also has extensive experience with real assets, having begun his career as part of the investment team for a national real estate developer in Buffalo, New York where he focused on alternative asset classes in addition to managing several properties in Southern Ontario.

A native of upstate New York and an avid historian, Matt earned his MBA from the University at Buffalo and is a member of the CFA Society of Pittsburgh.  

Dr. A. Seddik Meziani
Professor | Economics, Finance & Real Estate - Montclair State University - Feliciano School of Business
Seddik Meziani is a tenured professor of finance at Montclair State University, NJ, former chair of the Department of Economics, Finance, and Real Estate, and the Soliciting Editor of The Journal of Index Investing. He is also an ETF consultant and speaker. He received a PhD from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and an MBA from New York University.  

His expertise covers exchange-traded funds, micro- and small-caps and emerging/frontier markets. He is extensively published in both academic and practitioner journals and has given numerous presentations and workshops on a variety of topics related to his research interests at national and international conferences. He is the author of two ETF books: Exchange-Traded Funds as an Investment Option (Palgrave-Macmillan/November 2005) and Exchange-Traded Funds: Conceptual and Practical Investment Approaches (Risk Books/July 2009). He is currently completing another ETF book, Exchange-Traded Funds: Investment Practices and Tactical Approaches, slated for release by Palgrave-Macmillan in February 2016. His extensive work on ETFs was acknowledged on a worldwide list of “Seventeen ETF Friendly Professors” compiled by Yahoo Finance.

He has been regularly featured on the ETF speaking circuit as a panelist, moderator, conference chair, and keynote speaker both in the United States and internationally since 2000. In addition to serving as an ETF consultant and speaker, he has developed and presented a series of professional seminars to various US and international corporate and governmental entities, including comprehensive educational workshops on ETFs in New York, London, Rome, and Muscat, Oman.

Ken Shoji, CFA
Founder/Managing Principal - Stissing Lake Advisors
Ken Shoji is the Founder and Managing Principal of Stissing Lake Advisors, an investment advisory firm working with family offices, foundations and institutional investors.

Ken recently served as the Chief Operating Officer of GSB Podium Advisors, a SEC-registered statistical arbitrage hedge fund, and the Chief Investment Officer of HedgeMark Advisors, a hedge fund managed account platform.  From 2005 to 2009 Ken was a Managing Director and Head of the Alternative Investment Group for Dresdner Kleinwort, where he built and managed a multi-billion dollar hedge fund investment and financing platform.  Prior to joining Dresdner in 2005 he was a Managing Director at the Mayfair Group, a private alternative investment firm.  From 1998 to 2003 he was a Managing Director in the Strategic Equity Transactions Group at Deutsche Bank and at Bankers Trust Company.  From 1986 to 1998 Ken held a variety of positions at J.P. Morgan, including Head of Derivatives and Structured Products for the Private Bank, Head of Emerging Markets Equity Derivatives, and positions in Equity and Fixed Income Derivatives in New York, London and Tokyo.

Ken is a CFA charter holder and graduated with a MA with Honours from the University of Edinburgh and a MBA from the Harvard Business School.  Ken is a Director of Clear Markets, Inc., a derivatives exchange and a Senior Advisor to Global Risk Management Advisors, a risk management consulting firm. He serves on the Board of Regents of the University of Edinburgh and is the Treasurer of the University of Edinburgh USA Development Trust and the Harvard Business School Club of New York.

Christopher A. Ohmacht, CFA
Founder, CAO Strategic Partners
Chris is the Founder and Managing Partner of CAO Strategic Partners, LLC, an investment firm focused on active investments in small to mid-sized private companies and value-added real estate. Prior to founding CAO Strategic Partners in 2016, Chris was President and a member of the Board of Directors of Victory Capital, a $36 billion, independent, multi-boutique asset management firm with 9 independent investment platforms and over 200 employees focused on active developed and emerging markets equities, core fixed income and quantitative strategic beta strategies for institutional separate accounts, US mutual funds and ETFs.

Over his close to 30-year career in investment management, Chris has held numerous senior roles building and leading investment and distribution teams.He has also led several significant M&A transactions as both buyer and seller and strategic initiatives focused on maximizing growth, operational improvements and driving cultural change.

Chris earned his BA in Management from Moravian College, MBA in Finance from Pace University and is a CFA Charterholder. He is a founding member of the Board of Directors for the Metro NY Chapter as well as a member of the national Investor Board for the Gift of Adoption Fund and is a past Trustee of Moravian College.

Daniel Carlucci, CFA
Daniel Carlucci was most recently a senior equity portfolio manager and strategist with QMA, a wholly owned subsidiary of Prudential Financial.  He is currently consulting on investment related matters, specializing in the management, branding, and messaging of smart-beta and index related products.

Dan has nearly 20 years of experience in managing quantitative, factor-based equity strategies as well as passive equity portfolios.  Dan also led QMA’s separately managed account program.  His responsibilities included creating branding and messaging for quantitative strategies and representing the firm in the marketplace.  Prior investment experience includes managing value equity portfolios, fundamental small and mid-cap strategies, and as an equity generalist.  Dan began his career in investment operations.

Dan earned a B.S. in Finance and an MBA from Rutgers University and is a Chartered Financial Analyst.  He is a member of the Chicago Quantitative Alliance.

Conor J. Platt
Founder, CEO, & CIO, Confluence Capital Management
Conor is the Founder and CIO of Confluence Capital Management. Previously he worked at Brown Brothers Harriman on the Portfolio Strategy team upon completing his MBA at the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University. He was an analyst at Morgan Stanley in New York after receiving his B.S. in Finance with honors at Carnegie Mellon University.

In addition to Confluence, Conor is the co-founding CEO and CIO of Etho Capital, an investment management company committed to building the world’s best fossil free investment solutions by providing superior environmental, social, and financial performance. Etho’s process combines quantitative sustainability science and stakeholder expertise with the diversified returns and risk management of index investing.

Conor recently joined the board of WQED Pittsburgh, the first community-sponsored television station in the United States as well as the fifth public television station in the country.