Market and Economic Commentary

Jim McDonald is a Senior Vice President and Chief Investment Strategist for Northern Trust. In addition, he chairs the Northern Trust  Tactical Asset Allocation Committee, is a member of the Investment Policy and Private Equity Investment Committees, and is trustee of the Northern Trust Alpha Strategies Hedge Fund.

Prior to joining Northern Trust as a Senior Vice President in 2001, Jim was Director of Research at ABN AMRO in New York and Chicago (1994-2000) and Equity Research Analyst at ABN AMRO following the Environmental Services Industry (1990-1994).  He started his professional career in 1981 with Arthur Andersen & Co. in Detroit.

McDonald received a B.B.A. from the University of Michigan and an MBA degree with high distinction from Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts.  He is a member of the CFA Society of Chicago and a registered CPA in the State of Michigan.

As chairman and Chief Executive Officer and Chief Investment Officer of  Northern Trust's international asset management business, Wayne is responsible for the continued growth and development of Northern Trust's investment business in Europe, the Middle East & Africa and Asia Pacific. Wayne also serves as Chief Investment Officer of international markets, as a director of Japan  KK and is a member of the corporation's European Management Committee,  which oversees all Northern Trust businesses in the EMEA region.

Before joining Northern Trust in 1999 as director of global fixed income, Wayne worked for ABN Amro Bank and Hambros Bank, where he managed multi-instrument trading books and used foreign exchange and interest rate derivative markets to extract relative value opportunities.  He has more than 20 years of experience as a portfolio manager, proprietary trader and market maker within multi-instrument, multi-currency environments.

Bob Browne is an Executive Vice President and Chief Investment Officer for Northern Trust. He is a member of Northern Trust's Operating Group, reporting directly to the Management Group.

Bob chairs the firm’s Investment Policy Committee, which sets investment policy for all Northern Trust groups in all asset classes. He is responsible for investment performance, process and philosophy across multiple investment strategies including fixed income, active equity and passive investments. Bob joined Northern Trust in January 2009 and has more than 20 years of investment experience.

From 2004 until 2009, Bob worked for ING Investment Management and was the firm’s Chief Investment Officer for Fixed Income and Proprietary Investments. In this capacity, he oversaw $120 billion in assets under management across retail and institutional clients, as well as the firm’s own insurance assets. From 2002 to 2004, Bob was founder and Managing Partner of Picador Capital, an alternative investment firm. From 1999 to 2001, he was Co-Head of Americas Fixed Income for Merrill Lynch Investments and he also worked in the firm’s London office from 1997 to 1999 as a senior portfolio manager. Bob spent the first eight years of his career, from 1989 until 1997, at JP Morgan Investment working as a global fixed income and currency portfolio manager in the firm’s Tokyo and London offices.

Bob holds a B.A. with a major in economics from the College of the Holy Cross. He also has a Masters in international business studies from the University of South Carolina. Bob holds the Chartered Financial Analyst designation.

Katherine is the Chief Investment Officer for the Personal Financial Services business at Northern Trust. In that capacity, Katie leads the national investment management practice for Northern Trust's Personal Financial Services (PFS) business from the firm's Chicago headquarters. Her responsibilities include investment policy development with a particular focus on portfolio construction and implementation. She also directs the investment management activities of over 200 Northern Trust portfolio managers across the firm's 79-office PFS franchise. Katie sits on the Firm's Investment Policy Committee and Tactical Asset Allocation Committee, and she chair's the PFS Investment Advisory Committee.

Prior to joining Northern Trust, Ms. Nixon worked at U.S. Trust Company for eighteen years in several investment related capacities, including Managing Director and Division Manager in the Wealth Management Division in New York, overseeing a group of portfolio managers and client service officers with total combined assets under management in excess of $7 Billion. Ms. Nixon also served on US Trust's Portfolio Policy Committee as well as the Private Equity Investment Committee.

Katherine received her B.A. from Wellesley College and her M.B.A. in Finance from New York University, Stern School of Business where she graduated with distinction, Beta Gamma Sigma, and was a Stern Scholar. She has received the designations of both Certified Investment Management Analyst (CIMA®) and Certified Private Wealth Advisor (CPWA®) from the Investment Management Consultants Association. Further, she has been awarded the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation, and is also a member of the New York Society of Security Analysts and the Investment Management Consultants Association (IMCA).