Headlines & Horizons: Asset Manager Perspective

John Cooper is a member of the FLX Distribution Advisory Board, and has held senior leadership roles in all aspects of the investment distribution business for some of the largest and most respected firms in the industry. He was previously Head of U.S. Intermediary Distribution at Morgan Stanley Investment Management (President of MSIM Distributors), Head of US Sales at Invesco (President & CEO of Invesco Distributors), Head of Retail National Accounts at Legg Mason and held several roles at Putnam Investors. John serves on three other advisory boards, involving AI and Robotics Process Automation, Voice Recognition, and an AI Hedge Fund Platform. He holds a BS from Boston College, where he double majored in Marketing and Human Resources Management, was a standout athlete in football and baseball, and was inducted into their Varsity Club Athletic Hall of Fame.

Erin is head of strategic development for Thornburg Investment Management, leading corporate and product development initiatives across the firm. She has 17 years of investment and management experience, including with large and small asset management firms and most recently the financial technology industry.

Prior to joining Thornburg, Erin was chief investment officer for C2FO, a Kansas City–based financial technology company focusing on supply-chain finance solutions. She developed private investment solutions to provide working capital liquidity to small businesses, utilizing C2FO’s proprietary technology platform. Prior to C2FO, Erin spent 11 years with Fountain Capital Management, a boutique high-yield investment firm also based in Kansas City. At Fountain, Erin held various positions, including partner, portfolio manager, head trader, and research analyst. She started her career at Strong Capital Management as an equity research analyst, focusing on smalland mid-cap value portfolios and later as a private equity analyst for McCarthy Capital.

Erin is a graduate of Indiana University with a BS in finance and is a CFA charterholder.

Clint Harris is the Head of Wealth Management Platforms for Invesco US Wealth Management Intermediaries. Mr. Harris oversees home office coverage and is responsible for the design and execution of Invesco’s engagement strategy across US broker-dealer, retirement and insurance platforms. He is a member of the US Wealth Management Intermediaries senior leadership team.

Mr. Harris was previously the senior client portfolio manager for the Dividend Value team from 2008 to 2017, where he was responsible for the investment team’s client engagement and marketing. He joined Invesco’s retirement business in 1999 and held several positions, including as an investment specialist responsible for internal and external asset manager due diligence. Subsequently, Mr. Harris joined the private asset management team in 2002, where he was responsible for home office engagement as a portfolio advisor for the firm’s separate account platforms. In 2006, he became the senior product manager in the Product Strategy and Investment Services group, working with the Dividend Value and Core Equity teams.

Mr. Harris earned a BA degree from Oglethorpe University in Atlanta, with a dual major in economics and marketing and a specialization in international business. He holds the Series 7, 24, 63 and 66 registrations and is a Chartered Financial Analyst® (CFA) charterholder.

Roger Paradiso is an Advisory Solutions Industry Leader with expertise in innovation, transformation, business enhancement and strategy. With a clear vision and creative solutions, he has emphasized the needs of the clients and ease of use, giving way to new efficiencies and profitable businesses. He has shaped careers for people and developed trustworthy, reliable products for the organization. Roger has an ability to create focus, provide encouragement, and inspire collaboration that has led to leadership success and industry recognition.

Currently, Roger is Head of Product Solutions at Franklin Templeton. In his role he is focused on new business development, and leading and creating Custom Separately Managed Accounts. In addition to developing the strategies, he implements technology-enabled advice solutions to support existing intermediary channels and potential new areas of growth and access.

During his career Roger has worked for Franklin Templeton and predecessor firms for over 25 years. In 1997 at Citi Asset Management, he conceived, developed, and built out the company's unified managed account platform, an industry first. Two years later, he created the Private Portfolio Group, which was later sold to Smith Barney (now Morgan Stanley) in 2008. That platform remains the industry's leading Unified Managed Account and Overlay Manager.

Roger returned from Morgan Stanley in 2016, where he was Managing Director of Investment Solutions and Portfolio Development for the advisory business in New York. His team was responsible for manager research, manager selection, portfolio construction, account management and trading. In addition, Roger built out and managed the third-party trust business. His business group managed over $130 billion in assets of which $30 billion was discretionary in over 225 thousand accounts. In 2014, Roger was bestowed the Money Management Institute's highest honors: the Advisory Solutions Pioneer Award and in 2016 the All-Star Achiever Award.