Richard Bernstein Advisors

Richard Bernstein

Chief Executive Officer and Chief Investment Officer

Mr. Bernstein founded Richard Bernstein Advisors LLC (RBA) in 2009. The firm utilizes a unique top-down approach to investing, focusing on macro trends rather than individual stock selection. Mr. Bernstein has over 40 years' experience on Wall Street, most recently as the Chief Investment Strategist at Merrill Lynch & Co. Prior to joining Merrill Lynch in 1988, he held positions at E.F. Hutton and Chase Econometrics/IDC.

A much-noted expert on equity, style and asset allocation, Mr. Bernstein was voted to Institutional Investor magazine's annual "All-America Research Team" eighteen times and has been inducted into the Institutional Investor "Hall of Fame".[¹] He was also twice named to both Fortune magazine's "All-Star Analysts" and to Smart Money magazine's "Power 30” and was a member of Registered Rep's "Ten to Watch" for 2012. His book "Style Investing: Unique Insight into Equity Management" is widely viewed as the seminal book on style-oriented investment strategies. He donates the profits from that and his other book, "Navigate the Noise: Investing in the New Age of Media and Hype", to charity.

Mr. Bernstein currently sits on the Hamilton College endowment’s Investment Committee and is a trustee of Hamilton College and was formerly a chair of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Endowment’s Investment Committee. He is also a member of the Journal of Portfolio Management’s Advisory Committee and former adjunct faculty of the NYU/Stern Graduate School of Business. Rich and his wife, Christine, endow numerous college and university scholarships designated for under-represented students interested in business and STEM.

Rich holds an MBA in finance, with Beta Gamma Sigma distinction, from New York University, and a BA in economics from Hamilton College. He has lectured on finance and economics at numerous colleges, universities, and professional forums.

[¹] Institutional Investor rankings relate to Richard Bernstein personally, and not to Richard Bernstein Advisors LLC. Mr. Bernstein was named to Institutional Investor’s “All-America Research Team” from 1991 through 2008, including a top-ranking in Equity Derivatives, Portfolio Strategy and Quantitative Research in 1995 through 2004. Mr. Bernstein was inducted into Institutional Investor’s All-American Research Hall of Fame in 2011. Institutional Investor is a leading international business to business publisher, focused on the publication of premium journalism, newsletters and research. The published rankings are based on responses to multi-factor surveys from a large number of investment professionals across a broad range of asset management firms that meet certain minimum eligibility requirements, including a minimum amount of sell-side commissions annually. The formula Institutional Investor uses to develop its rankings is proprietary. The rankings are not indicative of future performance, and there is no guarantee of future success. For additional information, visit www.institutionalinvestor.com.

John J. McCombe

President and Director of Distribution

John J. McCombe is President and Director of Distribution at Richard Bernstein Advisors. Mr. McCombe oversees the firm’s sales, marketing and communications and also helps to set the firm’s overall strategy along with Richard Bernstein. He joined RBA in 2010.

Before RBA, Mr. McCombe was executive vice president and Director of Retail Sales and Marketing at Cohen & Steers and president of Cohen & Steers Distributors. Over his 13 years there, he was the chief architect of their retail fund and distribution business through the major wire houses and fund supermarkets (RIAs), and was responsible for their marketing, communications, and website. Mr. McCombe helped grow Cohen & Steers' assets-under-management from approximately $2 billion when he joined to $35 billion at their peak across open-end funds, closed-end funds and SMAs. He was also instrumental in helping Cohen & Steers go public in 2004.

Previously, Mr. McCombe spent 14 years at Merrill Lynch in a variety of sales and marketing roles, including, most notably, seven years in "retail syndicate" where he focused on closed-end fund IPOs raising over $70 billion for various asset managers.

John holds a BS in finance from Fordham University, where he has also taught, and an MBA in accounting from Pace University, and he sits on several not-for-profit boards.

Matthew Griswold, CFA

Director of Investments and Risk Management

Matthew Griswold is the Director of Investments and Risk Management at Richard Bernstein Advisors LLC. Mr. Griswold oversees investment process design, portfolio implementation and is a senior member of the RBA Investment Committee. He joined RBA in 2010.

Before joining RBA, Mr. Griswold was a vice president and portfolio manager at State Street Global Advisors, with responsibility for the design, execution and evaluation of both new and existing global investment strategies. His extensive portfolio management experience spans most major asset classes and includes both quantitative and fundamental investment disciplines. For almost 20 years, Matt assumed a wide variety of leadership positions within State Street in areas of portfolio construction, research, performance measurement, risk analysis, mutual fund administration and client service.

Matt holds a BS in industrial management from Carnegie Mellon University. He is a Chartered Financial Analyst® charterholder and a member of the Boston Security Analysts Society, INC.

Lisa Kirschner

Director of Research

Lisa Kirschner is the Director of Research at Richard Bernstein Advisors LLC. Ms. Kirschner spearheads the firm’s top-down macroeconomic analysis, proprietary research and is a senior member of the RBA Investment Committee.

Ms. Kirschner has worked with Richard Bernstein since 1995. She was a member of Mr. Bernstein's top-ranked Quantitative Strategy Team at Merrill Lynch for ten years, with a primary focus on in-depth data analysis, and then continued working in a more senior role on his Investment Strategy Team until April 2009.

Ms. Kirschner co-authored numerous market studies and analyses with Mr. Bernstein while at Merrill, drawing on her expertise in corporate-earnings analysis and performance attribution to assist in the formulation of the team's investment strategies. Her public speaking roles included presentations for the Merrill Lynch Women's Leadership Conference Series and the Quantitative Work Alliance for Applied Finance, Education and Wisdom. She was Merrill Lynch's representative to Standard & Poor's Index Advisory Panel from 1999-2009.

Lisa attended both Indiana University and New York University.

Henry Timmons, CFA

Director of ETFs

Henry Timmons is the Director of ETFs at Richard Bernstein Advisors LLC. Henry is responsible for asset allocation, portfolio construction, risk management and ETF research.

Before joining RBA, Henry was a Portfolio Manager and Quantitative Analyst at Grantham, Mayo, Van Otterloo & Co. LLC. While at GMO, he evaluated quantitative and fundamental sources of alpha as potential inputs to the investment process, while assisting in constructing and managing portfolios. Prior to GMO, Henry was a management consultant at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, where he designed forecasting models improving supply-chain management processes for various clients.

Henry holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering and an MEng in Systems Engineering and Engineering Management from Cornell University, and an MBA in Finance from Cornell University's SC Johnson College of Business. He is a Chartered Financial Analyst® charterholder.

Michael Contopoulos

Deputy Chief Investment Officer

Michael Contopoulos is the Deputy Chief Investment Officer at Richard Bernstein Advisors LLC. Mr. Contopoulos plays a key leadership role in RBA’s investment decision making behind the CIO and influences all portfolio strategy, asset allocation, and investment management. He oversees and directs RBA’s investment process, ensures that portfolios efficiently and clearly align with the firm’s research, and is responsible for marketing to major wirehouses and independent RIAs.

Michael started his career at Tudor Investment Corporation in 2000 before joining the research department at Credit Suisse First Boston in 2002. In 2004 he left to build Bank of America’s quantitative credit strategy team and in 2011 he became the firm’s head of Convertible Strategy and created the Relative Value and Credit Derivatives Strategy teams. In 2012 Mr. Contopoulos became Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s Head of High Yield and Leveraged Loan Strategy where he was ranked the #2 Credit Strategist in Institutional Investor Magazine across multiple categories. Prior to joining RBA, Mr. Contopoulos was Anchorage Capital’s Chief Investment Strategist.

He is a frequent guest on CNBC and Bloomberg television and often quoted in Barron’s, the Wall Street Journal and other publications for his keen insights and unique market color.

He graduated from Columbia University with a B.A., majoring in Economics and Political Science. He also received an MBA from the NYU Stern School of Business, Langone Program.