Special Reports

• On the Markets
• GIC Monthly Summary
• Meet the GIC

Meet the Global Investment Committee

The Global Investment Committee is made up of senior professionals from Morgan Stanley & Co. Incorporated Research, Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, Citi Investment Research & Analysis and outside financial market experts. The Global Investment Committee provides advice to Morgan Stanley Smith Barney advisors and our clients through a disciplined process of fundamental research and a comprehensive analysis of economic and market conditions.

Download a PDF Version

Jeff Applegate, Chairman

Jeff Applegate is the chief investment officer of Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, responsible for strategic and tactical asset allocation advice to clients. He leads the investment strategy team and chairs the Global Investment Committee. Previously, Mr. Applegate was the chief investment officer at Citigroup Global Wealth Management and, before that, Franklin Templeton. Earlier in his career, he was chief investment strategist for Lehman Brothers and Credit Suisse. Mr. Applegate has also been a senior investment advisor on both the sell side and the buy side at institutions such as Shearson Lehman Hutton, E.F. Hutton and Smith Barney. He began his career as an analyst with H.C. Wainright in 1974. Mr. Applegate earned a B.A. in international studies from American University and a Bachelor of Literature in politics from Oxford University. He is a member of the New York Society of Security Analysts, the CFA Institute, the Morgan Stanley Retirement Plan Committee and the Morgan Stanley Smith Barney Management Committee.

Hussein Allidina, CFA

Hussein Allidina, head of commodity research at Morgan Stanley, is responsible for fundamental research and analysis of a broad range of commodities ranging from energy to metals and foods. Mr. Allidina also sits on Morgan Stanley’s Global Asset Allocation Committee. Prior to joining Morgan Stanley in 2006, he was part of the Goldman Sachs Commodity Research team and also spent time as a commodities analyst with the International Monetary Fund. Mr. Allidina earned a B.A., with honors, in economics from the University of Western Ontario.

Michael Brandes

Michael Brandes is head of global fixed income strategy at Citi Private Bank and is on its Global Investment Committee. His responsibilities include market strategy, relative value analysis and portfolio recommendations. His views are featured in Bond Market Weekly and Bond Market Monthly, Citi’s flagship report for high net worth fixed income investors, and he is a regular contributor to Portfolio Strategist, Citi’s weekly research report. Mr. Brandes authored the book Naked Guide to Bonds: Stripped Down to the Bare Essentials. He has 18 years in the industry and earned a B.A. from the State University of New York and an M.B.A. from the Columbia University Graduate School of Business.

Robert Buckland

Robert Buckland is the chief global equity strategist for Citi Investment Research & Analysis. Mr. Buckland was previously the head of Pan-European Equity Strategy. Before joining the firm in 1998, he was an equity strategist with HSBC for four years. Prior to that, Mr. Buckland was a sector analyst, economist and strategist for NatWest Securities starting in 1989.

David M. Darst, CFA

David M. Darst is the chief investment strategist for Morgan Stanley Smith Barney. He joined Morgan Stanley in 1996 from Goldman Sachs, where he served as a senior executive within the equities division and as resident manager of the firm’s private bank in Zurich. Mr. Darst is the author of The Complete Bond Book; The Handbook of the Bond and Money Markets; The Art of Asset Allocation; Mastering the Art of Asset Allocation; and Benjamin Graham on Investing. He also wrote The Little Book That Saves Your Assets, which ranked on bestseller lists of The New York Times and BusinessWeek. He is also a frequent guest on CNBC, Bloomberg, FOX and PBS. Mr. Darst earned a B.A. in economics at Yale University and an M.B.A. at Harvard Business School. He has lectured at Wharton, Columbia, INSEAD and New York University business schools; for nine years, he served as a visiting faculty member at Yale College, Yale School of Management, and Harvard Business School. He is a Chartered Financial Analyst and a member of the New York Society of Security Analysts and the CFA Institute.

Rui de Figueiredo

Rui de Figueiredo is a consultant who provides investment leadership for Alternative Investment Partners’ (AIP) Portfolio Solutions Group. He also leads the hedge fund advisory business within AIP’s funds of funds business. Previously, Mr. de Figueiredo oversaw the investment activities of Graystone Research, an alternative investments advisory business within Morgan Stanley’s Global Wealth Management division. Mr. de Figueiredo has worked with Morgan Stanley since 2007. Prior to that, he was head of research at Citi Alternative Investments. He also worked at Boston Consulting Group and the Alliance Consulting Group. In addition, Mr. de Figueiredo is an associate professor at the Haas School of Business at the University of California at Berkeley. His research focuses on game theory and econometric analysis of organizations and institutions, and he has published in finance, economics, law and political science journals. Mr. de Figueiredo earned a Ph.D. and two M.A. degrees from Stanford University, as well as a B.A., summa cum laude, from Harvard University.

Teun Draaisma

Teun Draaisma joined Morgan Stanley in 1997 and now heads the London-based European strategy team. The team focuses on equity market direction, sector rotation and stock selection. The team is now ranked No. 1 in the Institutional Investor and Thomson Reuters Extel investor polls. Prior to joining Morgan Stanley, Mr. Draaisma worked in the economics department of the OECD in Paris, where he focused on structural reform in member countries. He holds an M.A. in econometrics from the Erasmus University of Rotterdam; he also studied at ESSEC Business School in France. Mr. Draaisma is fluent in English, French and Dutch

Joachim Fels

Joachim Fels co-heads Morgan Stanley’s global economics team and is the firm’s chief global fixed income economist. Based in London, Mr. Fels focuses on monetary policy, the global liquidity cycle and inflation. He edits The Global Monetary Analyst, a weekly research publication. Mr. Fels joined the firm in 1996 to cover the German economy. Later, he co-headed the currency economics team and the European economics teams, which won several top rankings in an Institutional Investor poll. He was also the firm’s specialist on the European Central Bank since the bank’s launch in 1998; he held this position until 2005. Mr. Fels is a member of the German Banking Association’s Economic and Monetary Committee and of the Volkswagen Foundation’s Asset Allocation Advisory Board. From 1999 to 2008, Mr. Fels advised the German Finance Ministry on international economic policy and financial market issues. Before joining Morgan Stanley in 1997, he worked at the Kiel Institute of World Economics and at Goldman Sachs. He was educated in Germany and Italy.

Thomas D. Gallagher

Thomas D. Gallagher, a senior managing director and head of policy research for the International Strategy and Investment (ISI) Group, is a consultant to Morgan Stanley Smith Barney. He runs ISI’s Washington office, which analyzes the financial market implications of policy actions and political developments for institutional investors. ISI’s Washington team has been ranked No.1 the last six years on the Institutional Investor’s All-Star Team. Mr. Gallagher’s 20 years on Wall Street have been spent at ISI and Lehman Brothers. Prior to that, he worked in the federal government, mainly on Capitol Hill. He has degrees from the University of South Dakota and the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. He is also a Chartered Financial Analyst.

Jonathan Garner

Jonathan Garner is Morgan Stanley’s chief Asian and emerging market strategist. He joined the firm in 2006, having held similar positions at Robert Fleming, DLJ International and Credit Suisse. Before that, he was an academic in the economics department of the London School of Economics. He is the author of The Rise of the Chinese Consumer. Mr. Garner was ranked No. 1 in emerging markets strategy in the 2008 Thomson Reuters Extel survey.

Edward M. Kerschner, CFA

Edward M. Kerschner is senior strategy consultant for Morgan Stanley Smith Barney and a member of the Global Investment Committee. He began his career in 1974 with Cowen & Co. and joined Paine Webber in 1982 as chief investment strategist and chairman of the Investment Policy Committee. Following the acquisition of Paine Webber by UBS in 2000, Mr. Kerschner spent three years as the chief global strategist for UBS Investment Research. In 2004, he became chief investment officer for Citi Investment Research & Analysis and chief investment strategist fo Citi Global Wealth Management. More recently, Mr. Kerschner founded E.M. Kerschner, LLC—"The Thematic Research Group." Institutional Investor has called Mr. Kerschner "one of the deans of thematic investing." Since 2001, Mr. Kerscher has also been an adjunct professor of finance at New York University's Leonard N. Stern School of Business. In addition, he has been a member of the Board of Overseers and the Finance Committee of the Board of the Stern School of Business for the last four years. Mr. Kerschner received a B.S. from the New York University School of Engineering and Science and an M.B.A. from the New York University Graduate School of Business Administration.

Henry McVey

Henry McVey heads global macro and asset allocation for Morgan Stanley Investment Management. He joined Morgan Stanley in 1993 as a research associate and, after completing his M.B.A., returned in 1997 as a senior analyst covering financial institutions. Between 2000 and 2003, Mr. McVey was ranked a No. 1 analyst by Institutional Investor. He later became chief US investment strategist, a post in which he also won top industry ratings. He left to become a portfolio manager at Fortress Investment Group LLC, but returned to Morgan Stanley in 2009 to assume his current post. Mr. McVey holds a B.A. from the University of Virginia and an M.B.A. from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He serves on the advisory board of the Jefferson Scholarship at the University of Virginia and is a member of Diocesan Investment Trust for New York. In addition, he is a board member of the TEAK Fellowship and is also a member of the St. Christopher’s School Investment Committee.

Dan Nelson

Dan Nelson is the head of the Morgan Stanley Smith Barney Portfolio Strategy & Research Group. The group includes the STEP Model Portfolio team; the equity model portfolio team; exchange-traded funds and models; fixed income strategy and models; closed-end funds; technical analysis. In recent years, Mr. Nelson oversaw the design and development of the Portfolio Strategy & Research Group’s expansion into London and Hong Kong. Over the course of his 33-year career with Smith Barney, Mr. Nelson has had management responsibility for the portfolio review group, equity high net worth program, portfolio advisory program and portfolio management program.

Gregory Peters

Gregory Peters is Morgan Stanley’s global head of fixed income research and chief US credit strategist, responsible for research on investment-grade, high yield, credit derivatives and structured products. He joined Morgan Stanley’s Investment Grade Strategy group in 2000 and also served as the firm’s high yield strategist. Mr. Peters, who started his career as bank regulator at the Office of Thrift Supervision, previously worked at Salomon Smith Barney. He has been recognized by Institutional Investor magazine for his efforts in both high yield and investment-grade strategy for the past six years. He received a B.A. in finance from The College of New Jersey and earned an M.B.A. at Fordham University. He is also a member of the Fixed Income Analyst Society and the Bond Market Association.

Barbara M. Reinhard, CFA

Barbara Reinhard is the emerging markets equity strategist for Morgan Stanley Smith Barney. Ms. Reinhard joined Morgan Stanley’s fixed income division in 1991. Her responsibilities were later expanded to include trading investment-grade bonds. In 1999, she joined the investment management division as part of the investment team of the Active International Allocation strategy, a top-down macro non-US equity fund and served on the Morgan Stanley Investment Management Asset Allocation Committee. In 2004, she joined the Asset Allocation and Investment Strategy Group. Ms. Reinhard earned a B.A in economics from Trinity College and holds the Chartered Financial Analyst designation. She is a member of the New York Society of Security Analysts and the CFA Institute.

Charles Reinhard

Charles Reinhard is the global investment strategist for Morgan Stanley Smith Barney. Prior to joining Citi in 2008, he was the director of portfolio strategy and associate director of research for Neuberger Berman, and served on Lehman Brothers asset management division’s Asset Allocation Committee. He was previously the senior US strategist at Lehman Brothers, where he managed the core, growth and value model portfolios, researched a wide array of investment issues, and served on the Investment Policy Committee. Mr. Reinhard began his Wall Street career in 1987 and has held fixed income and currency and commodity strategy positions at other top firms. He served on the original committee that wrote the Series 86 and 87 exams. Mr. Reinhard received a B.S. in managerial economics with high honors at Carnegie Mellon University and an M.B.A. from the New York University Stern School of Business. He is president of the Money Marketeers of NYU.

Nicolas Richard, CFA

Nicolas Richard is director of strategic asset allocation and the chairman of the Global Portfolio Committee, charged with implementing tactical views for global portfolios. His responsibilities include model-portfolio generation, support of various asset allocation tools and the provision of detailed analyses of key client portfolios, as well as research on investment products, asset classes and portfolio construction. Mr. Richard, with 13 years of industry experience, previously worke d with Citi Asset Management as a portfolio manager and investment strategist. He holds a master’s in finance from London Business School, received his undergraduate degree in applied mathematics (actuarial science) from the University of Montreal and is a chartered financial analyst.

Douglas Schindewolf

Douglas Schindewolf is the director of tactical asset allocation for Morgan Stanley Smith Barney. He joined Smith Barney’s Consulting Group as a member of its Asset Allocation Committee in April 2000 and served as committee chairman from September 2000 through December 2005. Prior to that, Mr. Schindewolf held the position of financial economist in the firm’s research department since 1986. Before joining Citi, he worked at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York as an associate economist. Mr. Schindewolf received his B.S. in finance from Rider University and an M.S. in economics from New York University.

Jason Todd

Jason Todd, co-head of global developed market equity strategy, began his career in 1996 as the equity strategist and quantitative analyst for JPMorgan New Zealand. In 2001, he moved to Australia to join JPMorgan’s equity strategy team; two years later, he moved to London, working in Asian and Australasian equities research sales. In 2005, Mr. Todd relocated to New York to take up a role as US equity strategist with JPMorgan. He joined Morgan Stanley in November 2007 and was part of the US team, which was recently rated runner-up in the 2008 US Institutional Investor survey. Mr. Todd received his B.A. in commerce from the University of Auckland with a double major in economics and finance. He also earned a Master of Commerce in economics with first-class honors, also from the University of Auckland. He became a Chartered Financial Analyst in 1998.