CutterCast: Compliance for Your ESG Program

Gina McCafferty has 30 years of experience in the financial services industry. She served at Cutter from 1999 to 2011 as Principal and Managing Director of CutterResearch, and she was instrumental in growing that business. Gina returned to Cutter in 2017, and established and ran the company’s Wealth Management research division. In 2019, she was appointed to Head of Research, responsible for Asset Management and Wealth Management product development and delivery to over 200 member firms around the globe. Gina was previously at Investit Ltd., where she served for six years as head of the company’s research service. Prior to that, she held senior positions at DST International with product responsibility for their global accounting and performance measurement systems, and at SunGard as Vice President of Client Services for their securities trading products.

Todd Spillane brings more than 20 years of industry experience, with a focus on compliance and legal functions in investment management, to his Senior Director’s role at Cutter Associates. At Cutter, he is the subject matter expert and advisor on compliance initiatives, providing thought leadership as well as strategic and tactical advice. In addition to compliance, his areas of expertise include risk management, valuation, and legal oversight. A featured speaker at various industry forums on compliance-related topics, he has presented on compliance and risk management for investment managers. Prior to Cutter, he held several compliance, general counsel, and COO leadership roles, including most recently as GC, CCO, and COO of AlphaTrAI. He also was Executive Director at Morgan Stanley Investment Management, where he oversaw the compliance program for Morgan Stanley Funds. A graduate of Fairfield University and Western New England School of Law, Todd is a member of the Connecticut Bar.

Ms. Stark joined Westwood in April 1992 and serves as Head of the Risk and Performance Analytics Group which she founded. Ms. Stark also serves as Chair of the firm’s Risk Oversight Committee.

In her risk oversight role, Ms. Stark partners with our portfolio managers to focus efforts on identifying the areas of risk management that are most impactful to portfolio management. Ms. Stark is responsible for the design and development of procedures for the oversight of risk positioning in the firm’s strategies to ensure that all strategies are positioned properly and according to specific investment objectives.

As Head of the Risk and Performance and Analytics Group and Chair of the firm’s Risk Oversight Committee, Ms. Stark is responsible for the evaluation and identification of discrepancies between the subjective views of portfolio managers and quantitative assessments. Additionally, Ms. Stark leads the firm’s efforts related to ESG integration into the investment processes as well as at the corporate level.

Ms. Stark began her investment career in 1988 working in various positions with a broker-dealer and in mortgage banking, where she held series 7 and 63 licenses. During her tenure with Westwood, Ms. Stark has held positions within trading, investment research and portfolio management. Prior to founding the Risk and Performance Analytics Group, Ms. Stark served in leadership roles within portfolio management and client services.

Ms. Stark graduated from the University of Colorado at Boulder, where she earned her BS degree in Finance and an MBA with an emphasis in Accounting. Ms. Stark has earned the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and Financial Risk Manager (FRM) designations as well as the Certificate in ESG Investing from the CFA Institute. Ms. Stark is a member of the CFA Institute, CFA Society of Dallas-Fort Worth and the Global Association of Risk Professionals.