MFDF names Tantra to succeed Buddy Donohue as board chair

The Mutual Fund Directors Forum (MFDF) has chosen Heartland Funds board chair and Global Rhino co-CEO Dina Tantra to take over as chair of its board of directors at the end of 2025 following the expected retirement of current chair Andrew J. “Buddy” Donohue.

Tantra, who was elected to the board in early 2024, will serve through the rest of 2025 in the newly created role of chair-elect, which the organization created to bring the new chair up to speed and ease the transition to a new chair following Donohue’s departure after three years as chair.

“Buddy is so well known and so well respected from his time in the industry and at the SEC and as an independent director,” Tantra said. “The board felt a bit of overlap would really be a great practice.”

During more than four decades in the investment industry Donohue has served as director of the SEC’s Division of Investment Management and as chief of staff to then-SEC chair Mary Jo White. In the private sector he served as investment-company general counsel at Goldman Sachs & Co and as a senior securities attorney at the law firms Morgan Lewis & Bockius and Shearman & Sterling LLP and as independent director of the BNY Mellon Family of Funds.

Donohue made critical contributions to the MFDF’s effort to evolve its focus and support for independent directors during a time of rapid change in the industry, MFDF president Carolyn McPhillips said in the announcement of Tantra’s election.

He and the board will continue that evolution during 2025 to help make the MFDF “a strong voice for the needs and responsibilities” of its members, Donohue said in the announcement. Tantra’s election helps ensure “those efforts will be in great hands,” he said.

Tantra history and focus

Tantra currently serves as board chair at Heartland Funds and serves as independent trustee and chair of the nominating and governance committees at both Thornburg Income Builder Opportunities Fund and Boston Trust Walden mutual funds.

She was named Fund Directions’ Newcomer Trustee of the Year in 2024, which recognizes the contributions of independent directors who have held their seats for less than five years, for her contributions to the oversight of those three funds.

Since 2018 she has been co-CEO of the strategic advisory firm Global Rhino, LLC, which advises asset managers on improving their management of the asset management business as well as their money management.

She formerly served as CEO and interested director at series-trust company Advisers Investment Trust, as chief strategy officer for CCO Technology and as director and general counsel for Beacon Hill Fund Services.

“MFDF takes succession planning very seriously, as do boards at many fund families, and we felt that since MFDF embraces best-governance practices, this would be an excellent opportunity to demonstrate that and ensure we had a smooth handoff,” Tantra said.

During 2025 and 2026 the board will continue to push MFDF to extend the scope and depth of its educational content and opportunities for members, focusing not just on changes in the regulatory environment, but also on the rapid expansion of new products and alternative assets, economic changes and the rise in competition for positions on fund boards for both new and experienced directors, Tantra said.

“There is a lot going on in the industry and I think MFDF is doing a nice job of creating content and support for independent directors who need to keep up with that quick pace and with an ever-shifting environment,” Tantra said.

New products and the growth of ETFs, closed-end funds, interval funds, tender offers and other opportunities are democratizing the alternative markets, leaving board directors with questions about things like whether a fund-family’s expansion into a new field requires the creation of a new board or other change in governance structure.

“Independent directors are trying to stay on top of those changes,” she said. “That kind of toeing the line on governance is where we’re best focused.

“You’re seeing content come out of MFDF with – call it a university perspective – a 101, 201, 301 series of educational offerings where the content gets more complex because boards are facing more complex issues with these different types of products,” she said. “I see directors becoming more and more savvy, learning to educate themselves, whether through MFDF or self-study or other methods., which is why you’ve seen the content of our white papers and webinars getting a lot more sophisticated.”

MFDF is extending its networking and long-term training and skills development efforts as well, Tantra said, to serve the growing number people who see directorships as a logical extension to already successful careers, she said.

“If you are a very successful person in the industry, you don’t simply retire and play golf or pickleball or whatever,” Tantra said. “You want to stay plugged in. You want to challenge yourself.”

“But this is not a job where you are just appointed. It’s one directors have had to earn, but there are only so many seats, which means more competition,” Tantra said.

“We want to evolve as the directors evolve and we’re creating this layering of education for those who may have been on the board for three to five years,” she said. “We’re really trying to meet with independent directors where they’re at and provide opportunities to grow within their ecosystem by creating opportunities to talk about how do you evolve as a sitting director into a lead role, whether it’s as independent lead independent director or chair position or rotating through committee chairs, for example.”