Every year, Fund Directions’ annual awards recognize achievements in the world of fund oversight.
This year’s nominees for the Trustee of the Year award – which goes to fund trustees from boards that oversee $30bn or more in fund assets – include industry veterans from the Neuberger Berman, Putnam, Cohen & Steers, and Harbor funds.
The winners will be announced the night of June 18 at the Mutual Fund & ETF Awards in New York City.
Look for more awards coverage, including a profile of our soon-to-be-announced Lifetime Achievement Award winner, in the June digital issue of Fund Directions.
Congratulations, and good luck to all the nominees.
Trustee of the Year nominees
George Morriss, Neuberger Berman Funds
Morriss, 77, joined the Neuberger Berman fund board in 2007 and has been chair of the board’s closed-end fund committee since 2018 after serving as chair of the audit committee from 2011 through 2017.
As chair of that committee, Morriss guided the board through multiple run-ins with closed-end fund activist fund Saba Capital Management, which targeted Neuberger’s High Yield Strategies Fund in 2019 and 2020 and launched a new campaign against the Neuberger Berman Municipal Fund in April.
Prior to his career on fund boards, Morriss was CFO of People’s United Bank from 1991 to 2001 and an adjunct professor at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs from 2012 to 2018.
In addition to his work on the Neuberger board, Morriss also serves as independent chair of the Thrivent Church Loan and Income Fund and as an independent director for the 1 William Street Credit Income Fund.
Morriss was previously named Fund Directions‘ Trustee of the Year in 2018 for his work on derivatives reporting, fair valuation, and risk management as audit chair of the Neuberger board.
Kenneth Leibler, Putnam Funds
Leibler, 75, has been chair of the Putnam Funds Trust since 2018, and served as vice chair from 2016 to 2018.
In 2023, Leibler led the board’s oversight of the $142bn Putnam Funds during Franklin Templeton’s $1bn acquisition of Putnam Investments from Great-West Lifeco, Inc. The transaction was the biggest fund-industry acquisition of 2023, pushing Franklin Templeton’s total assets under management above $1.5trn.
Leibler, who joined the board in 2006, previously founded the Boston Options Exchange, where he served as CEO from 2001 to 2004 and as chairman from 2001 to 2007. Before that he served as president and CEO of Liberty Financial Companies, Inc. from 1990 to 2000 and as president of the American Stock Exchange from 1986 to 1990.
He currently sits on the board of Eversource Corp. and on the investment committee of the Boston Arts Academy Foundation.
Michael Clark, Cohen & Steers Funds
Clark, 59, joined the board of the Cohen & Steers Funds in 2011 and has been lead independent director since 2018. He chaired the board’s nominating committee between 2015 and 2022 and its dividend committee from 2018 to 2022.
In October 2023, Clark was elected to the governing council of the Independent Directors Council (IDC).
As an IDC governing council member, Clark participated in an in-person meeting on Oct. 11 between IDC representatives and the SEC’s then-director of the Division of Investment Management William Birdthistle to discuss SEC rule proposals widely opposed by fund-industry companies, including proposals for new rules regulating open-end fund liquidity, ESG disclosure, and predictive analytics.
From 2006 to 2011, Clark was president and CEO of DWS Funds and a managing director at Deutsche Asset Management.
Kathryn Quirk, Harbor Funds
Quirk, 71, joined the board of the Harbor Funds in 2017 and has been lead independent trustee since 2020.
She was the lead author of the board’s March 2023 comment letter criticizing the SEC’s open-end fund swing pricing proposal. The comment letter was part of an unprecedented mobilization of fund boards, more than 30 of which used the public-comment process to register their opposition to the open-end-fund liquidity/swing-pricing rule many called a once-in-a-lifetime threat to the interests of mutual-fund shareholders.
In October 2023, Quirk was elected to the governing council of the Independent Directors Council (IDC).
As an IDC governing council member, Quirk participated in an in-person meeting on Oct. 11 between IDC representatives and the SEC’s then-director of the Division of Investment Management William Birdthistle to discuss SEC rule proposals widely opposed by fund-industry companies, including proposals for new rules regulating open-end fund liquidity, ESG disclosure, and predictive analytics.
Prior to her career as a fund director, Quirk was a senior compliance officer and head of US regulatory compliance at Goldman Sachs Asset Management from 2013 to 2017.
She was deputy chief legal officer for asset management and corporate counsel at Prudential Insurance Company of America from 2004 to 2012 and general counsel and CCO at Zurich Scudder Investments from 1997 to 2002. Quirk also held a seat on the board of Just World International, Inc., from 2020 to 2023.
