SANTA MONICA, Calif., June 3, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Wilshire Consulting, the institutional investment advisory and outsourced-CIO business unit of Wilshire Associates Incorporated (Wilshire®), today announced that it has added to its team of senior consultants with the hiring of Robert Appling, CFA, CAIA, Rose Dean, and Ryan Lennie, CFA. In addition, Marlin Pease, CFA, has rejoined Wilshire Consulting.
"We are delighted to welcome consultants of Rob, Rose and Ryan's caliber to Wilshire Consulting," said Julia K. Bonafede, CFA, president of Wilshire Consulting. "Their expertise and experience has allowed them to quickly become integral members of our Denver, Santa Monica and Pittsburgh-based consulting teams, respectively," she added. "Naturally, we are elated to have Marlin rejoin the firm after serving as senior investment analyst at the University of Pittsburgh for the past year. His deep knowledge of Wilshire Consulting and our clients, along with his related experience at the University of Pittsburgh, is invaluable."
"These four hires reflect our commitment to our clients and dedication to providing them with the high quality advice and expertise they have become accustomed to from Wilshire Consulting," Bonafede noted.
Appling joins Wilshire Consulting as a managing director after nearly eight years at Mercer, where he served as a principal and director of investments for the central U.S., providing both advisory and discretionary consulting services to the firm's institutional clients. He was also a senior investment consultant at Hammond Associates, which was acquired by Mercer in 2011. He holds the Chartered Financial Analyst and Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst designations. Appling earned a BS in economics from Texas A&M University and an MBA, with concentration in finance, from the University of Missouri-St. Louis.
Dean, a vice president, joins Wilshire Consulting from a recent position as a director for Umoya Capital. Previously, Dean was a director for hedge fund research with Harcourt Alternative Investments. She also worked seven years for Citigroup, including as director of the firm's Treasury portfolio. Dean received an MBA in international brand management from ESSEC (École Supérieure Des Sciences Économiques Et Commerciales), Paris, France. She also earned an MBA in finance from the University Of Chicago Booth School Of Business, and a BS in chemistry from the University of Chicago.
Prior to joining Wilshire Consulting as a managing director, Lennie worked ten years for Gallagher Fiduciary Advisors, most recently as the lead consultant to healthcare, corporate, endowment, foundation and family trust clients. In addition, Lennie chaired Gallagher's Research Committee and also was a member of its Investment Committee, which had the responsibility for overseeing all decisions implemented on behalf of the firm's discretionary clients. He earned a BS in mechanical engineering from Penn State University and an MBA from Emory University's Goizueta Business School. Lennie holds the Chartered Financial Analyst designation and is active in the CFA Society of Pittsburgh.
Pease, a managing director, rejoins Wilshire Consulting from his recent position as senior investment analyst at the University of Pittsburgh. His previous tenure at Wilshire spanned 2004 through 2013, and included experience as a member of a consulting team, as well as a member of the Wilshire Compass client service team. Pease has more than 20 years of experience, including work with Yanni Partners as a senior consultant. Earlier in his career, Pease was the director of finance and assistant treasurer at the University of Pittsburgh. Pease earned a Master of Information Science degree from the University of Pittsburgh. He holds the Chartered Financial Analyst designation and is a member of the CFA Institute and the Pittsburgh Society of Financial Analysts.
About Wilshire Consulting
The institutional investment advisory and outsourced-CIO business unit of Wilshire Associates, Wilshire Consulting has provided custom investment consulting solutions to plan sponsors for nearly 35 years. Established in 1981, advisory consulting is the core of its consulting relationships. Wilshire consultants provide strategic advice on asset-liability analysis, asset allocation, investment policy development, asset class structuring, investment manager evaluation and monitoring and performance measurement.
Wilshire Consulting's customized OCIO services include full discretionary services or implemented services where plans outsource their back office. Wilshire's Actuarial Services Group works closely with Wilshire Consultants and the OCIO team, in a non-advisory capacity, to assist clients with managing their plan through this challenging environment.
As a leader in risk management and cost control, Wilshire Consulting excels at providing advisory consulting, discretionary and investment technology solutions and actuarial services to the market place. It currently provides consulting services to some of the nation's largest public and corporate retirement plans, endowments, foundations and major insurance companies with combined total assets of nearly $1 trillion. Follow us on Twitter: @WilshireConsult.
About Wilshire Associates
Wilshire Associates, a leading global, independent investment consulting and services firm, provides consulting services, analytics solutions and customized investment products to plan sponsors, investment managers and financial intermediaries. Its business units include Wilshire Analytics, Wilshire Consulting, Wilshire Funds Management and Wilshire Private Markets. The firm was founded in 1972, providing revolutionary technology and acting as an early innovator in the application of investment analytics and research to investment managers in the institutional marketplace. Wilshire also is credited with helping to develop the field of quantitative investment analysis that uses mathematical tools to analyze market risks. All other business units evolved from Wilshire's strong analytics foundation. Wilshire developed the Wilshire 5000 Total Market IndexSM and became an early innovator in creating integrated asset/liability analysis/simulation models as well as practical models in risk budgeting through beta and active risk analysis. Wilshire has grown to a firm of more than 300 employees serving the needs of investors around the world.
Based in Santa Monica, Calif., Wilshire serves over 500 clients across 20 countries with combined assets exceeding $7 trillion*. With 11 offices on four continents, Wilshire Associates and its affiliates are dedicated to providing clients with the highest quality counsel, products and services. Wilshire® is a registered service mark of Wilshire Associates Incorporated. Wilshire 5000 Total Market IndexSM is a service mark of Wilshire Associates Incorporated. Please visit http://www.wilshire.com.
*Client assets are as represented by Pensions and Investments, detailed in P&I's "Largest Retirement Funds" and P&I's "Largest Money Managers (U.S. institutional tax-exempt assets)" as of 9/30/13 and 12/31/13, and published 2/3/14 and 5/26/14, respectively.