Over the past few months, I’ve focused these Executive Updates primarily on successes, updates, and news
within the society world. Meanwhile, CFA Institute has been busily working on advancing our organizational
strategy. In today’s update, we highlight some of the recent progress made within each business line.
ANNOUNCING PAUL MOODY AND THE GLOBAL PARTNERSHIPS & CLIENT SOLUTIONS DIVISION
As you may know, we recently welcomed Paul Moody to the organization, and he has hit the ground running since starting last month. Paul is based in London and has deep industry expertise in asset management, product development, and delivering client solutions.
In November 2021, we integrated our Regions, Societies, Marketing, and Customer Experience teams under one division. With Paul now on board overseeing the division, we have aptly renamed the team to Global Partnerships & Client Solutions to better describe the work we do supporting all our global partners and serving the industry. As Managing Director for the division, Paul will give our partners and customers a voice at the leadership table and help create connectivity across regions and Institutional Relations to support our strategy and go-to-market plans and to ensure that we deliver exceptional customer experiences.
PRODUCT PIPELINE AND PROFESSIONAL LEARNING ROADMAP
As we shared at the beginning of the year, the Professional Learning team recently launched two new education products: the Performance Attribution online course and the Data Science for Investment Professionals Specialization, which includes three online courses. Impressively, in just the first two months of the Data Science product, available on Coursera, we’ve seen nearly 2,000 enrolments across the world.
The Professional Learning team is now developing new online courses that we expect to launch this fiscal year. We plan to run an in-person Investment Management Workshop at Harvard Business School this summer after a two-year interruption due to the pandemic and will also be undertaking several pilot instructor-led trainings covering a range of soft- and technical-skill areas. In April, we’ll communicate more details about this and the rest of Professional Learning product portfolio, including the topics our education products will highlight and the formats we expect they’ll take.
To help keep societies informed and prepared, prior to future product deployments, societies will receive advance notice and tools to help them complement and/or amplify the products in their markets as they see fit. As our product development matures, we also envision engaging with some societies earlier on in the development process to seek input and feedback as well as discuss ideas.
DEI CODE AND RESEARCH CENTER
Over the past two years, the DEI Code Committee of the Board led the development of the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Code, a set of principles to drive greater DEI efforts within the investment industry, beginning in the US and Canada. Launched on 24 February 2022, the DEI Code outlines six areas of focus for organizations interested in committing to advance DEI: pipeline, talent acquisition, promotion and retention, leadership, influence, and measurement. The team included Implementation Guidance to make it easier for organizations to strategize, no matter where they are in their journey to advance DEI, as well as a Reporting Framework to track and measure process. The DEI Code Committee has plans to develop additional, regionally adapted DEI Codes in the future.
Similar to other codes and standards developed by CFA Institute, participation is voluntary, with CFA Institute among the Code’s first signatories. We are thrilled to announce that as of today, 22 March, 16 additional organizations—including CFA Society Boston and CFA Montréal—have come on board as signatories to the DEI code.
The Research, Advocacy & Standards team is working on the establishment of the CFA Institute Research and Policy Center, with the vision of creating a globally-recognized and influential community that will bring together next-generation industry experts and leaders to drive innovation, original research, and thought leadership that informs our advocacy positions and standards. The Research function will be led by the new Chief Economist at CFA Institute, Andres Vinelli, who will not only help to launch the new Research and Policy Center in the next fiscal year, but also guide economic market analysis and the creation of derivative products to inform and support our policy positions and the development of industry standards.
Be on the lookout for the 2022 Investor Trust Study Report in April and The Future of Skills and Learning soon after, which is part of our Future of Work in Investment Management series.
CREDENTIALING’S FOCUS ON THE FUTURE
Meanwhile, within Credentialing, the team continues to be focused on supporting program candidates as they navigate the effects of the pandemic. More recently, the team has begun to evaluate opportunities to modernize and grow the CFA Program. The work is aimed at ensuring the program is fit-for-purpose long-term and that it continues to serve the evolving investment industry and the professionals of the future.
We anticipate sharing more as this work takes shape. Chris Wiese, CFA, former Head of Exam Delivery, was recently promoted to Managing Director, Credentialing after Peg Jobst announced her retirement. I am excited to work more closely with Chris, having known him in his various roles helping to deliver the CFA Program since I joined CFA Institute myself 10 years ago.
MORE TO COME
Next month, we plan to share more about the progress we’re making on key components of the Society Operating Model and tee up our Business Planning and Operating Standards (BPOS) process for next fiscal year. It’s hard to believe we’re more than halfway through the year by now.
Thank you all for your continued dedication to our shared mission.
Membership
Reminder: Confirmation of Member Dues and Currency by 28 March
Society Member Dues Rates and Currency Remittance selection for Member Year 2023 must be entered and approved by Monday, 28 March 2022. Please visit Society Center (Society Management > Society Dues) for additional information, including resources to guide you in completing the process. If you do not fulfil these steps, your current dues rates and currency selection will carry-over to next member year. Please contact your SRM with any questions.
Featured CFA Society Community Content
Society Event Spotlight: Atlanta, GA, USA
Outreach: Volunteer Opportunities
Call for CFA Exam Graders
We rely on our CFA charterholder volunteers to grade the Level III essay exams. Given the increase in the number of exam and grading sessions in the CBT environments, we are recruiting more volunteers interested in serving as graders.
To support our recruitment, we are asking you to help us spread the word to your society members and encourage them to express their interest in becoming a future grader. Find out more details about upcoming grading sessions and sample promotional text.
Global Industry Standards Volunteer Opportunities
Contribute directly to the mission of CFA Institute by participating in the development and promotion of standards and best practices that benefit the global investment community through our Global Industry Standards (GIS) volunteer opportunities. We are recruiting volunteers to serve on the following GIS committees, subcommittees, and working group, for chair or member positions.
We invite you to explore the available positions and share them with your society members. All applications close on 5 pm ET on 15 May.
Credentialing and Candidate Support
CFA Program Price Changes
As we consider ways to modernize and grow the CFA Program, a strategic focus area for the organization, we have decided to implement price changes to our CFA Program fees and registration costs in 2023.
Beginning with our 2023 exam cycle, the price of the one-time enrollment fee will decrease from USD 450 to USD 350. The prices to register for each individual exam will increase from USD 700 to USD 900 for early registration and from USD 1,000 to USD 1,200 for standard registration. Find out more information.
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