About Us

Rob Arnott

Rob Arnott is founder and chairman of the board of Research Affiliates. Rob plays an active role in the firm’s research, portfolio management, product innovation, business strategy, and client-facing activities. He is a member of the Executive Committee of the board. Rob is co-portfolio manager on the PIMCO All Asset and All Asset All Authority funds and the PIMCO RAE™ funds.

Over his career, Rob has endeavored to bridge the worlds of academic theorists and financial markets, challenging conventional wisdom and searching for solutions that add value for investors. He has pioneered several unconventional portfolio strategies that are now widely applied, including tactical asset allocation, global tactical asset allocation, tax-advantaged equity management, and the Fundamental Index™ approach to investing. His success in doing so has resulted in a reputation as one of the world’s most provocative practitioners and respected financial analysts.

In 2002, Rob founded Research Affiliates as a research-intensive asset management firm intent on delivering innovative and impactful products and insights.

Rob has published more than 150 articles in such publications as the Journal of Portfolio Management, Harvard Business Review, and Financial Analysts Journal, for whom he served as editor in chief from 2002 through 2006. Rob has received eight Graham and Dodd Scrolls, which are awarded annually by CFA Institute to the top Financial Analysts Journal articles of the year. He also has received four Bernstein Fabozzi/Jacobs Levy awards from the Journal of Portfolio Management. In 2013, Rob received the William F. Sharpe Indexing Lifetime Achievement Award. He is co-author of The Fundamental Index: A Better Way to Invest (Wiley 2008).

Chris Brightman*

Chris Brightman, as CEO, leads the firm by establishing its business strategy and policies to execute on its mission to be a leading source of insights and products transforming the global investment community for the benefit of investors. As CIO, Chris leads the investment teams and supervises research and development activities, provision of index strategies, and management of client portfolios. He is co-portfolio manager on the PIMCO All Asset and All Asset All Authority funds and the PIMCO RAE™ funds. Chris is a member of the board of Research Affiliates.

Chris joined Research Affiliates in 2010 as the director of strategy and head of investment management, became CIO in 2014, and CEO in 2021. Chris has four decades of investment management experience in equities, fixed income, currency, and asset allocation. He has traded securities and derivatives, managed portfolios, supervised quantitative product development, and allocated assets to alternative investment strategies. He also has extensive organizational and people management expertise.

Before joining Research Affiliates in 2010, Chris was the chief executive officer of the University of Virginia Investment Management Company for five years and the chief investment officer of Strategic Investment Group for four years. He has also served as the board chair of The Investment Fund for Foundations (TIFF), director of global equity strategy at UBS Asset Management, senior portfolio manager at Brinson Partners, vice president and head of asset/liability management at Maryland National Bank, and associate national bank examiner at the Comptroller of the Currency.

Chris received a BS in finance from Virginia Tech and an MBA from Loyola University, Maryland. Chris holds the Chartered Financial Analyst® designation and is a member of CFA Institute and CFA Society Orange County.

Que Nguyen

Que Nguyen leads the cross-sectional equity research and strategy design that supports the firm’s systematic active portfolios and smart beta indices. She works in close collaboration with the PIMCO RAE™ portfolio managers and Research Affiliates’ academic advisors. Que is a member of the Management Committee of Research Affiliates.

Prior to joining Research Affiliates, Que was a managing director at Willett Advisors for seven years. Previous to that position, she was a managing director at the University of Chicago Office of Investments. Que has also worked at Numeric Investors, Morgan Stanley, State Street, and Barra.

Que received an AB honors degree from Harvard University in applied mathematics with an emphasis in economics.

Jim Masturzo, CFA*

Jim Masturzo is the CIO of Multi-Asset Strategies and is responsible for the firm’s tactical asset allocation and cross-asset portfolios. Jim joined Research Affiliates in 2013 and took over leadership of multi-asset activities in 2018. In this role Jim oversees research and product development for cross-asset portfolios, including both asset allocation strategies as well as global active futures-based portfolios. He is also co-portfolio manager on the PIMCO All Asset and All Asset All Authority funds.

Jim regularly writes about capital markets and oversees the firm’s public asset-allocation resources, specifically the Asset Allocation Interactive tool. Jim is a member of the Management Committee of Research Affiliates.

Prior to joining Research Affiliates, Jim worked at EquiLend, a firm focused on securities lending, and at Bloomberg specializing in portfolio analytics. In that role Jim advised portfolio managers on best practices related to performance measurement, attribution, and risk analytics for equity and fixed income portfolios.

Jim has a BS in electrical engineering from Cornell University and an MBA from the Duke University Fuqua School of Business. He holds the Chartered Financial Analyst® designation and is a member of CFA Institute and CFA Society Orange County.

Katrina F. Sherrerd, PhD, CFA*

Katrina F. Sherrerd serves as Vice Chair and member of the Executive Committee of the board of Research Affiliates. Katy joined Research Affiliates in 2006 as a managing director responsible for strategic planning and affiliate relations, and served as the CEO, president, and COO before becoming the vice chair.

Throughout her professional career, Katy has worked to further groundbreaking investment research and to encourage the continuing education of investment professionals around the world. Prior to joining Research Affiliates, she spent 19 years in various roles at CFA Institute, the largest global association of investment professionals. As part of the CFA Institute leadership team, she led the research and education effort, including oversight of the Financial Analysts Journal, and spearheaded strategic planning. She was also the executive director and member of the board of trustees of the CFA Institute Research Foundation.

Katy currently serves on the boards of Rayliant Global Advisors and the Shipley School and is a member of the Advisory Council for the Financial Analysts Journal and the Women Investing in Security & Education (WISE) Tearing Down the Pink Wall Advisory Board.

Katy received her BS in finance from the University of Virginia’s McIntire School, an MS from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a PhD in finance from the Darden School at the University of Virginia. She holds the Chartered Financial Analyst® designation and is a member of CFA Institute. In 2020 and 2021, Katy was named by Barron’s as one of the 100 Most Influential Women in US Finance and in 2024 Katy was named one of P&I’s Most Influential Women in Institutional Investing.

*As of 14 August 2025, Chris Brightman, CEO and CIO of Research Affiliates, is on a medical leave of absence. During his leave, Jim Masturzo, Partner and CIO of Multi-Asset Strategies, is serving as Acting CIO, while Katy Sherrerd, Vice Chair and member of Research Affiliates’ Executive Committee and the previous CEO of Research Affiliates from 2018 to 2021, is serving as Acting CEO.