Nominating Committee

Punita Kumar-Sinha, PhD, CFA, has focused on investment management and governance roles during her 30-year career. Ms. Kumar-Sinha has been investing in emerging markets since the late 1980s and pioneered some of the first foreign investments in the Indian subcontinent in the early 1990s. She serves as an Independent Director and Chairs Audit, Stakeholders Relationship, and Risk Committees for many boards. Ms. Kumar-Sinha Chairs IIT Delhi’s Investment Advisory Board. Currently, she is the Founding Partner, Pacific Paradigm Advisors, an independent investment advisory firm focused on Asia, and a Senior Advisor to companies in India and North America. She is also Co-Founder of ParadigmARQ, an India focused quantitative AIF. Prior to this, Ms. Kumar-Sinha was a Senior Managing Director of Blackstone and the Head & Chief Investment Officer of Blackstone Asia Advisors. Prior to joining Blackstone, Ms. Kumar-Sinha was a Managing Director and Senior Portfolio Manager at Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. and CIBC World Markets, where she also managed India and Asia funds. She has also worked at Batterymarch (a Legg Mason company), Standish Ayer & Wood (a BNY Mellon company), JP Morgan, and IFC/World Bank.

Ms. Kumar-Sinha is frequently featured in the media and at global conferences as an expert commentator on Asian capital markets and women’s issues. Ms. Kumar-Sinha has a PhD and a Master of Finance from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. She received her undergraduate degree in Chemical Engineering with Distinction from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), New Delhi. She has an MBA and is a CFA charterholder. Ms. Kumar-Sinha is a member of CFA Institute, has been a member of the CFA Society Boston and India, a TiE Charter Member, and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Ms. Kumar-Sinha has been awarded the Distinguished Alumni Award from IIT Delhi. She has also been awarded the “Best Woman Director” in 2016 by Asian Center for Corporate Governance and Sustainability. She has been listed in BW Business World’s “Top 100 most influential women in India” in 2023, 2022 and 2021.

Mark Lazberger, CFA, has had a career in investment management with more than 35 years’ experience in global leadership roles working in Australia, Europe and Asia. He currently has non-executive director positions on Yarra Capital Management, Fisher Funds Management and Omnia Capital Partners. Until the end of 2018, Mark was the chief executive officer of Colonial First State Global Asset Management (CFSGAM) and First State Investments (now known as First Sentier Investors). In that role, Mr. Lazberger led the investment management firm which was a global specialist investment manager operating in 15 locations across the world, covering Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia, North America, Australia, and New Zealand. Mr. Lazberger had responsibility for more than $180 billion in assets under management invested in listed equities, debt, infrastructure, and property. Prior to taking up that position in 2008, Mr. Lazberger served as President, International of State Street Global Advisors (SSGA). Before this, he was President and CEO of State Street Japan and a principal and regional managing director of SSGA’s businesses in Japan and Australia. He joined State Street in 1991. Mr. Lazberger has a bachelor of commerce degree from the University of Western Australia and served two terms on the Board of Governors of CFA Institute (2012-18). He is a director of the Children’s Cancer Institute, a member of the Future of Finance Advisory Council and served on the board of Sydney Theatre Company.

Ms. Rothschild is an advisor to The TIFIN Group and a board member of the Financial Fitness Group. In her former role as president of Apex Fintech Solutions, she was responsible for the strategic planning, development, and overall growth of the company. She also directly oversaw internal and client-facing functions including sales, marketing, and product management.

Before joining Apex, Ms. Rothschild was Chief Product Officer and Co-Head of Global Markets at Morningstar, where she led a multi-million-dollar global portfolio of businesses including software, data, research and index solutions that served asset managers, wealth managers, and individual investors. In her 26-year career at the firm, she developed a focused advisor and wealth management segment strategy, launched the firm’s equity research business, drove content strategy for the firm’s individual investor website, and served as a securities analyst and editor.

Ms. Rothschild graduated with a bachelor of science degree from Northwestern University and holds a master’s degree in Russian and East European economics from Indiana University. She also sits on a small portfolio of private-company boards in the fintech and wealth-tech space.

Barbara Mainzer, CFA, is a Professor of Finance at Torcuato Di Tella in Argentina, where she teaches Wealth Management at the MBA, and is the Director of Wealth Managent in the Executive Education School. In her 27 year tenure as University Professor, she held the roles of Associate Chair of Finance, Capital Markets and Academic Coordinator of Finance at ORT University in Uruguay, where she taught for more than 20 years.
She is currently speaker and independent Advisor to Finance and Wealth Management Institutions and Columnist for El Observador and VTV.
Her experience in private banking includes client service, portfolio analysis, fiduciary and business management roles with institutions such as Merrill Lynch, where she held the position of Sales Manager for Argentina, Chile and Uruguay and with Julius Bär where she was business manager for the Latin America Southern Cone and Head of the local Uruguayan Office. She holds an Economics Degree from Universidad de la República (Uruguay).

Nivine is Associate Dean of Graduate, International, and External Programs and Professor of Finance in the Cameron School of Business at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. She earned her Ph.D. in finance from Florida Atlantic University and her B.S. in finance from the Pennsylvania State University. Her research focuses on mergers, commercial banking, payday lending, and behavioral finance. Prior to joining the academy, she served as a mortgage-backed securities trader for a regional dealer bank in Florida and Pennsylvania.