Panelists

James D. McCool
Executive Vice President, Institutional Services, The Charles Schwab Corporation

James D. McCool leads the Institutional Services business, serving independent investment advisors plus corporate clients and their employees.

Institutional Services provides custodial, operational and trading support for more than 6,000 independent investment advisory firms that serve 1.5 million individual clients. It also offers a spectrum of corporate retirement and brokerage services, either directly to corporations or through third party administrators. These services include employer-sponsored retirement plans, stock plans, and corporate brokerage services, in addition to recordkeeping, trustee and custodial services. McCool also oversees Schwab’s investment-only sales and mutual fund clearing businesses. He is a member of Schwab’s Operating Council.

A veteran of the financial services industry with extensive experience in the business-to-business model, McCool began his career in the retirement plan servicing industry in 1984 as one of the initial employees of The Hampton Company, which became a wholly owned subsidiary of The Charles Schwab Corporation in 1995. Most recently, he served as executive vice president of Corporate and Retirement Services. Prior to that, he was senior vice president and general manager of the Plan Administrator Services enterprise serving third party administrators and retirement advisors, and he has held management positions in several departments, including client and participant services, employee education, daily valuation operations, product development, conversion and ERISA compliance and consulting.

McCool is active in government affairs on issues of regulatory reform affecting defined contribution plans and has provided expert testimony on various issues involving the retirement plan industry. He is a frequent speaker before various industry groups as well as professional organizations in the investment, legal and actuarial professions. McCool was appointed to the ERISA Advisory Council in 2005 and served as chair in 2007. McCool has also served as a delegate for the 2002 National Summit on Retirement Savings and was chairman of the SPARK/ National Defined Contribution Council (NDCC) Institute Investment Advice Task Force, which was charged with developing educational materials for key members of U.S. Representative John A. Boehner's Education and the Workforce Committee.

McCool earned his Bachelor of Science degree in business administration from the University of Akron. He is a member of the American Society of Pension Professionals & Actuaries (ASPPA) and holds multiple securities licenses.

Paul Christopher, CFA
Chief International Investment Stategist, Wells Fargo Advisors

Paul is chief international investment strategist in ASG. He focuses on the international economic outlook and offers investment advice on currencies and commodities. Prior to joining Wells Fargo Advisors, he developed economic strategies to trade in global financial and commodity futures markets for Eclipse Capital Management. In previous positions, Paul supplied international economic perspectives for A.G. Edwards, and advised institutional clients of Istanbul-based Global Securities on the oil-based economies of the Caucasus and Central Asia. In addition, he consulted with the governments of Hong Kong, Egypt, Russia, Kazakhstan and the Kyrgyz Republic on monetary policy issues.

Paul serves on the firm’s Investment Strategy Committee and is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) charterholder. Paul has been frequently quoted in national media outlets such as The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Forbes, Time, Investor's Business Daily, USA Today , Bloomberg News, ABC News, NBC News, CNBC and CNNfn. He received his B.A. in Economics and Spanish from Saint Louis University and his M.A. in Economics from the University of Rochester.

Lynn S. Hamilton
Senior Vice President and Portfolio Manager, Key Bank

Lynn S. Hamilton is a Senior Vice President and Portfolio Manager at Key Bank. He has been managing investments since 1977. In 1982 he joined Investment Management & Trust Services, a Key Bank affiliate. He has been there ever since, and now serves as a member of Key’s National Strategy committee. Lynn received his Bachelor of Arts from the College of Wooster and his Masters of Business Administration from Miami University.

Lynn has been profiled in Medical Economics, Kiplinger, American Banker and Barrons. He has also appeared on CNBC’s “Your Portfolio”. Along with being a member of the Cleveland Society of Security Analysts, Lynn is a Williamson Fellow, through Youngstown State Universities Williamson Graduate School of Business.

Active in the community, Lynn serves as a board member of many civic and cultural organizations, as well as educational institutions. He is a board member of the Rodney Klein Stock Market Library and Museum in Massillon, Ohio. His wife, Cheryl is a graduate of The University of Akron with a B.S. in mechanical engineering.