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CMG @CMG_Cap

Consumer/Tech analyst New York, New York Joined March 2012
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Christopher Bloomstran @ChrisBloomstran

11 months ago

The CFA Institute is no longer the outstanding organization it was when I joined upon earning my charter 31 years ago. If you are a CFA charterholder and have not yet voted your proxy (deadline this Monday the 21st at noon Eastern) or may consider changing your vote, or are simply interested in an opinion as to how a once-great advocate for financial education, advocacy and ethics is failing a large proportion of its membership, please read on. Please also resend this message. I’ll get to the important proxy vote and bad governance on display shortly, which I hope all charterholders take the time to vote, but first, many likely saw the CFA Institute’s Chief Marketing Officer “allegedly” embezzled nearly $5 million from the Institute from 2016 to 2024, including $150k for an engagement ring, and another $1 million from another employer. He was indicted on June 23 by the Manhattan DA. Despite immediate media coverage, the institute waited more than two weeks to address the disaster with its membership and on July 8 finally sent an incredibly tone-deaf email update from its President and CEO, Margaret Franklin, CFA, paid $1.4 million compensation by the Institute in 2024. The accused embezzling CMO was earning $500k annually. The message took zero accountability, other than suggesting it would do better. As an institution that holds itself out as an exemplar of ethics, integrity, and that administers the CFA examination program, which focuses on accounting, financial statement analysis and ethics, among other subject matter, a failure to detect fraud over eight years is beyond a financial-controls black eye. It serves to destroy the CFA brand, already under assault from the way the organization sitting atop the membership and local member societies is managed and governed. The CFA membership received another email message from President and CEO Franklin three days later on July 11 which encouraged the members to vote their proxies. They need a quorum. Franklin is an infrequent direct communicator. I find only a New-Year’s message over the past two years from her in my inbox. Franklin’s urge to vote notes, “By voting, you and or your colleagues around the world will be electing a chair, vice chair, and governors to serve on the Board, and additional proposals related to Board governance.” The “additional proposals” the President and CEO FAILS TO DISCUSS are bylaw changes serving to grotesquely strip the membership and local societies of representation. The members and societies are the bedrock of the organization and for whom the President and CEO serves, and this year’s proxy initiatives are a perfect illustration of governance gone haywire. The proposals are an embarrassment to the Institute but more importantly to all 211,000 CFA charterholders globally. Specifically, proposals 1a, 1c, and 1d shift the election of the Chair and Vice Chair from the membership to the current CFA Institute Board, concentrating power within the Board and diluting the perpetually diminished role that members and societies play in shaping the direction of their global association. The proposals erode membership democracy, weakening transparency and member engagement in governance decisions. I voted AGAINST. Proposal 1e merges the Nominating and Governance Committees, restricting its composition to only current Governors. This removes multiple non-Governor perspectives, including two from the membership’s elected Presidents Council Representatives, PCRs. It is obscene that the current Board would introduce a proposal to self-select nominees to serve on the Board. Of course a one-sided, like-minded Board will work to perpetuate itself. Stunning. Between the four proposals the Board nominates itself and solely elects its Chair and Vice Chair. I voted AGAINST. 1/3

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