James Scheinberg CIMA^®, PRP
Managing Partner, Founder & Chief Investment Officer

Born and raised in the North Suburbs of Chicago, Jim Scheinberg came to Southern California in 1987 to pursue his B.A. in Political Science at University of California, Los Angeles. He achieved the Certified Investment Management Analyst (CIMA®) designation in 2001 from The Investment Management Consultants Association (IMCA®) in conjunction with the Wharton School of Business of the University of Pennsylvania. He is a published author, a frequently quoted resource to journalists, a regular speaker at industry conferences, and guest on finance podcasts. Jim also regularly serves as a consulting expert for U.S. government regulatory agencies and as an expert witness for ERISA litigation. He is also a member of the Chancellor's Cabinet of UCLA, sitting on the Board of Visitors of the Political Science Department. Jim passionately serves as a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) for foster care youth in the Los Angeles County Children's Court system.

Jim began his career in venture capital in 1990 moving to general securities with Smith Barney Harris Upham in 1992. He joined Oppenheimer & Co., Inc. in 1994 as an Associate in the Oppenheimer Consulting Group, the firm's institutional investment management consulting department, where he worked with institutional fiduciary clients. In 2001, Jim founded what would become the Corporate Services Group of Oppenheimer Co., Inc. (CSG), where he eventually held the position of Director and Senior Vice President. CSG was an industry pioneer in providing conflict-free, fee-only investment consulting and fiduciary advocacy for institutional, participant-directed plan sponsors. In 2008, Jim and key members of CSG founded North Pier.

Professional Activities

Member of the Board of Visitors of the UCLA Political Science Department
Member of the Sharpe Fellows Selection Committee of the UCLA Economics Department
Member of Investment Management Consultants Association (IMCA)
Court Appointed Special Advocate for the Los Angeles County Children's Court

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Gregory D. Metzger CPFA®, NQPA®, AIF®
Senior Consultant

Born and raised in Los Angeles, Greg moved to the Midwest in 1981 to pursue his B.A. in Economics and History at Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio. In 1996, he studied leadership at the Harvard Business School, was a guest lecturer at Wharton School of Business' annual symposium on household finance from 1999 to 2001, and has been a respondent for scholarly papers from top business schools. He was selected by his peers on the National Defined Contribution Council to educate the U.S. Congress on retirement issues and advocate legislation.

Gregory D. Metzger began his career in retirement consulting in 1985 at Kwasha Lipton. In 1990, he moved back to Los Angeles, joining Towers Perrin as a Defined Contribution Consultant. At Ernst & Young, he became the National Practice Leader for Defined Contribution in 1992. In 1993, he joined The Wyatt Company (later Watson Wyatt, then Towers Watson) where he headed up the defined contribution recordkeeping practice for the Western United States. In 1996, he became The Director of Defined Contribution Consulting, North America. At Watson Wyatt, he created and led a vendor selection service which served over 200 clients and placed more than $90 billion in assets.

Greg is considered a thought leader in the defined contribution consulting and vendor search field. He conceived and developed a conference branded as “the 360o Vendor Conference” to elevate industry standard for defined contribution administration which was regularly attended by the largest plan recordkeepers and was rated as best ever attended by the top 15. He conceived and co-developed PathfinderTM, the first e-Commerce application for institutional investing, creating a new market with multi-billion dollar annual transaction volume. He also co-developed the 401(k) value index used by over 400 plan sponsors to measure the effectiveness of their plan design, communication, administration and investments. He has also been quoted in trade and mass market periodicals including Pension & Investments, Institutional Investor, CFO, Plan Sponsor, Fortune, Money, Business Insurance, Employee Benefits News, New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Journal of Risk Management. Greg has authored and published papers and articles, as well as spoken and led national conferences.

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Freeman Wood CPFA
Senior Consultant

Freeman Wood joined North Pier as a senior consultant with a broad background and significant expertise in investment management, alternative investments, and financial risk management.

Most recently Freeman led Mercer Investment Consulting's alternative investment business development efforts in the U.S. which included development and sales of customized and commingled fund private market and hedge fund investment solutions for institutional investors across wealth, retirement, and not-for-profit sectors. Prior to that Freeman led Mercer Sentinel's Americas team that specializes in investment manager operational risk assessment and due diligence, manager transitions, and custodian bank evaluation consulting.

Prior to joining Mercer, Freeman led quantitative market and credit risk management teams within large banks, corporate treasury functions, and regulators, and has experience in derivatives trading and alternative investment portfolios. Immediately prior to joining Mercer, he was head of investments and risk management for a hedge fund of funds. Prior to that, Freeman was with Ford Motor Company for eight years in a variety of roles including Chief Risk Officer and Head of International Treasury. Freeman's other experiences include four years with BNP Paribas as Head of Market Risk Management for North American proprietary trading activities in New York, six years with the Federal Reserve in banking supervision, and three years equity options trading on the floor of the CBOE.

Freeman holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Allegheny College and an MBA from Northwestern's J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management.

Frank Szymanek JD, CPA, CFA, CIMA®
Senior Consultant

Frank Szymanek joined North Pier as a Senior Consultant with significant expertise in institutional asset management, fiduciary support, and search / due diligence services. He brings his broad and deep background in financial services to deliver high value-add advice to his clients.

Most recently, Frank was a Senior Consultant with PlanPILOT, a boutique consulting firm based in Chicago where he was focused on advising not-for-profit and educational institutions. He was the OCIO Specialist, which included relationship development and provision of search and due diligence services, leading service provider analysis, and producing insightful and timely intellectual capital. He also led benchmarking analysis and searches, including for recordkeepers, retirement plan advisors, and participant communications / financial wellness providers.

Prior to that, Frank spent over twenty years with The Northern Trust Company in Chicago. His roles primarily focused on relationship management with institutional and family office / wealth management clients. One of his roles was that of Client Portfolio Manager, which involved defining, implementing and servicing multi-asset class portfolios. Frank began his career providing employee benefits consulting and retirement plan administration.

Frank holds a JD with highest honors from The John Marshall Law School (now part of the University of Illinois – Chicago), and a B.S. with highest honors in Economics and Accounting from Elmhurst College (now Elmhurst University). He holds the CIMA® and CFP certifications, which entail substantial continuing education commitments, and earned the JD and CPA designations.

Laura Renshaw CEBS®
Senior Consultant

Laura Renshaw joined North Pier as a Senior Consultant with over 20 years of industry experience working with a broad range of institutional retirement benefit plans, plan fiduciaries, and client service teams. She is well versed in project leadership, vendor search management, due diligence research, and supporting healthy plan and participant outcomes.

Prior to joining North Pier, Laura spent more than a decade focused solely on all aspects of the retirement plan evaluation and search process as a Search Consultant for an independent search firm with a focus on a Fortune 500 clientele. She also led the search and vendor research efforts as the Director of Vendor Services at Multnomah Group, a Pacific Northwest based investment consulting firm. In addition, Laura spent several years supporting defined contribution recordkeeping clients in varying roles at Merrill Lynch.   

Laura holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration, specializing in Finance, from Central Washington University. She earned a Certified Employee Benefits Specialist (CEBS®) designation from the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans (IFEBP) in partnership with the Wharton School of Business and is a Gold Member with the International Society of CEBS. Laura is a previous Board Member with the Seattle Chapter of the Western Pension & Benefits Council (WPBC). Current memberships include IFEBP, WPBC, and ASPPA.

Robert (Bobby) DiMatteo
Head of Business Development

Robert DiMatteo (Bobby) joined North Pier to help bring fiduciary advocacy to asset owners. He leverages a varied background spanning endowments, family offices, alternative asset managers, and the global capital markets in his leadership of new business growth at North Pier.

Bobby is originally from the suburbs of Boston, attended Bowdoin College in Maine, spent five years living in Hong Kong, eight years in New York City, a short stint in Boston, and now resides outside of Philadelphia with his young, growing family. He speaks Mandarin, played Division III football in college, and has recently been competing in triathlons.

Prior to joining North Pier, Bobby was an investor and first commercial employee at a Fintech startup bringing enterprise working capital management to the small-to-medium sized businesses. After thirteen years working in a variety of capital markets and investment advisory roles at Credit Suisse in Hong Kong and New York, Bobby helped to establish a family office and pursued a captive investment strategy alongside a serial healthcare entrepreneur in Boston. Bobby began his career in the endowment office of Bowdoin College. He is excited to be helping fiduciaries at Endowments, Foundations, Family Offices and ERISA Defined Benefit and 401(k) Plan Sponsors evaluate, select, and oversee investment consultants, OCIOs, and related service providers.

Valeria Jaramillo CPFA®
Analyst

Valeria Jaramillo is an Analyst at North Pier, conducting research and analysis as well as client consultations. She is presently a 2023 candidate for the Certified Financial Planner (CFP) designation. Originally from Barranquilla, Colombia, Valeria came to the United States to compete as a professional golfer.

Upon moving to Los Angeles, she worked at a national wealth management firm, developing her skills in multiple areas of financial planning as well as giving her a strong sense of duty and discipline. Valeria has a Bachelor’s Degree in International Business Management from Lynn University in Florida and a Certification in Finance and Personal Financial Planning from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Brant J. Griffin QKA, AIFA^®, PRP
Partner, Founder and Chief Compliance Officer

Originally from Virginia, Brant earned his B.A. in Economics from Elon University in North Carolina. In 1995, Brant commenced his career with T. Rowe Price & Associates as a Senior Retirement Plan Consultant where he advised emerging companies in the evaluation of their qualified plan options. In 1999, shortly after moving to California, Brant joined the Retirement Services Department of Oppenheimer and Co., Inc. where he rose to the position of Western Regional Director, managing the consulting efforts of over $1.2 billion of qualified plans. In 2001, Brant and Jim's groups began working together on several joint cases, building the framework for the 2003 formation of the Corporate Services Group (CSG) of Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. CSG was an industry pioneer in providing conflict free, fee-only investment consulting and fiduciary advocacy for institutional, participant-directed plan sponsors. In 2008, Brant and Jim completed a lift-out the central members of CSG to found North Pier Fiduciary Management, LLC.

Professional Activities

Member of the American Society of Pension Professionals and Actuaries (ASPPA)
Member of The Professional in Human Resources Association (PIHRA)
Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) Arbitrator
American Society of Pension Professionals and Actuaries (ASPPA) Government Affairs 401(k) Subcommittee

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Corey Hastings
Director of Communications

A native Angelino, Corey brings over ten years of marketing experience to her role as North Pier’s Director of Communications. Before joining the team in 2019, Corey was the Senior Marketing Strategist at Exposure Public Relations, developing communication and digital public relations strategies for a variety of clients.

At North Pier, Corey leads the firm’s marketing team and develops communication strategies that convey North Pier’s role as advocates in fiduciary search and evaluation. These strategies include content development, email and social marketing, media communications, and research and analysis. Corey leads North Pier's investment advisor and consultant research efforts, providing candidate intelligence and due diligence support throughout the search and evaluation process. North Pier has conducted over 350 consultant research calls to date and is currently leading an industry effort to establish OCIO performance reporting standards. Through these efforts and others, Corey helps provide insight into industry trends, client satisfaction, and quantitative information.

North Pier’s role as advocates in fiduciary search and evaluation services is predicated on the depth and breadth of the information we collect and retain. Corey's work provides the framework for North Pier to leverage this data for better qualitative evaluation. Historical analysis is a critical element in due diligence, and it is the first step in developing a more meaningful evaluation of an investment firm’s capabilities.

Corey graduated from the University of Washington in Seattle with a degree in English Literature and Political Science. She is also a tap dance teacher, sharing a passion for dance that she's cultivated from a young age.

Hugo Biggemann
Director of Client Relations

Hugo joined North Pier in 2020 in the newly created position of Director of Client Relations. Responsible for ensuring a tailored and personal communication experience for each of our clients, Hugo joined the firm after relocating to Los Angeles from London where he was a central member of a multi-generational family office. For 10 years Hugo served as Client Relations and Office Manager for the family’s diverse array of businesses and investments, mastering knowledge of the international financial world as well as creating a prodigious network amongst the firm’s diverse business associates, internal and external. Born and raised in Bolivia, Hugo attended law school at Bolivian Private University, before moving to the United States and eventually London. Hugo’s extensive experience and expertise blend with his education, charisma, integrity, and above all else respect for others, to bring North Pier clients a truly bespoke and cared for relationship.

Joshua MacKenzie CFA
Investment Committee Member

Originally from the Seattle metropolitan area, Josh moved to Los Angeles in 2013 to attend the University of California, Los Angeles. As a part of his undergraduate studies at UCLA Josh worked on multiple research projects with focus on the effects of monetary policy and demographic change on economic growth, particularly in developing countries. Josh graduated early with his B. A. in Economics in the fall of 2016 while working with the North Pier. Josh was a valued full-time member of the North Pier team for two and a half years in operations and eventually leading quantitative research. While at North Pier, Josh passed his Levels 1-3 exams for the CFA. Looking to expand his career horizons, Josh joined the capital markets team at CIT Group in the Fall of 2019. He currently works in the derivatives and foreign exchange group structuring interest rate and FX hedging strategies for the banks' commercial clients. We commend Josh's career aspirations; upon his departure, he was invited to sit on North Pier's Internal Investment Committee where he continues to provide insight on capital markets and investment manager performance.

Corey Thompson
Investment Committee Member

Born and raised in the Los Angeles area, Corey began his career at North Pier as an intern in his final year at Cal State Northridge, during which time he cultivated a deep interest in financial analytics. After graduating, Corey joined the team as an analyst and over the subsequent four years, helped to develop many of the plan level monitoring and manager search practices still employed today. In 2016 Corey switched career tracks, joining Farmers Insurance where he now is the IT Strategy Program Manager, consulting internally to IT leadership and helping to define and achieve long term strategic objectives. As a valued member of the team, Corey was invited to sit on North Pier's Internal Investment Committee where he continues to provide insight on capital markets and investment manager performance.