# Celebrating Five Years Of Peer Collaboration 2Eybj

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[00:00:02.420] Hi, friends. Welcome back to another episode of Peer Connections, the podcast series brought
[00:00:08.440] to you by the Global Peer Financing Association, also known as GPFA. These podcasts offer our
[00:00:13.380] GPFA members and global beneficial owner friends a forum for information sharing and discussion
[00:00:18.180] on topics most important to them. And we hope you, our listeners, appreciate the insights,
[00:00:22.780] best practices, and transparency offered from our members and industry friends about securities,
[00:00:26.960] finance, or related investment areas. Now let's get into the episode.
[00:00:35.780] Hello, listeners. Welcome back to another episode of GPFA's Peer Connections Podcast.
[00:00:41.840] I am Brooke Gilman and will be your host for today's conversation. I'm coming to you in my
[00:00:46.180] volunteer capacity, supporting the GPFA as secretary to the association in support of
[00:00:50.980] the work that the GPFA board does. It's been a minute or two since GPFA last podcasted,
[00:00:56.600] but it's been worth the wait because we have a big one today. And today we have four of our
[00:01:02.220] GPFA members. And I would say sort of the OG4, which are the founding board members of the GPFA
[00:01:09.480] with us. And they're pretty excited to get together and to share some GPFA highlights
[00:01:15.400] and updates, but most importantly, to celebrate what is a pretty big milestone for this
[00:01:20.120] group and association, which is the fifth year anniversary that was held last year in 2025.
[00:01:25.940] It's taken us a little bit of time to get together and get everyone on the same
[00:01:29.440] schedule to record this podcast, but I'm very excited to have you all here. So maybe we can
[00:01:40.090] go around the virtual room here and start with the godfather of GPFA, Mr. Rob Gooby,
[00:01:46.670] just to introduce yourself and we'll go around the room. Thank you, Brooke. I'm Robert Gooby
[00:01:51.540] from the Healthcare for Ontario Pension Plan. I'm the Senior Managing Director of Balance Sheets and
[00:01:56.320] Liquidity Management. I'm also the Chair of the GPFA. And Chris, over to you. Why don't you
[00:02:01.040] introduce yourself. Thanks, Brooke. I'm Chris Benesch. I'm a Senior Portfolio Manager here at
[00:02:05.340] State of Wisconsin Investment Board and proud board member of the GPFA. Been with the group
[00:02:10.500] since the beginning and looking forward to reflecting back on five years. Perfect. And
[00:02:16.130] Mr. Jerry May from Ohio, over to you for an introduction. I'm Jerry May from Ohio PERS,
[00:02:23.650] Senior Portfolio Manager here in charge of cash and securities lending. And also similar to Chris,
[00:02:29.350] founding board member here since the beginning. And it's been quite the journey and looks like
[00:02:35.290] it's going to be just as exciting as ever as we move forward. So looking forward to it.
[00:02:40.540] All right. And Mr. Johnson from CalPERS.
[00:02:43.980] Yeah, thanks, Brooke. Mike Johnson, investment manager at the California Public Employees
[00:02:48.080] Retirement System. I am not an OG board member. I filled in for my predecessor a few years ago,
[00:02:54.500] so I've only been on the board for four years now. So four years, a board member,
[00:02:58.720] We're very proud of what we've accomplished in my time here.
[00:03:01.520] I've been involved from the get-go, but very proud to be a part of this association.
[00:03:06.380] I think of you as pretty OG, Mike.
[00:03:09.080] So don't undersell yourself, please.
[00:03:12.580] Yeah.
[00:03:13.820] Technically, no, I wasn't listed as a board member, but yeah, I've been involved from
[00:03:17.080] the get-go.
[00:03:17.640] You've been with it from the outset.
[00:03:19.340] Absolutely.
[00:03:20.120] I think 22 officially became a member.
[00:03:22.240] So I'm the new guy on the board.
[00:03:24.160] Perfect.
[00:03:24.820] Good.
[00:03:25.400] Okay.
[00:03:25.780] Okay. So Rob, you really had the vision behind what became GPFA. And can you just give everyone
[00:03:32.960] for the benefit of those listeners that aren't intimately familiar with how it grew up and how
[00:03:38.040] it became a group of the four pensions that you're hearing from today, getting together and
[00:03:43.540] establishing this not-for-profit business association for the betterment of the securities
[00:03:48.160] financing industry for the buy side? Yeah, sure. I mean, I've been in the industry for
[00:03:53.570] 30 years or so. I spent the first 15 years of my career in the back office and the last 17 years
[00:04:00.530] plus in the investment management area. My first conference I attended was back in 2008.
[00:04:07.530] It was a beneficial conference. I met most of the guys here in the pod today. And we've been
[00:04:14.070] meeting ever since every year. And we said we have the conversation. And then we left the
[00:04:20.750] conversation and never pick it up. And after about seven years of connecting and looking back at
[00:04:26.930] discussions we had and haven't seen progress, I thought it was a good idea for us to get together
[00:04:32.090] and form an association so we could continue the discussion. The idea was to bring all the
[00:04:37.890] buy side together, beneficial owners together, so we could work as a team for the betterment
[00:04:42.190] of the industry itself. Thanks, Rob. And so knowing that that was the original thought and vision
[00:04:49.690] behind it. Maybe Chris Benes, you can help take our listeners from that moment to perhaps where
[00:04:55.690] we are today. And how has the thought and the mission and the value proposition of the association
[00:05:02.170] evolved over the last five years for the membership? It's funny, Brooke, as I was thinking
[00:05:09.850] about this recording coming up and reflecting back on not just the last five years, but for me,
[00:05:15.630] the last 19 years, right? I haven't been in the industry as long as Rob, but I remember
[00:05:20.290] that conference back in 2008. I remember sitting down with this very excited, dynamic guy named
[00:05:27.330] Rob Gooby, who was showing me all sorts of amazing things that they were building at Hoop.
[00:05:33.370] The excitement was contagious and it was a great conversation. And it bled into the beneficial
[00:05:38.890] owner closed door discussion that was had at that conference. And when it was all over,
[00:05:44.610] there was sort of something missing, right? We wanted to keep that energy going. Fast forward
[00:05:49.270] several years, as Rob said, when the opportunity came to start connecting on a more regular basis,
[00:05:55.050] for me, it was a no-brainer. I jumped at it. And I've been a big believer in this kind of
[00:06:00.130] network effect ever since. And so after a number of years of connecting through conference calls
[00:06:08.210] on a quarterly basis and then a monthly basis, a number of us came together to say,
[00:06:14.610] hey what if we did some trades with each other it was a novel idea at the time it was something
[00:06:20.970] that we hadn't really solved for previously and to me that's really kind of the origin story of
[00:06:27.190] the gpfa is sitting on those calls month after month