Emily joined Wilshire in August 2022 as the Chief Financial Officer and a member of the Executive Committee. As CFO, she oversees all corporate finance and accounting functions.
Prior to joining Wilshire, Emily served as Senior Vice President, Financial Planning and Analysis, at LPL Financial, a leader in the retail financial advisory market and the largest independent broker-dealer in the United States. She also spent over 15 years at JPMorgan Chase in a variety of roles of increasing responsibility, including Vice President in the Consumer and Business Banking Treasury division focused on model analytics, and Vice President in the Consumer Banking Financial Planning and Analysis division where she coordinated multi-year forecasts across various business lines.
Emily holds an executive MBA and a BA in Business Administration with an emphasis in accounting, both from the University of Washington Foster School of Business.
Managing Director, General Counsel and Head of Compliance
Sandy Choi
Managing Director, General Counsel and Head of Compliance
Sandy S. Choi joined Wilshire in June 2023 as Managing Director, General Counsel and Head of Compliance. With expertise in legal, regulatory compliance, and investment execution, Ms. Choi brings over 23 years of experience to Wilshire after serving in senior legal, compliance and investment roles for asset management firms and broker-dealers.
Most recently, Ms. Choi acted as General Counsel and Interim CCO to Cercano Management LLC to establish the legal function for a newly registered adviser seeded by the Estate of Paul G. Allen. Prior to Cercano, Ms. Choi was Senior Managing Director at Guggenheim Investments in Santa Monica where she held a number of roles from 2013 to 2022 as Co-Head of Institutional Compliance, Senior Regulatory Counsel and Head of Investment Planning, acting as a strategic advisor to the Office of the Global CIO. Ms. Choi was a member of Guggenheim’s Corporate Social Responsibility Committee and a board member of Eastdil Secured serving on its Audit and Regulatory Committees. Prior to Guggenheim, Ms. Choi held senior legal and compliance roles at Fortress Investment Group and Tower Research Capital LLC based in New York.
She began her career at Willkie Farr and Gallagher LLP and Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy LLP after receiving a B.A. in History, Phi Beta Kappa, from Brown University and a J.D./M.I.A. from Columbia University. She is a recipient of the Fulbright scholarship.
Scott is responsible for Wilshire's corporate, risk, operational, legal and people functions and the ensuing controls framework necessary to deliver a consistent experience to our clients.
An active angel investor, advisor and board member to several US and UK fintech start-ups, Scott joined Wilshire in July 2021, bringing more than 30 years of experience in technology innovation in the financial services industry.
Scott retired from BlackRock in January 2020 after 18 years working in a number of senior roles, including Aladdin® Chief Architect, Chief Software Engineer and Chief Technology Officer. Most recently, he served as Managing Director of Aladdin Wealth Tech, spearheading the creation and implementation of data-driven sales solutions for the US Wealth Advisory business.
Earlier in his career, Scott worked in capital markets and derivatives product strategy at firms including Republic National Bank of New York, Mercadian Capital and Drexel Burnham Lambert.
Scott graduated from the Rochester Institute of Technology in 1987 and is currently a member of the President's Leadership Council for RIT.
Josh leads Wilshire’s investment activities, including investment strategy, manager research, portfolio management, and quantitative alpha research. He also chairs the firmwide Wilshire Investment Committee.
Josh re-joined Wilshire in 2015 and has 20 years of industry experience. From 2010 to 2015, Josh served as Chief Investment Officer of The Elements Financial Group, LLC (TEG), where he developed and managed a variety of outcome-oriented investment strategies and exchange trade funds. Prior to his tenure at TEG, Josh served in several roles at Wilshire from 2004–2010, including head of manager research, head of strategy for Wilshire Funds Management, and co-chairman of the Wilshire Funds Management Investment Committee. Before 2004, he was responsible for international manager research for Jeffrey Slocum & Associates, Inc.
Josh has a BA in Finance from the University of Pittsburgh and holds the Chartered Financial Analyst designation.
Leah is responsible for overseeing Wilshire's client solutions and marketing functions. She is a member of the Wilshire Executive Committee, the Wilshire Investment Committee, and is a co-founder of Wilshire’s Gender Diversity Awareness Committee.
Leah joined Wilshire in 2008. She holds an MA and MBA from Claremont Graduate University and a BA from Lewis & Clark College. Leah is a board member of the Women in Institutional Investments Network (WIIIN).
Deputy Chief Executive Officer and President, Wilshire
Jason Schwarz
Deputy Chief Executive Officer and President, Wilshire
Jason is responsible for overseeing execution across Wilshire’s investment solutions, analytics and index business lines, and leading the firm’s sales, marketing and client-facing functions.
He joined Wilshire in 2005 and has held a number of increasingly senior roles within the firm, including establishing Wilshire as a leading provider of investment solutions for financial intermediaries, advisors and their clients and ultimately overseeing all of the firm’s business segments.
Jason holds a BA in Government from Hamilton College, New York and an MBA from the Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California. He appears regularly in the press and on television to speak about investment themes and issues relevant to institutional and retail investors.
Erin heads Wilshire’s operations and risk management team. She is a member of the Wilshire Investment Committee and the Investment Oversight Committee, and chairs Wilshire’s Alternative Oversight and Alternative Risk Committees. She has over 16 years of industry experience in risk management and portfolio construction within the alternative asset industry.
Before joining Wilshire in 2013, Erin performed risk analysis and designed and developed risk and reporting systems for Merrill Lynch’s Hedge Fund Development and Management Group (“HFDMG”). She then became the executive vice president of Risk Fundamentals, a risk transparency software company spun-out of Merrill’s HFDMG. Previously, Erin was a risk analyst at Kenmar Global Investments.
Prior to entering the financial services industry, Erin spent three years with NASA specializing in space science and astronomical research at the Space Telescope Science Institute. Erin received a BS in astrophysics from Yale University and an MS in information and telecommunication systems from Johns Hopkins University.
Andy joined Wilshire in January 2021 and was appointed as Deputy Chief Executive Officer in July 2021. He is an Industry Partner at Motive Partners, a next-generation fintech investment firm, where he led Motive's investment in Wilshire.
He also serves as Chairman of the Board and Advisory Board member of Finantix (now part of InvestCloud), a firm specializing in technology for banking and insurance companies, and Executive Chairman of Global Shares, a global provider of equity compensation management solutions for companies and their employees.
Previously, Andy co-led Blackrock’s Alternative Investment Platform (BAI) and chaired the BAI Executive Committee; he also worked as Managing Director and Head of Liquid Alternatives at Credit Suisse and was President and Chief Operating Officer at Man Investments.
Andy holds a Doctor of Law (JD) from Indiana University and a BA from the University of California.
Managing Director, Chief Information Security Officer
"I am responsible for information security across the company, strengthening our information and cyber security capabilities and mitigating external risks to build a more resilient business for our employees and clients."
Samantha Walters
Senior Analyst, Operations
"I work alongside portfolio managers to ensure that clients are on track to reach their financial goals."
Ashley Smith-Roos
Senior Associate, Compliance
"I work to identify and manage regulatory risk by helping create, implement and monitor internal policies and procedures that allow Wilshire to function in a legal and ethical manner while also meeting our business goals and client needs.”
Brice Shirimbere
Assistant Vice President, Investment Solutions
“My job is about balancing risk and rewards by harnessing extensive industry to read between the lines and help clients meet future obligations and return expectations.”
Jessica Nicosia
Senior Vice President, Client Solutions
“I help clients create complete, outcome-oriented alternatives portfolios in structures that are customized to their specific needs.”
Qing Gu
Senior Vice President, Risk
“I generate creative investment and trading strategies while designing and implementing risk and analytics systems."
Kai Chen
Managing Director, Investment Solutions
“I help our team make better investment decisions with quantitative research that includes market signal analysis, systematic strategy design and alpha opportunity idea generation.”
Francisco Barajas
Vice President, Technology
"I create cutting-edge innovative solutions while bringing a creative, open-minded and technology-focused perspective to look at investment challenges outside the box."
Ali Kazemi
Managing Director, Client Solutions
“I like to take a deeper dive into our clients’ investments and help them formulate actionable, risk-based insights using a combination of 20 years of experience and Wilshire’s analytical systems.”
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