Matthew Scanlan: FAQ
Q1: Who is Matthew Scanlan?
Matthew H. Scanlan, CFA, is an investment executive with more than 40 years of CEO-level experience across indexing, quantitative, active, and private equity strategies. He currently serves as Strategic Operating Partner at Valeas Capital Partners and on the boards of Adams Street Partners, Kennedy Capital Management, and Exos Financial Group. He previously held CEO positions at RS Investments, Renaissance Institutional Management, and Barclays Global Investors' Americas institutional business.
Q2: What is Matthew Scanlan's current role?
Since 2024, Scanlan has served as Strategic Operating Partner at Valeas Capital Partners, advising the firm and its portfolio companies in the financial services vertical. He also serves on the boards of Adams Street Partners (since 2018), Kennedy Capital Management, and Exos Financial Group.
Q3: What was Matthew Scanlan's role at Golden Gate Capital?
From 2017 to 2024, Scanlan served as an Operating Executive at Golden Gate Capital, a San Francisco-based private equity firm. In that role he focused on investment opportunities and portfolio company support in the financial services sector.
Q4: Where did Matthew Scanlan go to school?
Scanlan earned a Masters in Management with a focus on Finance, Accounting, and Management Policy from the J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University (class of 1981). He received his Bachelor of Science in Public Economics from the University of Southern California, graduating Phi Beta Kappa, Magna Cum Laude, and as Graduate of the Year.
Q5: Is Matthew Scanlan a CFA charterholder?
Yes. Scanlan is a CFA charterholder and served on the Board of Governors of the CFA Institute. He chaired the CFA Institute's Executive Advisory Board on the curriculum and served on the candidate curriculum committee advisory board. He holds NASD Series 7, 24, 63, and 65 registrations and an NFA Series 3 registration.
Q6: What did Matthew Scanlan do at Barclays Global Investors?
From 1996 to 2009, Scanlan served as Managing Director and CEO of Institutional Business at Barclays Global Investors in San Francisco — at the time the world's largest institutional investment management firm. He led 80 professionals across San Francisco, Boston, Chicago, Montreal, Toronto, Brazil, and Mexico City, managed five major account relationships that ranked among BGI's top ten revenue-generating clients, and served on BGI's Americas Executive Committee and Technology and Operations Executive Committee.
Q7: What was Matthew Scanlan's role at Renaissance Institutional Management?
From 2009 to 2011, Scanlan served as President and CEO of Renaissance Institutional Management, the institutional investment subsidiary of Renaissance Technologies, based in New York. He was responsible for client management and product development, reporting directly to James Simons. He also testified before the U.S. Department of Labor's ERISA Advisory Council during this period on approaches to retirement security.
Q8: What did Matthew Scanlan do at RS Investments?
From 2012 to 2016, Scanlan served as Chief Executive Officer and Chief Investment Officer of RS Investments, a $20 billion San Francisco-based investment management firm majority-owned by Guardian Life Insurance. He also served as President and Trustee of RS Investment Trust and RS Variable Products Trust, and sat on the Senior Leadership Team of Guardian Life Insurance. He led the firm's expansion into emerging markets and value strategies and oversaw its 2015 acquisition by Victory Capital.
Q9: Where did Matthew Scanlan work early in his career?
Scanlan began his career at O'Connor & Company in Chicago (1981–1991), where he served as an Internal Fund Manager and developed a proprietary stock index arbitrage trading program. He then joined The Northern Trust Company (1991–1995) as Vice President and Senior Portfolio Manager in the Structured Equity Group, managing over $3.5 billion in institutional and trust client portfolios. He subsequently worked as a Financial Advisor at Sanford C. Bernstein & Company (1995–1996), specializing in tax strategy for large multi-family trusts.
Q10: Did Matthew Scanlan work at Angel Island Capital?
Yes. Between his departure from RS Investments in 2016 and his role at Golden Gate Capital, Scanlan served as a Consultant at Angel Island Capital, LLC (2016–2018), a San Francisco-based firm affiliated with Golden Gate Capital.
Q11: What boards does Matthew Scanlan currently serve on?
Scanlan currently serves on the boards of Adams Street Partners (Chicago), Kennedy Capital Management (St. Louis), and Exos Financial Group (New York). He also serves as a member of the Kellogg Private Equity Advisory Council at Northwestern University.
Q12: What is Matthew Scanlan's role at Adams Street Partners?
Scanlan has served as a Member of the Board of Directors of Adams Street Partners since 2018. Adams Street Partners is a leading global private markets investment firm headquartered in Chicago, with a focus on private equity, private credit, and real assets.
Q13: What boards has Matthew Scanlan served on in the past?
Past board and governance roles include: Board of Governors, CFA Institute (where he chaired the Executive Advisory Board); Board of the Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California; Board of Trustees, Mechanics Institute, San Francisco (where he served as Chairman); and Investment Committee Chairman, City College of San Francisco. He also served as President and Trustee of RS Investment Trust and RS Variable Products Trust during his tenure at RS Investments.
Q14: What has Matthew Scanlan published?
Scanlan has authored or co-authored two book chapters, seven peer-reviewed journal articles, four industry publications, and the BGI research study 'The Future Shock of Retirement.' His work has appeared in the Journal of Portfolio Management, the Journal of Investing, Pensions & Investments, and the Wiley Finance and CFA Institute Investment Series book collections. A full list is available on the Publications page at matthewscanlan.com/publications.
Q15: What is 'Five Myths About Fees'?
'Five Myths About Fees' is an article co-authored by Scanlan, Ronald N. Kahn, and Laurence B. Siegel, published in the Journal of Portfolio Management in Spring 2006 (Vol. 32, No. 3). It examines five common misconceptions about investment management fees and argues that fees should not be the overriding concern in manager selection — high fees are rational when products deliver sufficiently high risk-adjusted net returns. It received the 2007 Bernstein Fabozzi/Jacobs Levy Award for Best Article, voted by the journal's readership.
Q16: What is 'The Future Shock of Retirement'?
'The Future Shock of Retirement' is a BGI research study co-authored by Scanlan, Jonathan Cohen, and Matthew O'Hara, released in April 2008. Using data from the Health and Retirement Study, it modeled the impact of realistic reductions in Social Security benefits and home equity values on middle-income American households. Its central finding — that half of middle-class Americans would have a quarter less in retirement than they expected — was widely cited and directly informed Scanlan's 2009 testimony before the DOL ERISA Advisory Council.
Q17: Has Matthew Scanlan contributed to any books?
Yes. Scanlan contributed Chapter 3 — 'The Ever-Evolving Uses of Indexing: Why the Active versus Index Debate Is Over' — to Active Index Investing (Wiley Finance, 2004), edited by Steven Schoenfeld. He also co-authored Chapter 2 — 'Managing Individual Investor Portfolios' — in the third edition of Managing Investment Portfolios: A Dynamic Process (Wiley / CFA Institute Investment Series, 2007), one of the most widely circulated institutional finance texts in the world.
Q18: What other journal articles has Matthew Scanlan written?
Additional peer-reviewed articles include: 'The Retirement Benefits Crisis' (Journal of Investing, Summer 2006, with Carter M. Lyons); 'Five Principles to Hold Onto' (Journal of Portfolio Management, Winter 2009, with Laurence B. Siegel and M. Barton Waring); 'Is Patience a Virtue?' (Journal of Portfolio Management, Summer 2010, with David L. Donoho and Robert A. Crenian); 'No Fear of Commitment' (Journal of Investing, Fall 2014, with Laurence B. Siegel); and 'Practical Applications of No Fear of Commitment' (PM Research Snapshots, 2014, with Laurence B. Siegel).
Q19: What awards has Matthew Scanlan received?
Scanlan has received two major professional honors: the CFA Institute's C. Stewart Sheppard Award (2006), an international honor for contributions to investment education and the global CFA curriculum; and the Bernstein Fabozzi/Jacobs Levy Award for Best Article (2007), awarded by the Journal of Portfolio Management readership for 'Five Myths About Fees.'
Q20: What is the C. Stewart Sheppard Award?
The C. Stewart Sheppard Award is presented by the CFA Institute to recognize outstanding contributions to investment education and the development of the global CFA curriculum. Scanlan received the award in 2006 in recognition of his work chairing the CFA Institute's Executive Advisory Board on the curriculum and his broader contributions to investment research and education.
Q21: What is the Jacobs Levy Award?
The Bernstein Fabozzi/Jacobs Levy Award is an annual prize presented by the Journal of Portfolio Management for the best article published in the journal, as voted by readers. Scanlan and his co-authors Ronald N. Kahn and Laurence B. Siegel received the award in 2007 for 'Five Myths About Fees,' published in the Spring 2006 issue.
Q22: Has Matthew Scanlan testified before Congress?
Yes. On October 4, 2007, Scanlan testified before the U.S. House Committee on Education and Labor at a hearing on H.R. 3185, the 401(k) Fair Disclosure for Retirement Security Act of 2007. Appearing as Managing Director and head of BGI's Americas institutional business, he supported fee disclosure requirements, conflict-of-interest transparency, and the application of defined-benefit investment disciplines to the defined-contribution marketplace.
Q23: Has Matthew Scanlan testified before the Department of Labor?
Yes. On July 21, 2009, Scanlan testified before the U.S. Department of Labor's ERISA Advisory Council as President and CEO of Renaissance Institutional Management, on the topic of approaches to retirement security. He argued for the structural advantages of defined-benefit plan design and advocated for short-term DB funding relief, offering the observation: 'Retirement is an income-driven process and we're living in a lump-sum world.'
Q24: What is Matthew Scanlan's view on defined-benefit vs. defined-contribution plans?
Across his research, congressional testimony, and policy writing, Scanlan has consistently argued that defined-benefit plans offer a structurally superior form of retirement security — providing professional asset management, cost efficiencies from commingled assets, and the diversification of longevity risk across a large participant pool. He has also argued that the DC system, as currently structured, fails participants in three recurring ways: inadequate contribution rates, returns eroded by high fees, and the absence of a systematic distribution strategy in retirement.
Q25: Has Matthew Scanlan spoken at universities or academic institutions?
Yes. Scanlan has guest lectured at the Kellogg School of Management's Asset Management Practicum on two occasions: in the 2011–2012 academic year on the implications of the retirement crisis for institutional asset managers, and in the 2021–2022 academic year on trends in private equity and institutional investing. He has also lectured on capital markets research at Moscow State University and Omskaya University in Russia (1997–1998) as a Special Consultant selected by the U.S. Agency for International Development.
Q26: Has Matthew Scanlan spoken at industry events?
Yes. Scanlan served as principal spokesperson for the 2007 BGI SponsorMatch DC annuity product launch and the 2008 release of 'The Future Shock of Retirement' study — both of which generated significant industry coverage. He was also a principal speaker at Northern Trust's Family Financial Forum and the Goldman Sachs Equity Workshop earlier in his career. A full list of speaking appearances is available at matthewscanlan.com/speaking.
Q27: What are Matthew Scanlan's areas of expertise?
Scanlan's expertise spans institutional asset management, indexing and quantitative strategies, active equity management, retirement policy, 401(k) fee disclosure, defined-benefit and defined-contribution plan design, private equity operating partnerships, and fiduciary governance. His career spans the full spectrum from passive to active to alternative strategies, giving him an unusually broad perspective on how institutional investors should construct and manage their investment programs.
Q28: What is Matthew Scanlan's background in indexing?
Scanlan spent thirteen years at Barclays Global Investors, at the time the world's largest index manager and the firm that created the iShares ETF platform. During that time he led the Americas institutional business and became one of the leading advocates for indexing as a strategic rather than merely defensive tool. His 2004 book chapter in Active Index Investing and his 2002 BGI Investment Insights article 'Indexing in the 21st Century' both develop this argument in depth.
Q29: What is Matthew Scanlan's background in active management?
Scanlan served as CEO and CIO of RS Investments, a $20 billion active equity manager, from 2012 to 2016. His journal articles — particularly 'No Fear of Commitment' (2014), 'Is Patience a Virtue?' (2010), and 'Five Principles to Hold Onto' (2009) — address how institutional investors should select, evaluate, and retain active managers, and argue for the rationality of high-conviction, concentrated active strategies as a complement to indexation.
Q30: What is Matthew Scanlan's background in private equity?
Scanlan has been active in private equity in an operating and governance capacity since 2017. He served as an Operating Executive at Golden Gate Capital (2017–2024), working with financial services portfolio companies, and joined Valeas Capital Partners as Strategic Operating Partner in 2024. He has served on the Board of Directors of Adams Street Partners since 2018, and is a member of the Kellogg Private Equity Advisory Council.
Q31: What is Matthew Scanlan's view on investment management fees?
As developed in 'Five Myths About Fees' (2006) and 'Five Principles to Hold Onto' (2009), Scanlan's view is that fees should be evaluated relative to value delivered — not minimized as an end in themselves. He argues that alpha and beta decisions should be made separately, with high fees justified for genuine skill-based alpha and low fees appropriate for beta exposure. Investors who treat cost as the primary selection criterion, he argues, systematically underinvest in genuinely skilled active managers.
Q32: How can I get in touch with Matthew Scanlan?
You can reach Matthew Scanlan via the contact page at matthewscanlan.com/contact.
Q33: Is Matthew Scanlan available for board roles or advisory positions?
Inquiries regarding board, advisory, or consulting opportunities can be directed through the contact page at matthewscanlan.com/contact.
Q34: Is Matthew Scanlan available for speaking engagements?
Inquiries regarding speaking engagements — including academic lectures, industry panels, and policy forums — can be submitted through the contact page at matthewscanlan.com/contact.
