Edwin joined SWIB in 2018 as managing director, asset and risk allocation. He was appointed executive director/chief investment officer in April 2021.

Before joining SWIB, Edwin was managing director, strategic tilting, at Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB). Prior to joining CPPIB in 2013, Edwin spent 13 years in asset allocation, currency, and risk management as a portfolio manager at William Blair & Company, managing member at Singer Partners LLC, and managing director and head of asset allocation at UBS Global Asset Management. Earlier in his career, Edwin was an economist at Lehman Brothers, Primark Decision Economics, and Putnam Investments.

Edwin holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from Cornell University and a PhD in economics from Northwestern University.

Dale Knapp is the Director of Research and Analytics for the Wisconsin Counties Association. He publishes research and analysis on a variety of economic and public policy issues facing the State of Wisconsin. He has written extensively on Wisconsin school finance, the state economy and demographics, and state fiscal health.

Prior to joining WCA, Dale was with the Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance for almost 18 years, serving as its Research Director for 16 years.

Dale has a bachelor’s degree in Political Science from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, completed a master’s in Applied Economics at Marquette University, and is A.B.D. in economics at the University of Wisconsin. He is an avid runner, golfer, and loves to cook.

Attorney Douglas Poland, partner at Stafford Rosenbaum LLP, Madison. Poland has decades of significant experience in complex litigation matters in state and federal courts in Wisconsin, Illinois, and throughout the United States. Poland is a founding member of the progressive law firm, Law Forward. He served as co-lead trial counsel for plaintiffs who successfully challenged the Wisconsin Assembly legislative districts before three-judge federal panels in 2012 and 2016, and is one of the members of the legal team that represented the respondents before the U.S. Supreme Court in Gill v. Whitford.

Topics to be covered in Attorney Poland’s presentation include:  1) Origin of GOP gerrymander; 2) Historical challenges to the GOP gerrymander; 3) Governor’s maps that are now law compared with current districts; 4) Status of challenge to congressional maps, and 5) The Future - where do we go from here?

John Voelker became the Secretary of the Department of Employee Trust Funds on April 5, 2021.

He served as ETF Deputy Secretary since 2014. Prior to that, John worked for 11 years leading the Wisconsin Court System as the director of state courts. He also served as executive assistant to the Chief Justice of the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

He has been in the WRS for more than 33 years and appreciates the importance sustainable benefit programs have on the economic and physical health of its members, employers, and communities across the state.

A native of Menasha, Wisconsin, John has 33 years of public service experience. He received a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh. He also possesses a Certificate of Achievement in Public Plan Policy from the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans.