Fixed Income

Steve Rost is a Senior Managing Director and Chief Investment Officer for fixed income at Great Lakes Advisors. He is responsible for all fixed income products delivered to the firm’s institutional and high net worth clients. He is also a member of the management team that oversees Great Lakes Advisors.

Since joining the firm in 1990, Steve has been responsible for fixed income products as well as the overall management of the company. He also handles all mortgage-backed and commercial mortgage-backed investing for the firm’s clients. Prior to Great Lakes, Steve spent almost six years at Stein Roe & Farnham in Chicago managing the firm’s fixed income portfolios and taxable mutual funds.

Steve earned an MS in Finance, Investments, and Banking from the University of Wisconsin at Madison and a BA from the University of Iowa. Steve lives outside of Woodstock, Illinois with his wife and four children.

Emily Li has been a part of the firm for over 15 years. She is directly involved in the management of the firm's fixed-income assets, with particular emphasis on the corporate and treasury sectors of the marketplace.

Prior to joining Great Lakes Advisors, she spent 12 years at Harris Investment Management where she was Chief Financial Officer and then Principal, Portfolio Manager, managing institutional fixed-income portfolios.

After receiving a BA in International Business from National Taiwan University and an MBA from Indiana University, Emily worked in various capacities at Brunswick Corporation and The Quaker Oats Company before entering the investment management business. From July 2000 to June 2001, Emily served as an officer of the CFA Society of Chicago (previously the Investment Analyst Society of Chicago). From July 2001 to June 2005, she was a Director of the CFA Society of Chicago.
 

Richard Rokus is a Director and Senior Portfolio Manager at Great Lakes Advisors. He has over 18 years of experience as an investment professional dedicated to fixed income portfolio management.  As a portfolio manager for the firm, Rich is responsible for the management of all taxable short-duration fixed income portfolios. 

Rich has managed numerous fixed income strategies. During his 17 years at M&I Investment Management Corp., Rich was responsible for managing over $18 billion in taxable mutual funds, limited partnerships, and separate accounts. In addition to his portfolio management duties, Rich had oversight responsibility for all fixed income products managed by the firm. He also managed the securities lending trading desk. As a Portfolio Manager of the Marshall Prime Money Market Fund, he received the IBC Money Fund Report award for the highest yielding taxable money market fund in 1998, as well as the Crane Data and IMoney.net awards for the highest yielding AAA-rated taxable institutional money market fund in 2009.

Rich received a BBA in Finance from the University of Wisconsin at Whitewater. He is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and a member of the CFA Society of Milwaukee.

William Gregg specializes in the management of taxable fixed income securities and helps lead the overall fixed income effort for Great Lakes Advisors. William successfully stewarded the taxable fixed income portfolio through the financial crisis and substantially grew the overall fixed income assets of the firm. He prides himself on providing his clients with significant institutional experience and superior service.

William plays a key role with respect to the leadership and growth of the firm. He specializes in credit, government, and mortgage-backed security markets. He has over 28 years of investment management and research experience in taxable fixed income, which includes eight years leading and growing a successful alternative asset management company. He has presented at numerous conferences as well as published various articles regarding fixed income securities and their derivatives.

William holds a BS in Computer Science and Economics from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut and an MBA from the J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University. He holds a FINRA Series 65 License.

Patrick Morrissey is a Senior Portfolio Manager of Fixed Income for Great Lakes Advisors. He brings over 25 years of investment management experience, including 23 years running tax-exempt mutual funds.

Prior to joining Great Lakes, Patrick served as Managing Director of Tax-Free Investments at Bank One Investment Advisors Corp., now JPMorgan Fleming Asset Management. There, he managed 11 Tax-Exempt Mutual Funds with $15 billion under management. Most recently, Patrick acted as Managing Director and Head of Tax-Exempt Investments at FSI Capital where he developed, marketed, and managed tax-exempt alternative investment strategies.

Patrick holds a BS in Finance from the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh and is a member of the Chicago Municipal Analysts’ Society.

Scott Schneider is a Fixed Income Analyst for Great Lakes Advisors with more than eight years of industry experience. He assists the firm’s fixed income group supporting both taxable and tax-exempt fixed income investment strategies. Scott supports the group in a variety of capacities from analysis to client support. Prior to joining the firm, he worked at SMW Trading Company, Inc., trading equity, interest rate, and commodity futures.

Scott graduated from the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana in 2001 with a major in Economics.
 

Thomas R. Kiley serves as the Chief Executive Officer of Great Lakes Advisors and is an active member of both the firm’s Management Committee and its Board of Directors.

Prior to joining Great Lakes, Tom was Managing Director/Principal at Bear Stearns Asset Management, where he managed the public fund and Taft-Hartley business group. Prior to this, he co-founded Continental Investment Group, an institutional asset management marketing firm focused on providing investment strategies to a diverse group of clients. Tom began his career as a bond underwriter/trader at First Chicago Corporation.

Tom earned his MBA in Finance from the J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University. Prior to that, Tom graduated with a BA in Economics from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

Tom is a Trustee and serves as President of a suburban Illinois Police Pension Fund. He is a member of several associations, including The Economic Club of Chicago, The International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans, The National Conference of Public Employee Retirements Systems, The Illinois Public Pension Fund Association, and The Resource Center for Religious Institutes. He is also a committee member for The Annual Rerum Novarum Award and a Regional Board member of the American Ireland Fund.

Tom is a Director of Wintrust’s Old Plank Trail Community Bank and serves as a guest lecturer on Business Ethics and Socially Responsible Investing for the MBA program at the Mendoza College of Business at the University of Notre Dame.

Mike Howard is the Director of Client Service and Sales where he serves as the institutional business development lead for the firm. Mike has over 30 years of experience in the investment industry. Most recently, Mike served as a Partner at AccessAlpha Worldwide, LLC, a consultative advisor and global boutique placement agent. Prior to that, he spent five years at UBS Global Asset Management as a Client Advisor and Managing Director.

Before working in the investment management community, he spent over eight years at Mercer Investment Consulting as a Managing Director and Head of their Corporate and Taft-Hartley Consulting Teams. Finally, Mike began his career at A.G. Becker and subsequently SEI Capital Resources, where he spent 20 years and left the organization with the title of Chief Consulting Officer and Managing Director.

Mike has a bachelor’s degree in Finance from the University of Illinois and is FINRA Series 7 and 63 Licensed.

Maureen Mulhern joined Great Lakes Advisors in 2008. As a Client Service Associate, she works with clients in a proactive manner to ensure their ongoing investment experience with the firm is a positive one. She works in concert with the marketing and operations teams and is responsible for preparing client service collateral including meeting materials, fact sheets, requests for information, and presentation books. Maureen also assists the fixed income portfolio managers with the trading, reporting, and accounting needs.

Maureen started her career in financial services in 2008 after earning a degree in Economics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She lives in Chicago and is involved in assisting the causes of Christ the King High School and the American Ireland Fund.

Kate Szymanski began her career at Great Lakes Advisors in 2009. As a Client Service Associate, she works with clients in a proactive manner to ensure their ongoing investment experience with the firm is a positive one. She has a dual position with the marketing and operations teams and is responsible for preparing client service collateral including meeting materials, fact sheets, Requests for Proposals, and presentation books. Kate also assists with reconciling cash and securities as well as equity trade procedures.

Kate began her professional career in the financial services industry in 2009 after completing an internship with the firm. She graduated cum laude from the University of Illinois-Chicago where she earned a degree in History. Kate currently resides in Chicago and volunteers weekly at the Children’s Memorial Hospital and for Bear Necessities Pediatric Cancer Foundation.