Mitchell Shames
Mitchell Shames is a leading expert in fiduciary practices and investment products for domestic and global institutional clients. Until November of 2007, he was the General Counsel for State Street Global Advisors (SSgA), the $1.8 trillion global investment management unit of State Street Corporation and he was an Executive Vice-President of State Street Corporation.
Defined SSgA’s Fiduciary Structures, Relationships, Policies and Best Practices
Over the course of his tenure at SSgA, Mr. Shames (and his staff) structured a variety of fiduciary relationships for corporate and institutional clients, ranging from investment management and company stock management to broader fiduciary oversight engagements. He served as a member of SSgA’s Independent Fiduciary Committee that provided fiduciary services for the benefit plans of Enron, United Airlines, Cargill, WR Grace, and other major benefit plan sponsors. His expertise in the establishment of fiduciary policies and procedures contributed to State Street’s victories in significant class action lawsuits, including United Airlines and WR Grace. Based upon his fiduciary expertise, he structured SSgA’s firm-wide Fiduciary Review Committee for purposes of overseeing all fiduciary matters within SSgA.
Mr. Shames received an A.B. from the University of Chicago in 1979, a J.D. from Boston College Law School in 1983, and an Ll.M. in taxation from New York University in 1984.
Harrison Fiduciary Group is a team of seasoned professionals on pension plan investment management and fiduciary practices.
Many of the HFG professionals served as senior executives at State Street Corporation where they were key members of the management team that led the transformation of State Street Global Advisors (SSgA) from a $170 billion index strategy investment firm into the world’s largest institutional investment manager — totaling over $2 trillion (US) in assets under management across cash, equity, currency and bond markets in developed and emerging markets.
Such extraordinary success demonstrates rare insight. In the case of the HFG team, their combined strength derives from their complementary perspectives, shared values, and common purpose. Collectively they have witnessed throughout their careers that plan sponsors would benefit from HFG’s core competency – the integration of investment and fiduciary principles. This insight allows HFG confidently to assume fiduciary responsibilities.
HFG is not just one more “advisor” corporations must manage and pay. Instead, HFG is a fiduciary.
