Shaping the Future - Milken Institute

panelists
David Fischer is Senior Vice President and Chief Investment Officer of Reinsurance Group of America Inc.,
responsible for handling asset allocation, investment strategy, alternative assets and investment reporting. He and
his team manage an $18 billion global investment portfolio for RGA around the world. The company has substantial
investments in fixed-income securities in six major currencies, as well as investments in private placements, commercial
mortgage loans, private equity and alternative assets. Fischer oversees an internal investment management team and
eight third-party money managers for various investment mandates. He focuses primarily on investment policies,
investment strategy and tactics, and risk management. Before joining RGA in 2004, he was a principal at Capstone
Advisors and a vice president and portfolio manager with Lincoln National. Fischer is a member of the CFA Institute, the
CFA Society of St. Louis and the Investment Analysts Society of Chicago.
John Fisher is the President of Pisces Inc., a company he founded in 1992 as an investment and management office
for the Fisher family. In addition, he is a founding partner of Sansome Partners, an investment partnership. Fisher is
chairman of the KIPP Foundation board of directors and serves on the board of the Alliance for School Choice and the
Charter School Growth Fund. He and his brothers started and serve on the board of the City Fields Foundation, which
was established in 2005 to address the ongoing shortage of playfields in San Francisco and to help the city provide
sports facilities for all types of play. Fisher holds a B.A. from Princeton University and an M.B.A. from the Graduate School
of Business at Stanford University.
Henrik Fisker is the Co-Founder and CEO of Fisker Automotive Inc. He and partner Bernhard Koehler founded Fisker
Coachbuild LLC in 2005 with the goal of designing and creating environmentally friendly cars that don’t compromise on
beauty or design. Fisker has spent 20 years in auto design, leaving his thumbprint on such vehicles as the BMW Z8, the
Aston Martin DB9 and B8 Vantage, as well as the Fisker Tramonto and Latigo CS. Previously, Fisker held several positions
at Ford Motor Company, including creative director for Ingeni, Ford’s London-based design center; board member and
design director for Aston Martin; and director of Ford’s Global Advanced Design Studio in Irvine, California. Before that,
Fisker was president and CEO of Designworks/USA, BMW’s California-based industrial design subsidiary. He began his
career at BMW Technick GmbH in Germany. Fisker is a graduate of The Art Center College of Design.
Pierre Fitzgibbon joined Atrium Innovations as President and CEO in 2007. Atrium Innovations is a leader in the
development, manufacturing and marketing of added-value products for the health and nutrition industry. In 2002,
Fitzgibbon joined National Bank Group as a vice chairman of National Bank Financial, bringing a range of expertise,
including corporate direction and finance, mergers and acquisitions, and strategic planning. From 2005 he held the
position of senior vice president of finance, technology and corporate affairs at National Bank of Canada. Fitzgibbon
also served as president and managing director of New World Mobility, a wireless communications solutions provider in
Hong Kong. He also held executive positions in finance, corporate and business development at Telesystem International
Wireless in Canada and Asia. Fitzgibbon received a bachelor’s degree from l’École des hautes études commerciales of
Montréal (affiliated with l’Université de Montréal) and a certificate in general management from Harvard Business School.
William Fleissig is President of Communitas Development Inc., a San Francisco-based company focused on mixedincome
and mixed-use projects in three niche locations: university towns, transit station districts and older “greyfield”
malls. Communitas also advises property owners and cities on how to achieve their development goals. Through an
affiliate company, Urban Villages Inc., Fleissig is a partner in developing West Village at the University of California,
Davis. Now under construction, the 130-acre village will incorporate 2,000 student beds; 343 affordable faculty and
staff homes; a mixed-use village square with shops and services; classroom space; parks and recreation fields; and all
on-site infrastructure. Until 2005, Fleissig was a co-founder of Continuum Partners LLC, where he was responsible for
coordinating the firm’s planning, design and entitlement activities on all projects. He received a B.A. from the University
of Pennsylvania; a B.Arch from the City College of New York and an M.P.A. from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.
84