Every consultancy would like to believe that it has the best, most skilled and experienced consultants. In reality, however, no one firm can have the best consultants in every area. Recognizing this reality, Sinclair created an innovative business model: a lean core consultancy with continuing relationships and preferred access to other world-class boutique consultants.

In addition to our in-house resources, we have identified expert providers of related services. As necessary, Sinclair engages them, and together we act as a collaborative consortium. Clients benefit by gaining access to broad and deep expertise, while paying only for those senior consultants actually needed for their engagement, rather than for some portion of a large consulting firm’s ongoing overhead.

Moreover, by limiting the number of active engagements, we devote the time necessary to deepen the relationship with our clients. Our goal is to be a strategic, committed “thought partner,” rather than simply a hired outsider offering conventional “one-size fits all” recommendations. Our commitment and process enable us to better understand our clients’ strategic needs, and gives our clients a clearer understanding of the capabilities and resources Sinclair applies to solving their problems.

SINCLAIR CAPITAL,  NEW YORK MANAGING PARTNER: JON LUKOMNIK

Jon Lukomnik, Sinclair’s founder and Managing Partner, is one of only a few people in the industry to have been both responsible for a top-ten pension fund and a Managing Director at a top-ten hedge fund.

Prior to forming Sinclair, Mr. Lukomnik served as Deputy Comptroller for the City of New York, where he was investment advisor for the City’s defined benefit pension plans, with some $80 billion in assets, as well as a Trustee on defined benefit and defined contribution plans totaling more than $90 billion in assets. He was also responsible for investing the City’s treasury assets. The City’s pension funds materially outperformed the average large pension fund in America during his tenure. After leaving the City, Mr. Lukomnik served as Managing Director, Head of Strategic Planning and Business Development, for CDC Investment Management Corporation, a top-ten hedge fund.

Mr. Lukomnik currently serves as a Director for AutoEurope, a Trustee on the MHRA pension fund, and a member of the International Advisory Board of Euronext (the combined Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels and Lisbon stock exchanges).

Previously, Mr. Lukomnik served as Chair of the Executive Committee of the Council of Institutional Investors, and was a founder and Governor of the International Corporate Governance Network (ICGN). He was a member of the World Bank/International Finance Corporation’s Investor Task Force. He currently serves on the ICGN’s bylaws and awards committees, and previously co-chaired its International Standards Committee. The only non-lawyer invited to join the Bar Association of the City of New York’s Committee on Corporate Law, he served on that Committee for three years.

He was a founder and initial Board Member of GovernanceMetrics International, a global corporate governance rating service, as well as the primary inventor of its patent-pending rating algorithm. He is a member of the C-Suite of PRMIA, and AIMA.

Mr. Lukomnik is the co-author with Stephen Davis and David Pitt-Watson of a forthcoming book, The Civil Economy, (Harvard Business School Press, 2006), and writes a regular column for Compliance Week. He has authored numerous articles in such publications as Plan Sponsor, the AIMA Journal, Futures and Options World, and the Journal of Pension Plan Investing. He is also the co-author of “Alpha: The Positive Side of Risk” (Investors Press, 1996). Mr. Lukomnik has been quoted extensively in both consumer and business press, including such publications as The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Business Week, Institutional Investor, Pensions & Investments, Financial Times, and L’Agefi.

Davis Global Advisors (DGA) publishes the weekly Global Proxy Watch newsletter, and studies such as the annual Leading Corporate Governance Indicators report. It consults to institutional investors, professional business associations, stock exchanges, governmental bodies and international organizations, including the OECD and the World Bank.

Before establishing DGA in 1988, Dr. Davis pioneered the field of international corporate governance when he founded the Global Shareholder Service at the Investor Responsibility Research Center, Washington, DC. Dr. Davis writes regular columns for the Financial Times and Compliance Week.

He is a member of the International Investment Advisory Board of Euronext, UK Prime Minister Tony Blair’s Policy Network working group on economic reform, the Expert Council of the Russian Institute of Directors, the Senate of the Academy of Corporate Governance (India), the editorial boards of the UK-based Governance newsletter, and Eastern Europe’s Corporate Ownership and Control journal, the Independent Advisory Panel of Corporate Governance International (Australia), the Advisory Board of Sumitomo Trust & Banking’s Japan Investment Forum, and the advisory board of the European Commission’s governance project led by the Center for Economic Policy Research. He is also a founding partner of GovernanceMetrics International.

A Chartered Secretary, Mr. Armstrong heads the corporate governance practice of Edward Nathan (Pty) Limited, one of South Africa’s leading corporate law advisors. The unit provides sophisticated business solutions in the arena of corporate governance, board practices and director evaluation. Mr. Armstrong was previously Senior Vice President, Corporate Secretary, of Anglo American Corporation of South Africa Limited, and was extensively involved in the listing of Anglo American Plc. on the London Stock Exchange.

Prior to that, he held various executive and management positions with the Altron Group, a family owned business listed on the Johannesburg stock exchange. Mr. Armstrong consults to leading corporations and to a number of public sector enterprises in South Africa and policy makers internationally, while also working with international agencies and bodies, such as the Commonwealth Secretariat, Global Corporate Governance Forum, World Bank, Center for International Private Enterprise (United States), Centre for Corporate Governance (Kenya), Botswana Privatization Agency, International Finance Corporation, World Federation of Exchanges, Institute of Development Management and others.

Mr. Armstrong sits on the editorial advisory board of the international journal Governance, and is lead Independent Director of Computershare South Africa, Chairman of the African Institute of Corporate Citizenship, and a Director of a number of other companies.

Ms. Jones has 20+ years of financial markets expertise. As Portfolio Strategist and a Director of Portfolio Management for Metropolitan Life, Ms. Jones provided portfolio managers with risk analytics and sophisticated modeling on a security and portfolio basis, for both pension and insurance accounts. She has a particular expertise in modeling derivative securities.

Prior to her work with Metropolitan Life, Ms. Jones served as an investment analyst for General Motors Investment Management, with a focus on alternative investments, developed and emerging market debt, and currency. In addition to the CFA charter, Ms. Jones sits on the Alternative Investment Committee of the New York Society of Security Analysts, and is the Treasurer of the Triskeles Foundation.

Hanover Square is a pre-eminent American third-party marketing organization for institutional asset management products (both traditional and alternative). It has placed more than $1 billion with corporate, public and Taft-Hartley pension funds, endowments, insurance companies, foundations, funds of funds, and third-party platforms. Equally important, it has successfully positioned its clients for long-term viability and growth.

Prior to forming Hanover, Ms. Marstead held senior positions with the West Coast offices of Drexel Burnham Lambert, Bear Stearns, and A.G. Edwards. Ms. Laufer was director of mutual fund research for Merrill Lynch, and senior consultant for Frank Russell Co. Among the asset managers Hanover or its predecessor companies helped grow are: Equinox Capital Management, New Amsterdam Partners, Reich & Tang, Structured Services Holdings, and Kellner DeLeo & Cohen.

Mr. Messina, former head of the Financial Services Practice for Blackstone Technology Group, brings expertise in both capital markets and IT project management. Previously a strategic consultant for Goldman Sachs and a specialist consultant for McKinsey, he advised both firms on issues relating to clearing and settlement, as well as risk management. Prior service at Goldman Sachs included being part of the team that worked with the Emerging Markets Traders Association to standardize trading conventions and shorten settlement time from T+3 to T+1.

A seasoned entrepreneur, Mr. Messina serves as a Venture Partner for Advance Ventures LP (California). He is a Director of Broad Air Communications, Director of Tuck and Barder, a member of the Association for Corporate Growth, and Director of GoTrek, a non-profit educational organization. He served as executive producer for “Deconstructing Hayden” by cellist Gil Selinger and the Modern Chamber Orchestra.

Nestor Advisors Ltd., a London–based consultancy, advises several major European and Asian corporations and financial institutions. In January 2003 Mr. Nestor was appointed a senior advisor to the EU Council Presidency on issues relating to takeover, corporate governance and financial market legislation.

He is also advising the World Bank, the Swiss Economy Ministry, and the Serbian Ministry of Privatization. An expert serving on the OECD Steering Group of Corporate Governance, he was until March 2002 the head of the Corporate Affairs Division at the OECD, in charge of corporate governance, privatization, insolvency and corporate restructuring. He has interacted with and advised international institutional investors, governments and stock exchanges in more than 30 countries. In addition, he has advised several governments in designing privatization and insolvency reform policies.

Mr. Nestor is a member of the Advisory Board of the FTSE/ISS Global Corporate Governance Index and the Codes and Standards Committee of the International Corporate Governance Network, Chairman of the Corporate Governance Committee of the Association of Private Investment Managers/EASD in London, a member of the International Committee of the French Institute of Directors, and a former board member of the OECD/World Bank Global Corporate Governance Forum.

ProxyCon Assessoria Empresarial S/C Ltda., a consulting firm based in São Paulo, Brazil, specializes in projects dealing with ownership, management, accountability, transparency and valuations.

Mr. Vasconcellos is a board member of Tele Norte Celular Participaçoes S.A. (NYSE), Marcopolo S.A. (Bovespa), Ceramica Chiarelli S.A. (Bovespa), the Conselheiro Fiscal of Cia. Siderurgica Belgo Mineira (Bovespa), Politeno Indústria e Comércio S/A. (Bovespa) and two private companies. Mr. Vasconcellos currently heads the Research Group at IBGC, the Brazilian Corporate Governance Institute. He is a former executive director and board member of the Brazilian Security Analysts’ Association, and the former Head of Research at Patrimonio, a partnership with Salomon Brothers, Head of the Brazil Research Team at Merrill Lynch, and Deputy Head of Latin America Research at ING Barings. Mr. Vasconcellos also served as portfolio manager for Bradesco Templeton’s “Value and Liquidity Fund”.

Wolfehaus specializes in strategy and business management for broker/dealers, alternative asset management companies and other financial marketplace participants, with particular focus on investment platforms and marketing channels. It serves clients in North America, Europe and Asia.

John J. Wolfe, the Managing Member of Wolfehaus, is a 25-year financial industry veteran.
He led the reentry of Merrill Lynch into the listed equity derivatives products business, trebling revenues and completely overhauling its Asian equity derivative business, while integrating the Smith New Court futures and options business onto Merrill’s platform. He also developed Merrill’s integrated cash/futures program trading ability. Following his more than two decade career at Merrill Lynch, Mr. Wolfe led Deutsche Bank’s rationalization of its various alternative investment businesses following its acquisition of Bankers’ Trust, including the development of DB’s first-ever guaranteed alternative products. He is a Board Member of Broad Air, Inc., and a member of the Managed Futures Association and the Futures Industry Association.

Sinclair, Davis Global, Edward Nathan, Nestor Advisors, and ProxyCon are the founding members of g3 (global governance group), a private sector collaboration of the top corporate governance consultancies operating in both developed and emerging markets. Principals bring more than a combined 75 years of experience in corporate governance in transition and developed economies. Co-authors of national and global codes, and co-founders of key institutions, they represent some of the most influential architects of modern corporate governance. To read more about g3, click here.