Chairman Emeritus

Gerald S.A. Perez was the driving force in the creation of the Asia Pacific Association Fiduciary Studies. While serving as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Government of Guam Employees Retirement Fund (Fund), Mr. Perez came to understand the need for fiduciary training that was tailored to fit the unique requirements of fiduciaries responsible for the wide range of public and private benefit funds from throughout the Asia Pacific Region. Gerry also observed first-hand, the very significant amount of precious financial resources being wasted by the funds that the fiduciaries represented, in travel and other costs incurred by sending these fiduciaries to the U.S. mainland for education conferences and trainings.

As a result, Mr. Perez, assisted by Mr. Mark Heath, CFA®, AIF®, who was then serving as Chairman of the Investment Committee of the Fund, and Daniel Roland, CIMA®, AIF® who was serving as investment consultant to the Fund, spearheaded the effort in 2000 to form APAFS as a Guam 501c3 non-profit organization. Coincident with its formation, APAFS began hosting the annual Pacific Region Investment Conference as the first step in providing regional fiduciary education programs.