J. Alan Reid, Jr., CIMA, CEO
Mr. Reid is CEO and a Founder of Forward Management, the Investment Advisor for the Forward Funds. With 24 years of experience in the financial services industry, Mr. Reid was formerly a Principal and Executive Director of the Private Wealth Management team at Morgan Stanley, and a Senior Vice President and Director of Business Delivery at Morgan Stanley Dean Witter Online. In this capacity, he designed and implemented the company’s mutual fund platform and aggregation strategy, in addition to designing and building the online firm’s call centers, product delivery, human resources infrastructure and mutual fund supermarket. He serves on many industry and thought leadership committees, and is also a member of the Board of Governors of the Investment Company Institute, and the Board of Directors of FOLIOfn. Mr. Reid previously sat on the Advisory Boards for Sungard, Yodlee and Finaplex. Mr. Reid holds a BS in Business Administration from Menlo College, where he was awarded The Faculty Award for leadership, character, and service.

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Mary Curran, Chief Legal Officer
Immediately prior to joining Forward Management, Ms. Curran was Associate General Counsel of Morgan Stanley and Chief Legal Officer of Morgan Stanley Online. In this position, she directed all aspects of the firm’s legal affairs, from its origin as a small start-up until its successful merger with Morgan Stanley’s Individual Investor unit in 2002. She was previously Senior Vice President and Associate General Counsel at Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, with responsibility for litigation and regulatory matters for all retail offices in the western half of the United States. Before joining MSDW, Ms. Curran was a Litigation Associate with McCutchen, Doyle, Brown & Enersen. She has served on a number of American Bar Association and FINRA committees, and is currently an arbitrator for FINRA. Ms. Curran is a graduate of Yale Law School.

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Jim O’Donnell, CFA*, Chief Investment Officer
Mr. O‘Donnell is the Chief Investment Officer of Forward Management and has held this position since July 2006. He oversees product development and internal portfolio management for Forward. Prior to joining Forward, Mr. O‘Donnell was an analyst with Meisenbach Capital, conducting fundamental and financial analysis for a hedge fund portfolio as well as being involved in trading, operations and risk management. Earlier, Mr. O‘Donnell was a portfolio manager for Nicholas-Applegate Capital Management, responsible for stock selection and financial analysis for large cap, mid cap and small cap separately managed account portfolios from 1993 until 2001. Mr. O‘Donnell began his career as an institutional options trader. He is a Chartered Financial Analyst and holds a BS from Cornell University as well as an MBA from the University of San Diego.

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Alan Seigerman, CFA*, Chief Financial Officer
Mr. Seigerman is the Chief Financial Officer of Forward Management and has been with Forward since 2002. He has over 20 years of industry experience analyzing, developing, and implementing business growth strategies. As the COO of ReFlow Management he was instrumental in taking the company from an innovative idea to an award winning mutual fund service. Previously, he was Director of E*TRADE Financial’s internal consulting group evaluating business performance and strategic initiatives, developing new business opportunities including selecting and integrating third party affiliations, joint-ventures and acquisitions. Prior to E*TRADE, Mr. Seigerman was a Principal Consultant at Price Waterhouse LLC assisting clients with managing and valuing their intellectual property, as well as maximizing their business performance. Earlier at IDD Information Services, he developed the first online global Mergers and Acquisitions information service now owned by SDC, a division of Thompson Corporation. Mr. Seigerman is a Chartered Financial Analyst and holds a B.A. from Northwestern University as well as an MBA from Columbia University.

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Judith M. Rosenberg, Chief Compliance Officer
Ms. Rosenberg has been involved in the legal and compliance end of the securities business since 1984, working in the law division of Dean Witter and Morgan Stanley. As Director of Compliance at Morgan Stanley Online from 1997-2002, she developed compliance policies and procedures and supervised registration, litigation, customer complaint response and regulatory reporting. She also worked with regulators on the national and state level in advisory and audit contexts in developing a model of conduct for the online brokerage business. As Senior Attorney in Morgan Stanley’s law division, Ms. Rosenberg worked with the Individual Investor Group and represented the firm in a variety of litigation, arbitration, and regulatory matters in addition to supervising staff attorneys and paralegals. Prior to joining Morgan Stanley, Ms. Rosenberg worked as a litigation attorney at Steefel, Levitt & Weiss from 1983 to 1984, and as a litigation attorney for Morrison and Foerster from 1979 to 1983. She holds a BA from New York University and JD from Hastings College of the Law, where she was Managing Editor of the Hastings Law Review and a member of Order of the Coif.

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Norman Mains, Chief Risk Officer and Managing Director
Mr. Mains is a Managing Director of Forward Management, with a further role as Chief Risk Officer. He has held leadership roles in the areas of research, product development and administration. He was formerly Executive Director and Chief Investment Officer for Morgan Stanley’s Graystone Research—a team focused on creating customized solutions using hedge funds and other alternative investments for high-net-worth individuals, family offices, institutions and foundations. Prior to Morgan Stanley, Mr. Mains ran a fund of hedge fund group at Carr Global Advisors. Previously, he was the Executive Director of Product Development for Dow Jones Indexes, a position he accepted after being the Director of Research and Chief Economist at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. Mr. Mains has been widely quoted in leading financial publications, appeared regularly on television to discuss financial markets and has co-authored and contributed to several books on financial topics. He holds a BA and MA from the University of Colorado and has earned a PhD in Economics from the University of Warwick in the United Kingdom.

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Paul Schaeffer, Managing Director of Strategy & Thought Leadership
Mr. Schaeffer is Managing Director of Strategy & Thought Leadership for Forward Management. He is well known in the financial services industry as a business strategist, speaker and author with a knack for anticipating emerging trends and innovations. Mr. Schaeffer came to Forward Management from SEI, where he was Managing Director of the Investment Manager Services Group, a provider of operating services to mutual fund, alternative investment and separate account management organizations. He led that unit’s business strategy, product development and thought leadership initiatives. Prior to SEI, Mr. Schaeffer was Managing Partner of Investment Counseling, Inc. (IC), where he advised investment management firms on competitiveness and performance issues. It was during his tenure at IC that he pioneered-along with partner Chas Burkhart-the comprehensive annual survey “Competitive Challenges,” which remains the leading monitor of best practices in the industry. Widely published and quoted in major industry publications, Mr. Schaeffer is a frequent speaker at conferences held by the ICI, ABA, AIMR, IAA and U.S. Institute. He is active in the ICI Research committee and the Money Management Institute and serves on the board of directors of Epic Bancorp and as Chairman of the Board of Tamalpais Wealth Advisors. Earlier in his career, Mr. Schaeffer worked in publishing, the entertainment industry, government and public policy.

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Jeffrey P. Cusack, President, Distribution
Mr. Cusack is President, Distribution of Forward Management. He has more than 20 years of financial-services experience in sales, marketing, product development and training. Prior to Forward Management, he was Managing Director of Sales at REX & Co., where he headed the sales efforts in the financial planning, charitable organization and direct-to-consumer channels. Prior to REX & Co., Mr. Cusack was Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing for JP Morgan Private Client Services where he led a group of more than 370 professionals that generated approximately $1 billion in revenue. Prior to JP Morgan, he was Senior Vice President and Head of Managed Accounts at Charles Schwab, where he was responsible for designing and launching what became the industry's leading managed accounts platform serving the independent financial advisor and private client markets. Mr. Cusack also spent 12 years in the consulting group of Smith Barney. As Senior Vice President and a Member of the Operating Committee, he helped grow the firm's revenues from less than $100 million to $1.6 billion. Mr. Cusack received a BA in business administration from New England College and has obtained the CIMA designation.

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Clay Smudsky, President, Institutional
Mr. Smudsky is President, Institutional of Forward Management. Previously, Mr. Smudsky was Vice President of institutional sales at RS Investments. He was responsible for leading the sales efforts that successfully expanded the sub-advisory, retirement plan and consultant-driven businesses. Prior to RS Investments, Mr. Smudsky served as a Divisional Sales Manager for Salomon Brothers Asset Management. At Salomon, he helped develop the managed account business and led a new effort to distribute their mutual funds through the broker-dealer community. Mr. Smudsky received a BA from Ohio Wesleyan University and an MBA from the University of San Francisco, and he has attained the CIMA designation from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

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Rob Naka, Senior Vice President, Operations
Mr. Naka comes to Forward Management with more than 25 years of investment experience within operations, compliance, mutual fund accounting, administrative services, information technology and facilities. Prior to joining Forward Management in 2009, he served as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer for the ING Funds and its affiliates. Mr. Naka’s tenure at ING began when he joined The Pilgrim Group as a Mutual Fund Compliance Accountant, ultimately rising to Vice President of Operations, with responsibilities for transfer agent services and operations. After The Pilgrim Group was acquired by Express America, he was promoted to Senior Vice President of Operations, which not only encompassed transfer agent responsibilities but also management of IT, HR, facilities, SMA and operational risk management. It was during this time that he guided a series of acquisitions and mergers, including: Pilgrim Funds. Nicholas-Applegate Funds, Northstar Funds, Lexington Funds, ING Funds, Aetna Funds, GCG (IIT) Trust (VA), and IPI Funds (DC). These mergers resulted in a slate of 200 ING Funds. Mr. Naka holds a BA in Economics and Political Science from the University of California, San Diego.

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Barbara Tolle, Director of Fund Accounting and Operations
Ms. Tolle joined Forward Management as the Director of Fund Accounting and Operations in March 2006. She also is the Treasurer and CFO of the Forward Funds. Ms. Tolle is directly responsible for the oversight of fund accounting, administration, tax, regulatory and distribution services for the funds. Previously, Ms. Tolle was at PFPC Inc. (formerly First Data Investor Services Group, and FPS Services, Inc.), where she was Vice President and Director of Fund Accounting and Administration with servicing responsibilities for numerous mutual fund families including the Forward Funds. During her tenure (1988-2006) at PFPC, Ms. Tolle was responsible for maintaining strong client relationships and managing staff providing financial, administration, tax, regulatory, transfer agent and distribution services for PFPC clients. She began her career in the mutual fund industry with the Vanguard Group of Investment Companies (1973-1988) where she progressed to Assistant Controller and Officer of the Vanguard Group of Investment Companies. Earlier, Ms. Tolle served in Saigon, Vietnam, as a research assistant and business manager for Control Data Corp., under contract to the U.S. Military Command. Ms. Tolle attended the Georgetown University School of Language and Linguistics in Washington, D.C. (1967-1969) and Strayer Business College (1969-1970). She completed her requirements in Business Administration, major in Finance, at Ursinus College Evening School Division (1974-1980), and was on the National Dean‘s List in 1980.

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Forward Funds are distributed by ALPS Distributors, Inc., © 2012 Forward Management, LLC. All rights reserved.