Sam Kirkland is a research director for Global Manager Research (GMR), a division of Wells Fargo Investment Institute. The GMR team selects and oversees the third-party money managers used throughout Wells Fargo’s brokerage, private banking, family wealth, and retirement businesses.
In his role, Mr. Kirkland serves as the asset class lead for Real Assets strategies. He also manages the team’s research support group and serves as the technology lead for GMR overseeing the team’s advanced analytics, AI Initiatives, quantitative processes, technology & tools and data collection. Previously at Wells Fargo he served as the asset class lead for Liquid Alternative strategies and was a portfolio manager on the Wells Fargo Private Bank Guided Portfolio Models.
Prior to joining Wells Fargo, Mr. Kirkland was a research manager for The Open Finance Network, an open architecture managed account platform provider serving high-net- worth advisors and family offices. From 2005-2009, he served as adjunct professor of finance within the Belk College of Business at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Mr. Kirkland has more than 20 years of experience in financial services.
Mr. Kirkland earned both a Masters of Business Administration and a Bachelor of Science in Finance from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. He is a CFA® charterholder, Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA) charterholder, and member of the CFA Society of San Francisco and serves on the board of the San Francisco Bond Club.