BOARD OF DIRECTORS – NSIIP    (last updated 2019)

John E. Thompson, Jr.

PRESIDENT

John Thompson has been the President of the National Society of Institutional Investment Professionals since founding the organization in 2006. In July 2012, he was named Executive Director with responsibilities that include coordinating the organization’s annual Summit. He has more than 30 years of institutional investment experience with taxable trusts, corporate and public pensions, and foundation assets.

He retired, June 2012, after 38 years with Energy Future Holdings where he was responsible for managing all the company’s external trust funds including defined benefit plans, defined contribution plans, various non-qualified plans, and nuclear decommissioning trusts totaling $4.5 billion in assets.

He is a founding board member of the National Society of Institutional Investment Professionals, President of the DFW Institutional Investment Forum, and has been involved in all 25 Annual National Pension & Institutional Investment Summits, which began in 1995. He serves as Trustee and chairman of the Investment Committee for the Circle Ten Council Boy Scout Foundation, is a member of the Investment Advisory Committee of Parkland Health & Hospital System, and is on the HighGround Advisors (formerly Baptist Foundation of Texas) board of directors.

He was an active member of the Utility Pension Fund Study Group the Nuclear Decommissioning Fund Study Group and previously served on the editorial board of the Journal of Pension Plan Investing, and the Pension Policy and Legislation Committee for the Texas State Pension Review Board. He earned a BS in Business from Texas Wesleyan University in Ft. Worth, and an MBA in Finance from The University of Texas at Arlington. His master’s thesis was “An Analysis of the Financial Aspects of a Trusteed Pension Plan.”

David Pittman

VICE PRESIDENT

Mr. Pittman is Vice Chair of NSIIP’ Board and Advisor to NSIIP’s Texas Advisory Board and retired from PIMCO, formerly a Senior Vice President & Southern Regional Director for PIMCO Institutional Services in California for 15 years. Prior to PIMCO, he was a Senior Vice President & Regional Director with The Northern Trust Company in Chicago, Bank of America in California, and Republic Bank in Dallas.

Mr. Pittman is on the President’s Council of SouthWest Benefits Association (SWBA), a Founding Director of the National Society of Institutional Investment Professionals (NSIIP), and a Founding Member of the Texas Association of Public Employee Retirement Systems (TEXPERS). He was an Adjutant Professor at George Washington University’s Pension Institute in D. C., on the Pension World Advisory Board in Atlanta, on the American Bankers Association Corporate Services Board in D.C., and the Texas Bankers Association in Austin. He has also been involved in the Pensions & Investments/P&I Institute, NCTR, NCPERS, TEXPO, SCTR, and Southern Employee Benefits Conference as well as many Dallas community and church Boards and volunteer activities.

He has 43 years of institutional investment, banking & finance experience, holds a Bachelors in Accounting Degree from the University of Texas and a Graduate Banking Degree from Southern Methodist University (SMU) where his thesis was on ERISA/1974. He also graduated the AMA Corporate Executives Course/Wharton University, and attended many PIMCO Quarterly Cyclical & Secular Investment Forums as well as industry educational conferences. 

Bill Blythe

 VICE PRESIDENT

He was a member of the Texas House of Representatives for twelve years, and served in various appointed government positions. He authored the legislation creating the Texas State Pension Review Board. In addition to being a founder and a member of the Board of Directors, Bill served as the Executive Director of NSIIP until his recent retirement. He was one of the founders of the Texas Association of Public Employee Retirement Systems (TEXPERS) and served as its Executive Director for almost fifteen years.

He attended the University of Texas, earning a B.A. degree in General Business. He served for eight years in the United States Army on both active and reserve duty.

Bill is an associate real estate broker with Martha Turner Sotheby’s International Realty in Houston and The Woodlands. He provides over forty years of real estate expertise to his many clients, having been involved in commercial and residential sales, building, and developing. He is an Accredited Buyer Representative (ABR ).

Jim Harrell

TREASURER

Jim Harrell is the President of the World Giving Community Foundation. He combines a background with for-profit financial institutions and charitable entities. He served as the charitable liaison for Republic Bank and Northern Trust and the finance officer for Southwestern Medical Foundation.

He recently organized one of the member community foundations of the Border Philanthropy Project between Mexico and the United States, the Laredo Area Community Foundation, and is still a trustee.

Currently, he is establishing an ecumenical, faith based, community foundation, World Giving, to provide community foundation services to a broad base of donors who want to fund charities globally. Jim is founding member and serves on the board of directors of the National Society of Institutional Investment Professionals and is a member of the Society of Pension Professionals.

Randy L. Kopsa

SECRETARY

Randy Kopsa served the Boy Scouts of America as the Treasury Manager for over 20 years before retiring November 2015.   His office was comprised of the Chief Investment Officer, the Directors of Insurance and Risk Management, Credit and Collections, Cashier Services and Treasury Operations and their respective staffs.

He also served as Chief Financial Officer for BSA Asset Management, LLC, a BSA subsidiary company offering institutional investment services to BSA Councils across the country with over $2 billion in assets under management.  Prior to joining Boy Scouts, he served the State of Oklahoma as the Secretary and CFO of the Oklahoma Teachers’ Retirement System and as the Deputy State Treasurer.

Randy’s private sector experience is in banking, where he assumed various positions including commercial lending, asset/liability management and administration.

In addition to serving on the NSIIP Board, he has served as a member of the Executive Committee of the National Association of State Investment Officers, a member of Governmental Accounting Standards Board, the Financial Management Association and other financial associations.

Bruce Cox

DIRECTOR EMERITUS

Bruce Cox served on the Board of Directors of the Employees’ Retirement Fund, City of Fort Worth from 1978 until 2008. He also is on the Board of Directors of the National Society of Institutional Investment Professionals and is a member of the Society of Pension Professionals.

Bruce served on the State Pension Review Board for six years and was on the Board of Directors for the Texas Association of Public Employees Retirement Systems for nine years. Bruce retired in 1993 from the position of battalion chief with the Fort Worth Fire Department after 35 years of service. He is currently president of the Retired Fort Worth Firefighters Association.