About the DFW II FORUM     (25 years in 2024)

The DFW Institutional Investment FORUM was formed at the end of 2018 to replace the Dallas Chapter of the National Society of Institutional Investment Professionals. which began as the Dallas Chapter of the Society of Pension Professionals in 2000. The new name is more representative of our focus on promoting the exchange of information and the education of institutional investment professionals in the DFW area. We generally hold a fixed number of regular meetings each year, along with special meetings from time to time. The regular meetings are usually held at the Park Cities Club in North Dallas with a speaker or panel discussion and networking opportunities for the price of lunch. With the COVID19 disruption, all meetings were held VIRTUALLY until March 2022 when we began in-person meetings again. By attending you voluntarily assume all risks related to exposure to COVID19. You should be vaccinated or wear a mask to protect yourself and others.

  1. Our special meetings include our meeting at the Dallas Federal Reserve for their economic outlook presentation in January or February and others from time to time.
  2. We have also partnered with others such as the DeMarche Workshop for Building Successful Multi-Asset Portfolios and Thompson Reuters’s Buyouts Magazine for the Buyouts Texas Annual Conference in Dallas providing venues with multiple Private Equity Investment Managers.
  3. We supported the Annual Summit for 26 years, which started in 1995. It was hosted by the NSIIP until 2017 when Hyphen Network took over hosting it. 2021 marked the 26th Annual Summit after skipping 2020 due to COVID19.
  4. In 2020 after we began virtual meetings, we started using a roundtable/panel format rather than a single speaker to get more engagement from the participants and audience. We also set up an Advisory Board to select topics and speakers. It has worked well and our average attendance has climbed from 20 to 30-35 now.

DFW II FORUM Calendar

The DFW Institutional Investment FORUM regular meetings are held at the Park City Club (5956 Sherry Lane, 17th floor)
Regular meetings from 11:30 AM to 1:00 PM, Speaker/Panel discussion 12:00 to 1:00 PM
Register now to save a seat at the table.

John E. Thompson, Jr.

PRESIDENT

John Thompson is the President of the DFW Institutional Investment FORUM since its formation in late 2018. This replaced the Dallas Chapter of the National Society of Pension Professionals which he formed in 2000 and led since then. He has been actively promoting the institutional investment profession since he and others began the annual Summit in 1995. In 2006 he founded the National Society of Institutional Investment Professionals to take over hosting the annual Summits. He was President of the organization since its founding and in July 2012, he was named Executive Director with responsibilities that include coordinating the organization’s annual Summit. He has been involved in the first 26 Annual National Pension & Institutional Investment Summits, which began in 1995. He has more than 35 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 the nuclear decommissioning trusts totaling $4.5 billion in assets.

He now serves as Trustee and Chair of the Investment Committee for the Circle Ten Council Boy Scout Foundation, is a member of the Investment Advisory Committee over Parkland Health & Hospital System pension plans, and is on the board of directors for HighGround Advisors (formerly Baptist Foundation of Texas). He now oversees the public pension plan and these foundations which now total about $5.5 billion in assets.

He was an active member of the Utility Pension Fund Study Group, the Nuclear Decommissioning Fund Study Group, and 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.”