Russ Wermers is an Associate Professor of Finance at the Smith School of Business, University of Maryland at College Park, where he won a campus-wide teaching award during 2005. His main research interests include studies of the efficiency of securities markets, as well as the role of institutional investors in setting stock prices. Most notably, his past research has developed new approaches to measuring and attributing the performance of mutual funds, pension funds, and hedge funds, as well as devising winning strategies for investing in these funds. Professor Wermers received his Ph.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles, in 1995. In 2009, Bernd Fischer was appointed to the position of Managing Director of IDS GmbH - Analysis and Reporting Services (a subsidiary of Allianz SE), one of the largest internationally operating providers of operational investment controlling services for institutional investors and asset managers. From 2000 to 2009, he was Global Head of Risk Controlling and Compliance in the central business segment Asset Management of Commerzbank AG and was also responsible for the operational Risk and Performance Controlling division of cominvest GmbH. Prior to this, he worked in the fields of Portfolio Analysis and Risk Controlling in the Asset Management division of Dresdner Bank. From 2000 to 2004, he was a member of the Investment Council of the CFA Institute. Dr. Fischer completed his degrees in Physics and Mathematics at the University of Cologne and was awarded his doctorate at the Florida Atlantic University (USA) in 1995.