Mendel Melzer leads Newport’s investment consulting practice and serves as President of Newport Group Securities, Inc., Newport’s registered investment adviser and broker-dealer. His team provides investment and fiduciary consulting services to institutional retirement plan clients. A frequent and popular speaker at industry conferences on topics of interest to retirement plan sponsors, Mendel has over 25 years of investment management experience. He began his career at Prudential Financial, where he held several key leadership positions including chief investment officer of Prudential Investments. In this position, he oversaw the management of portfolios totaling over $180 billion. Mendel subsequently served as chief investment officer of Weiss, Peck and Greer, an alternative asset management firm with over $17 billion under management. Mendel earned his bachelor’s degree (with honors) from the University of Wisconsin and his master’s degree (with distinction) from New York University. He is a founding board member of the Defined Contribution Institutional Investment Association and an Adviser Member of the Institutional Retirement Income Council. In addition to the Chartered Financial Analyst designation, he holds Chartered Life Underwriter and Chartered Financial Consultant designations. He also holds FINRA Series 7, 24, 63 and 65 registrations.