‘No Two Days Are the Same’

George Findlay, a GIPS compliance overseer at State Street Investment Management, is looking forward to talking to many people about the GIPS standards and implementations at PMCR 2026.

 (George Findlay, CIPM, assistant vice president, GIPS compliance & performance oversight, State Street Investment Management, helps the firms conform to the Global Investment Performance Standards (GIPS), which are voluntary and ethical principles for calculating and presenting investment performance. As a GIPS overseer, he works with a range of internal teams and managers within the firm, which varies his days, much to his liking. Most recently, Findlay interacted with many people as he was co-leading a project team tasked with getting “everything updated” to comply with the new GIPS outsourced chief investment officer (OCIO) guidance statement. “No two days are the same, which is one reason I thoroughly enjoy being a practitioner of the GIPS standards,” he says.)

Professional Background/Expertise

Q: Can you tell us a bit about your role and what your day-to-day looks like at State Street Investment Management?

A: I’m a senior member of the team that oversees the firm’s composite performance and claim of compliance with the GIPS standards. During our regular performance cycles, I’m very focused on maintenance and oversight of the end-to-end lifecycle of our composite performance data. However, on any given day, I could be collaborating with our sales and marketing teams to help answer questions related to the GIPS standards for a prospective client/investor or engaging with our product team or portfolio managers on upcoming new fund launches or changes to our existing products. No two days are the same, which is one reason I thoroughly enjoy being a practitioner of the GIPS standards.

Q: What’s a recent project or initiative your team has worked on that has made the biggest impact for your organization?

A: This is a tough one, but I would have to say co-leading the project team to get everything updated to comply with the new OCIO [outsourced chief investment officer] guidance statement has been the most impactful.

Q: What is your dream project?

A: To successfully integrate and automate all the necessary data inputs and outputs related to composite performance reporting across all our systems and global locations.

Session Insights

Q: What inspired you to participate in PMCR 2026 and take part in the “A New Era for OCIOs: GIPS Standards Guidance Provides Clarity” session?

A: As a practitioner, I enjoy talking to people about the GIPS standards and was very excited about the opportunity to be a part of the PMCR 2026 to discuss the new OCIO guidance statement.

Q: What do you think makes "A New Era for OCIOs: GIPS Standards Guidance Provides Clarity" especially relevant for today’s investment operations landscape?

A: I think the biggest impact of the new OCIO guidance within investment operations is the potential differences of how they review, implement, and maintain the OCIO portfolio(s) compared to their current portfolio/composite framework.

Industry Challenges & Trends

Q: What’s one of the biggest challenges your team or clients are facing right now? Can you fill us in on how you are approaching it?

A: For our team, I would say it’s probably data. Particularly, the amount, the quality, and end-to-end integration of it. There are many concurrent initiatives across the firm that focus on systems/platform evolution while others are more centered around people/process/technology.

Q: How do you foresee technology (A.I., blockchains, digital assets, automation, data analytics, etc.) reshaping your area of expertise over the next year or two? Are you preparing for any major shifts?

A: I think over the last few years A.I. has been the technology that has had the most impact from my perspective. While we’re always going to need a person in the loop, I can see A.I. changing what our roles will look like and what our focus is over the next couple of years.

Q: Which technology has impressed you? Which technology has disappointed you?

A: No real disappointments to speak of but what I’ve seen from A.I. technologies, especially in terms of data and analytics, have been pretty remarkable.

The PMCR Experience

Q: What are you most excited about learning at PMCR?

A: Attending some of the great sessions across all three of the different topic streams.

Q: What do you hope attendees walk away with after hearing your session?

A: I hope the attendees take with them either one idea or approach to help them with their adoption of the new OCIO guidance or confidence that what they have done is on the correct path.

Getting to Know You

Q: What’s one thing people might be surprised to learn about you?

A: I’ve had the privilege of traveling to 12 countries across five continents over the last 15 years.

Q: What’s the best piece of career advice you’ve ever received (or would share)?

A: The best career advice I would share is to take ownership of your mistakes and accomplishments. You learn and grow from both.