George Hopkins

George Hopkins was the Executive Director of the Arkansas Teacher Retirement System (ATRS) for over 10 years from December 2008 to December 2019. ATRS is a defined benefit retirement plan established by Arkansas state law for public school and other public education employees in Arkansas. The plan investments are currently valued at over $20 billion.  

As the executive director of ATRS, George carried out the ATRS Board’s policies and directives. His duties included ensuring the prudent investment of the billions of dollars invested in ATRS trust fund, properly paying benefits to thousands of members and beneficiaries, paying special benefits and refunds, obtaining employer contributions of hundreds of millions annually, receiving member contributions of millions annually, crediting the thousands of active members with accurate service and salaries, hearing all member appeals, monitoring the actuarial status of ATRS, ensuring compliance with extensive IRS regulations, providing information and input to the General Assembly and the Governor, and making recommendations to the ATRS Board on proposals that ensure fairness and the financial strength of ATRS.

During George’s tenure, ATRS had strong benefits and a comprehensive investment portfolio that delivered among the very highest (top 1%) investment returns of public retirement plans in the United States. During that time, benefits were closely examined and changed to ensure a few did not benefit at the cost of the many. Unlike many of its contemporaries, ATRS weathered the 2008 and 2009 financial crisis without an employer contribution increase. ATRS also changed the investment mix to bring strong returns with relatively lower risk. ATRS focused on a direct farmland program, real assets, opportunistic investments, and direct investments like Big River Steel.  

While George was the executive director of ATRS, the fund served as the representative plaintiff in multiple securities fraud cases where the plan recovered hundreds of millions of dollars for investors. 

George Hopkins graduated from Henderson State University in 1981 and from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock School of Law in 1987. He served in the Arkansas State Senate as a legislator for 14 years, from 1987 through 2000, and practiced law in Malvern, Arkansas from 1987 through 2008 before joining ATRS as executive director in December 2008.

George Hopkins

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George Hopkins

Will Farrell

Federated Hermes
Assistant Manager, EOS
London

Will co-leads the climate change theme at EOS, the stewardship arm of Federated Hermes Limited, where his coverage includes companies in Europe and Australia, primarily financial services, energy, chemicals, and materials. Prior to joining EOS, Will worked in the energy and infrastructure investment banking team at Macquarie Capital, where he specialised in renewable energy. Before that, Will held a number of roles across the UK climate policy space, including as a parliamentary researcher for Rt. Hon. Chris Skidmore MP on climate and energy issues, and as a climate and economic policy analyst at a diplomatic institute. He was appointed as a voluntary adviser to Rt. Hon. Alok Sharma MP, President of COP26, on preparations for COP26 after co-founding a Westminster climate policy group in 2019, which engaged MPs and Members of the House of Lords to advocate for more ambition on climate action in public policy. Will has a Bachelor’s degree (1st Class Honours) in Economics from the London School of Economics and Political Science.