From the Editor...

The Mutual Fund Directors Forum surprised the market earlier this month when it announced that its president and CEO, Susan Wyderko, was planning to retire. Wyderko has been with MFDF for well over a decade and in her current role for the past six years. She will leave the organization in the fall of 2020. The announcement of Wyderko's plans follows a similar one from Independent Directors Council earlier this year about its managing director, Amy Lancellotta, who will retire at the end of 2019. Lancellotta's replacement was due to join IDC this month.

Fund governance pros were pleased to hear that the judge in an excessive fees case against Calamos Advisors decided in favor of the defendant at the end of September, the latest in a string of court victories for the mutual fund industry. What was even more welcome was the judge's opinion, released a couple weeks after the verdict itself was rendered. In it, the credibility of the plaintiffs' expert witnesses was called into question, and the judge clearly explained why the plaintiffs had not made their case. Litigators and others who follow these Section 36(b) cases continue to forecast an end to the years-long spate of lawsuits—at least those taking one of the two approaches that have been popular over the past decade.

On a sad note, the industry has said goodbye to a few friends in the past several weeks. Long-serving independent director Dorothy Berry passed away in August, well-known fund industry lawyer and the founder of Goodwin Procter's IM practice died Oct. 7, and former PIMCO Funds independent director William Popejoy passed away on Oct. 12. All three will be missed.

For now,

Hillary Jackson, founding editor