Erik D. Barefield Senior Managing Director, Mesirow Advanced Strategies, Inc.
“ Boards provide perspective and contribute to the thinking of an organization. They constantly pressure test its focus on core principles and competencies and who benefits from them.” As senior managing director of Mesirow Advanced Strategies, Inc., Erik Barefield is directly responsible for the team that manages investor relationships for North America. The assets associated with this region are $3.3 billion, consisting predominately of public, private, and Taft Hartley pension funds.
specific needs, want, and fears, and the unique skills or resources you control or may control to deliver on those needs.”
Prior to his current role, Barefield was vice president, Taxable Fixed Income at Morgan Stanley. He was responsible for a client base of more than 20 institutional traders and portfolio managers in the corporate and mortgage backed areas of fixed income.
“A prerequisite of being a leader is having a vision. Having a vision, almost by definition, means you see something the average person doesn’t, or you see a pathway to getting something the average person sees as unattainable.”
In all his roles, he takes what he calls an “outwardly-focused” perspective. Explains Barefield, “An empathic perspective is as important in business as it is in the community or in a family setting. All innovation, organizational growth, and any long-term strategy requires an accurate definition of whom you intend to serve, their
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He believes that this helps leaders better develop and communicate their vision.
According to Barefield, leaders must also be able to articulate this pathway as a process and gain buy-in from their teams. “At the end of the day, it’s about getting somebody else to do something because they want to do it. The leader generates the idea and transfers it to other people who need to take ownership and execute.”
He brings his motivational vision and outwardlyfocused perspective to his Board roles at Metropolitan Family Services, where he has served since 1993. He is currently on their Investment and Executive Committees. • Chaired Metropolitan Family Services’ Metro (Jr.) Board from 1999-2001
• Accepted into the First Scholar Program at The First National Bank of Chicago (1989-1991)
• Holds a Bachelor of Science, Finance, from
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and a Masters of Management, Finance, from J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management, Northwestern University