About Dr. Brian Leite
Dr. Brian Leite is a scholar-practitioner: two decades inside institutional asset management, now a university department chair and researcher who advises retirement committees with no investment product to sell.
From Fidelity's investment teams to the classroom
Brian joined Fidelity Investments in 2000 and spent two decades there. He began managing senior investment consultants who served Fidelity's largest defined-contribution clients, work that touched roughly $600 billion in administered assets. He went on to lead Fidelity's institutional portfolio-management teams across equity, high-income and asset allocation; ran the firm's consultant-relations effort across North America; and, as Deputy Chief Investment Officer of Fidelity Institutional Wealth Advisor, created and led the investment office for a new registered investment adviser.
He then earned a Doctor of Business Administration in finance at DePaul University and moved to Salve Regina University in Rhode Island, where he is Assistant Professor of Finance and Chair of the Business & Economics Department. The questions he took into the classroom are the ones he carries through his research and teaching: how institutional defaults, and the people who set them, shape what individual savers end up with.
Why independence matters
Most commentary on target-date funds comes from the firms that build and sell them. Brian's does not. He has no investment products to sell and no revenue tied to what a committee decides. He takes on advisory engagements selectively, through Fiduciary Governance Advisors, an independent firm he founded in 2026 that does not manage assets, recommend products, or give legal advice.
Research and teaching
Brian's peer-reviewed work has appeared in the Global Finance Journal, the Journal of Regional Analysis & Policy and Sports Economics Review, and his applied research on active share and glide-path construction was published in the Fidelity Leadership Series. At Salve Regina he teaches investment planning and portfolio management, served as MBA Graduate Program Director from 2022 to 2025, and advises the university's CFA Institute Research Challenge team.
Credentials and education
- Doctor of Business Administration (Finance), DePaul University, 2021
- MBA (Finance), Providence College
- BA (History), Rhode Island College
- Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) · Certified Financial Planner (CFP) · Certified Plan Fiduciary Advisor (CPFA) · Certified Employee Benefit Specialist (CEBS)
- Also on his CV: Certified Investment Management Analyst (CIMA), Retirement Plan Analyst (RPA), Group Benefits Analyst (GBA)
Fiduciary and board service
- Salve Regina University 403(b) Retirement Plan Fiduciary Committee, 2023 to present
- Pension Board, Town of Narragansett, Rhode Island, 2023 to 2025
- Advisory Board, DePaul University Doctor of Business Administration Program, 2021 to 2024
The book, and where to reach him
Brian's first book, The Retirement Black Box: Decoding the Hidden Architecture of Target-Date Funds, publishes January 5, 2027 from Advantage | Forbes Books; the full framework is set out in his book on target-date funds. Journalists and event organizers can find media and speaking inquiries on one page.
Let's Talk
Questions about a fund lineup, an event you're planning, or a story you're working on. Send a note and Brian will get back to you.