Sam Folin, President & CEO of Benchmark Asset Managers, is dedicated to helping faith-based and other investors achieve better net returns with less risk. Sam’s thirty years in the business includes a rich mix of investment industry experience and service to religious and community based mission driven organizations.
Sam started his investment career with the Presbyterian Church, serving as staff to its Committee on Mission Responsibility Through Investment. He spent four years helping the Presbyterians define their response to the presence of US companies in South Africa. In this role he also served as a founding board member and board chair of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility.
He spent 1977-1985 as an investment broker, working primarily with individual investors. Sam worked with two local firms in Philadelphia as well as Shearson-American Express and Paine Webber during these years.
In 1985 he moved to the money management side of the investment business and spent the next ten years with the large-cap value manager, Newbold’s Asset Management, serving as portfolio manager and analyst. Sam worked with a variety of clients including the City of Philadelphia, the Navajo Nation, the Farmworker’s Pension and a variety of religious endowments. He earned his Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) certification during his time with Newbold’s (1990).
During his tenure at Newbold’s, Sam served as a volunteer in helping create the Delaware Valley Community Reinvestment Fund in Philadelphia - now known as The Reinvestment Fund.
Sam launched RISA: Reinvest South Africa in 1998. The RISA Charitable Trust serves as a source of capital and technical assistance support (grants and direct consulting) to black-owned small business in South Africa.
Sam continues his volunteer role as Board President of RISA Charitable Trust, (Chair of the Investment Committee) of the Christian Association at the University of Pennsylvania and a Ruling Elder at the Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church.