Thomas Hale has over 35 years of experience in the investment management industry and has worked with many of the industry's most sophisticated asset management firms. He presently is the Director of Strategic Planning at Confluence Investment Management LLC, a registered investment adviser that offers its clients portfolio management services focused on an array of equity, asset allocation, balanced, alternative and sector strategies, primarily through discretionary separately managed accounts and through portfolio models. Tom is also an Independent Director and Board Chair of Fairway Private Equity & Venture Capital Opportunities Fund, a registered closed-end fund that seeks to generate long-term capital appreciation through investing in primary and secondary investments in private equity and venture capital funds managed by third-party managers and certain direct investments in private operating companies.Tom practiced law for 26 years at the acclaimed international law firm of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher, & Flom LLP, where he was a partner and head of the firm's Investment Management Group in Chicago. At Skadden, Tom advised leading investment management firms on developing and structuring new investment products, operating their investment management businesses, and performing strategic acquisitions and dispositions. His peers regularly recognized Tom as a leading practitioner in the investment management industry, with Euromoney Institutional Investor naming him one of the best Investment Funds lawyers in the United States.Following his retirement from Skadden, Tom joined a start-up company, Destra Capital Management, as its Senior Managing Director for Corporate and Strategic Development. At Destra, Tom worked with the founders and core senior management to execute upon Destra’s initial business plan of developing, operating and distributing retail investment products in partnership with a variety of independent institutional advisory firms. After Skadden, Tom also joined the Board of Directors of Caherciveen Partners, and was a principal of the company until its sale in 2015. Caherciveen Partners was a proprietary algorithmic fixed-income market-making firm, and developed one of the industry's first microwave communications networks. Tom also is an advisory board member for a private technology company and consults with private equity sponsors and other investment management firms on operational and strategic matters.