Brian H. Lawrence
About Brian H. Lawrence
Brian H. Lawrence (born 1982) is Vice President and Assistant Secretary of Nuveen S&P 500 Buy-Write Income Fund (BXMX), serving since 2023, with an indefinite term of office. He is Vice President and Associate General Counsel of Nuveen, and also serves as Vice President, Associate General Counsel and Assistant Secretary of Teachers Advisors, LLC and TIAA-CREF Investment Management, LLC; previously, he was Corporate Counsel at Franklin Templeton from 2018 to 2022 . The Funds have no employees and officers serve without compensation from the Funds; compensation for the Chief Compliance Officer is paid by the Adviser (with partial reimbursement), underscoring that officer pay (including Lawrence) is not fund-paid and is governed by Nuveen/TIAA policies rather than fund-level pay-for-performance structures . As of February 18, 2025, each individual Board Member’s beneficial holdings in each Fund were less than 1% of outstanding shares; Board Members and officers as a group also held less than 1% in each Fund .
Past Roles
| Organization | Role | Years | Strategic impact |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nuveen | Vice President and Associate General Counsel | Past 5 years (ongoing) | Senior legal leadership supporting Nuveen fund complex governance and regulatory compliance . |
| Teachers Advisors, LLC; TIAA-CREF Investment Management, LLC | Vice President, Associate General Counsel and Assistant Secretary | Past 5 years (ongoing) | Legal, governance and corporate secretarial responsibilities across affiliated fund complexes . |
| Franklin Templeton | Corporate Counsel | 2018–2022 | Corporate legal counsel for asset management activities (regulated fund complexes) . |
External Roles
No external directorships or committee roles are disclosed for Lawrence in BXMX proxy filings .
Fixed Compensation
Officers of the Funds receive no compensation from the Funds; compensation (e.g., base salary/bonus) is paid by the Adviser (Nuveen/TIAA), and is not disclosed at the Fund level.
| Component | Payor | Amount/Terms |
|---|---|---|
| Base salary | Fund | $0; officers receive no compensation from the Funds . |
| Annual bonus | Fund | $0; officers receive no compensation from the Funds . |
| CCO compensation note | Adviser (with partial fund reimbursement of incentive portion) | CCO compensation paid by Adviser with Board input; Funds reimburse an allocable portion of CCO incentive compensation (informational context on officer pay arrangement) . |
Performance Compensation
No fund-paid equity or option awards are disclosed for officers; any incentive or equity-based compensation would be at the Adviser and is not detailed in Fund filings.
| Incentive type | Metric/weighting | Target | Actual | Payout | Vesting |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fund-level cash incentive | Not applicable | — | — | — | — |
| Fund-level RSUs/PSUs | Not applicable | — | — | — | — |
| Fund-level options | Not applicable | — | — | — | — |
| Adviser-level incentives | Not disclosed in Fund filings | — | — | — | — |
The Funds explicitly state officers are unpaid by the Funds; no performance metric framework, vesting, or award detail is provided at the Fund level for officers .
Equity Ownership & Alignment
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Individual beneficial ownership (BXMX) | Not separately disclosed for officers; as of Feb 18, 2025, each Board Member’s individual holdings in each Fund were <1% of outstanding shares; Board Members and executive officers as a group also <1% . |
| Group holdings (BXMX) | All Board Members/Nominees and Officers as a Group held 6,690 shares of S&P Buy-Write (BXMX) as of the 12/31/2024 ownership appendix . |
| Pledging/hedging | No pledging or hedging by officers is disclosed in the Fund proxy . |
| Ownership guidelines | Deferred compensation/ownership program disclosures pertain to Independent Board Members; no officer stock ownership guidelines disclosed at Fund level . |
| Vested vs. unvested/option status | Not applicable at Fund level; no officer equity awards from the Funds are disclosed . |
Employment Terms
| Term | Disclosure |
|---|---|
| Current Fund title | Vice President and Assistant Secretary . |
| Length of service in role | Since 2023 . |
| Term of office | Indefinite (officers elected by the Board) . |
| Election/renewal | Officers are elected by the Board to serve until successors are elected and qualified . |
| Employment agreement | No employment agreement disclosed at Fund level . |
| Severance/change-of-control | No severance or CoC provisions disclosed for officers in Fund filings . |
| Clawback/tax gross-ups/perquisites | Not disclosed for officers in Fund filings . |
Investment Implications
- Pay-for-performance alignment at the Fund level is minimal for officers: officers receive no compensation from the Funds, and any incentive design or targets exist at the Adviser (Nuveen/TIAA) and are not disclosed in Fund documents, limiting transparency into performance levers, vesting schedules, or change-in-control economics .
- Insider selling pressure appears low from fund-level ownership: BXMX reports less than 1% ownership by each individual Board Member and by Board Members and officers as a group, with 6,690 BXMX shares held by the group as of 12/31/2024; no pledging is disclosed, reducing trading-signal risk attributable to officer holdings .
- Retention and incentive alignment depend primarily on Nuveen/TIAA policies: without disclosure of Lawrence’s Adviser-level compensation metrics (e.g., TSR, revenue, EBITDA, or ESG goals), there is insufficient information to evaluate pay-for-performance rigor or retention hooks tied to vesting at the Adviser; for BXMX, Lawrence’s role (legal/secretarial) is governance-oriented rather than a direct driver of portfolio performance .
- No red flags evident in Fund filings regarding Lawrence: no disclosed related-party transactions, severance/golden parachute terms, or compensation repricing; governance disclosures focus on Board consolidation and standard fund governance processes .
Citations: officer biography and roles; officers receive no compensation from the Funds/CCO arrangement; officer election/election framework; ownership concentration thresholds; group share counts by fund; Board consolidation context.