The Chief Investment Officer Summit

| The Harvard Club of New York City

Speakers

  • Erin Abouzaid

    CIO, Stony Brook Foundation

    Erin Abouzaid, PhD, CFA has been the Chief Investment Officer of the Stony Brook Foundation since April 2012. She is responsible for managing and reporting on the investments and risk in Stony Brook’s endowment portfolio and for making recommendations to the investment committee. Previously, Erin was a Vice President in the Portfolio and Risk Management Group at State Street Associates in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

  • Chris Ailman

    CIO, Califonia State Teachers' Retirement System

    Mr. Ailman is the Chief Investment Officer of the $185 billion California State Teachers’ Retirement System, the largest teachers fund and the second largest pension fund in the U.S.A. As CIO, Mr. Ailman leads an investment staff of 140 across eight teams in the following divisions: Private Equity, Global Equity, Corporate Governance, Fixed Income, Real Estate, Operations, Inflation Sensitive, and Innovation / Risk. He joined CalSTRS in the fall of 2000. He has over 31 years of institutional investment management experience. Annually, he is listed as one of the top CIO’s in the U.S.A and globally by aiCIO and Institutional Investor magazine, and he is an early member of the global “300” CIO Club. He has served on several boards and advisory boards in the U.S. and U.K. He represents institutional investors on the Russell Index Client Advisory Board, MSCI Barra Index Editorial Advisory Board, Emory University Private Equity Research Council, EDHEC Risk Institute and the Toigo Foundation. Since 2007, he has served as the Co-Chair of the Milken Global Capital Markets Committee from the Milken Institute. He is a past Governor of the International Corporate Governance Network, (ICGN) and the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI). He has received numerous awards and recognitions over his career, in 2000, he received the CIO of the Year – IFE Leadership Award by IFE. In 2003, his State CIO peers awarded him the Richard Stoddard Award for service in the investment of public pensions. In 2006, he was honored to be the first Anglo to receive the Distinguished Service Award for the Advancement of Latino’s in Business by the New America Alliance. In 2011, he received the Institutional Investor’s Large Public Fund Manager of the Year award and the aiCIO Innovation Award, and in 2013 he was named the number #3 CIO in the world and was named Investment Innovator of the Year by aiCIO magazine. Mr. Ailman is a regular guest on CNBC’s Closing Bell and Power Lunch, Bloomberg TV’s Market Makers, as well Bloomberg Advantage radio show, as well as appearances on CNBC Europe, Yahoo Finance and the Wall Street Journal Report. He is frequently quoted in multiple pension, investment, and finance publications ranging from the Wall Street Journal, Institutional Investor, aiCIO, Top1000Funds.com and Pension & Investment magazine. Mr. Ailman has a Bachelor of Arts in Business Economics from the University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB). He received his Certified Financial Planner from the University of Southern California and completed the inaugural Claritas Certificate program of the CFA Institute. He is married with three daughters, is a committed Promise Keeper, and active in the Christian community.

  • Ian Baker

    SVP, Head of Fundamental and Quantitative Research, Fidelity Institutional Asset Management

    Ian Baker is head of fundamental and quantitative research at Fidelity Institutional Asset ManagementSM (FIAMSM), an investment organization within Fidelity Investments’ asset management division that is dedicated to serving the needs of consultants and institutional investors, such as defined benefit and defined contribution plans, endowments and financial advisors. In this role, Mr. Baker leads FIAM’s equity research effort across sectors, capitalizations, and geographies and manages a team of more than 40 research analysts in Smithfield, London, and Hong Kong. Prior to assuming his current position in January 2015, Mr. Baker was senior vice president of quantitative research, risk management, and derivatives at Pyramis Global Advisors, a Fidelity Investments company, responsible for risk oversight across the investment platform and direct oversight of all quantitative and derivative-based products and strategies. Before joining Pyramis in 2007, Mr. Baker served as a vice president and portfolio manager at Wellington Management Company. There he focused on managing derivative-based portfolios, idea generation, and product development across asset classes. His more than 25 years of experience in the investment industry includes tenures at Schooner Asset Management, Scudder Kemper Investments, and The Boston Company. Mr. Baker earned his bachelor of arts degree in finance and marketing from the University of Wisconsin and his master of science degree in finance from Boston College. He is also a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) charterholder.

  • Rod Bare

    Senior Vice President, Callan Associates

    Rod Bare is a Senior Vice President in Callan’s Chicago Fund Sponsor Consulting office. Rod joined Callan in 2014 and works with a variety of public and corporate defined benefit and defined contribution plan clients. His responsibilities include strategic planning, implementation, performance evaluation, and continuing education. Prior to joining Callan, Rod served as a consultant at Russell Investments to several large retirement plans, providing advice on plan structure, manager selection, and fiduciary best practices. Prior to joining Russell in 2010, Rod spent six years at Morningstar/Ibbotson, where his responsibilities included product and business development for rules-based asset allocation strategies for retirement plans. Rod has authored several papers on next-generation investment methodologies, performance measurement, and ERISA fiduciary responsibilities. He has testified before the SEC and DOL on the subject of target date funds and has been a speaker at numerous retirement industry conferences. Rod received his MBA in Finance and Statistics from the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business. He graduated from Illinois State University with a BS in Economics.

  • Jennifer Bender

    Director of Research, Global Equity Beta Solutions, State Street Global Advisors
    Jennifer Bender , Ph.D. Director of Research Global Equity Beta Solutions – Jenn leads research for Global Equity Beta Solutions. In this role, she is responsible for promoting the thought leadership of SSGA across key areas of passive investing including smart beta, thematic investing, and evolutions in global equity investing. The focus of the GEBS team is to develop innovative research within these areas. These activities include the publication of white papers in industry-leading journals, developing SSGA proprietary strategies particularly in the area of smart beta, and building client-specific custom equity solutions. Previously, Jenn spent eight years as a vice president on the Index and Analytics Research teams at MSCI. Within Index Research, she was responsible for research on equity index-related topics, including asset allocation and index fund management. Prior to joining the Index Research Team, Jennifer worked in the Barra Research group, focusing on portfolio construction and risk modeling. She was previously at State Street Associates and began her career as an economist at DRI in 1996. Jenn holds a PhD and a MS in economics from Brandeis University. Her work has been published extensively in peer-reviewed journals and compendiums.

     

  • Kane Brenan

    Global Head of the Global Portfolio Solutions Group, Goldman Sachs Asset Management
    C. Kane Brenan is global head of the Global Portfolio Solutions Group (GPS) for Goldman Sachs Asset Management within the Investment Management Division. He is a member of the GPS Investment Committee. Previously, Kane was a member of the Private Equity Investment Committee in the Alternative Investments & Manager Selection Group, where he invested in the private equity secondary market. Prior to that, he worked in the Investment Banking Division in the Leveraged Finance Group and the Technology, Media and Telecom Group. Kane joined Goldman Sachs as an associate in 1998 and was named managing director in 2007 and partner in 2014. Prior to joining the firm, Kane worked as a corporate law associate at Cravath, Swaine & Moore. Kane earned a BA from Boston College, and a JD magna cum laude and an MBA from Georgetown University, where he was a Beta Gamma Sigma Scholar and an editor of The Georgetown Law Review. He is a member of the New York Bar.

     

  • Doug Brown

    SVP and Chief Investment Officer, Exelon Corporation

    Douglas J. Brown joined Exelon Corporation as Senior Vice President and Chief Investment Officer in November 2009. As Chief Investment Officer, Doug leads a team of professionals responsible for managing all investment activities including pension funds, nuclear decommissioning trusts, defined contribution plans and other employee benefit trusts totaling $40 billion. He is a member of Exelon’s Corporate Investment Committee, Risk Management Committee and is a member of the Exelon Foundation Board of Directors. In 2012, Doug was named Large Corporate Pension Manager of the Year by Institutional Investor. The award recognizes institutional investors whose innovative strategies and fiduciary savvy have resulted in impressive returns. In 2013, 2014 and 2015 he was named to Chief Investment Officer Magazine’s Power 100 list of most influential asset owners. Professional History Prior to joining Exelon, Doug was Chief Investment Officer at Chrysler LLC with responsibility for all asset management activities globally, including pension funds, defined contribution plans and other employee benefit trusts totaling $30 billion. Chrysler’s $20 billion U.S. pension fund has been consistently among the top performing funds. Doug’s career with Chrysler and its affiliates began in 1983. He was advanced to positions of increasing responsibility, including Treasurer for DaimlerChrysler Canada and Director, Corporate Finance and Capital Markets for DaimlerChrysler Corporation. He was a member of the Chrysler LLC Investment Committee and previously served on the DaimlerChrysler Investment Committees in the United States, Germany and Canada and on the Board of Directors and Investment Committee for the DaimlerChrysler Insurance Company. Doug is a member of the Economic Club of Chicago and is Vice-Chair and a member of the Board for Directors of The Committee on Investment of Employee Benefit Assets (CIEBA) in Washington, DC. He also serves on the Board of the Goodman Theatre in Chicago. From 2013 to 2015, Doug served on the Board of the CFA Society of Chicago. Education Doug was born in Paterson, New Jersey and holds a B.A. degree in economics from Albion College and an MBA from the University of Detroit Mercy.

  • Fabio Cecutto

    Head of Global Equity Manager Research, Willis Towers Watson

    Fabio is head of Multi-Region equity manager research at Towers Watson, leading the team research efforts on Global, International and Emerging Market equity strategies. Fabio has also been researching long-short, quantitative and Smart Beta equity strategies and has experience consulting globally to large asset owners. Fabio is the equity specialist on the US Portfolio Construction Group (PCG), which is involved with portfolio construction and monitoring for delegated and fiduciary clients.

  • Joe Cella

    Head of Annuity Pricing, Legal & General Investment Management America

    Joe Cella joined Legal and General Retirement in September 2013 as Head of US Annuity Pricing.  In this role he is focused on developing a US group annuity product and evaluating strategic opportunities for US expansion.Prior to joining LGA, he performed various roles of increasing responsibility for AIG, ultimately as the Head Actuary for International Pensions business.  During this time he spent three years as Director of Annuities in the UK, leading the team responsible for Bulk Purchase Annuities and retail fixed-term annuities.  He has had responsibility for international product development, led valuations of pension book related Mergers and Acquisitions, and is experienced with reinsurance structures.  Joe began his actuarial career at MetLife in New York.Joe is a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries and a CFA Charterholder.

  • David Chapman

    Solutions Strategist, Legal & General Investment Management America

    David joined LGIMA in 2015, bringing nearly a decade of multi-asset and derivatives portfolio management experience.  He is responsible for developing defined contribution solutions and multi-asset and derivative solutions for institutional investors. David was previously the Chief Investment Officer for ALAS, Inc., a $1.9 billion professional liability mutual insurance company.  He joined ALASfrom Ascension, where he was the Managing Director responsible for asset allocation and investment risk management.   David began his investment career as a portfolio manager at BlackRock (formerly Barclays Global Investors). David holds a BS in Business Administration from Washington University in St. Louis and an MBA from the University of Michigan, and is a CFA charterholder.

  • KC Connors

    Partner, NEPC

    KC Connors, CFA, CAIA Partner KC joined NEPC as a Partner and has over twenty-five years of broadly based consulting and investment experience. KC is the Practice leader for the Philanthropic Team which includes the Endowment and Foundation Practice and the Healthcare Practice. KC’s background includes expertise in alternative investments, portfolio construction and risk assessment. In addition, KC is a member of the firm’s Management Committee and Real Assets Committee. In 2015, KC was named on CIO magazine’s 2015 annual ranking of the world’s most influential investment consultants as one of the top ten Specialist consultants for her endowment/foundation and healthcare expertise. In both 2014 and 2013, KC was recognized by CIO magazine in their edition titled “The Knowledge Broker” as one of the top 25 world’s most influential investment consultants. Prior to joining NEPC, KC was a Principal at Jeffrey Slocum & Associates leading their healthcare practice and working with large endowments and foundations. She was a member of Slocum’s senior management team overseeing planning, hedge funds, legal, risk management and human resources. While at Slocum, KC developed a Healthcare Risk Model that allowed clients to adjust their debt profile, pension plan contribution risk, asset structure and asset allocation. This model currently has a patent-pending. KC was also a member of the Executive Committee responsible for overseeing the firm’s hedge fund investment strategy, portfolio construction and operational due diligence. Prior to Slocum, KC was a Consultant at Wyatt Investment Consulting and Ennis, Knupp & Associates. While at Wyatt and Ennis, Knupp, KC was responsible for writing investment policies, advising on asset allocation, and investment manager searches for several Fortune 500 Companies, healthcare systems, and large foundations. KC earned her M.B.A., with honors, from the University of Chicago and a B.S. in Decision Sciences from Indiana University. KC holds the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation as well as the Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA) designation. KC is a frequent conference speaker on the topics of enterprise return and risk, alternative investments and balance sheet strategies. KC is a former board member and board chair for The Convent of the Visitation School in Mendota Heights, MN and former board member for The Grace Center in Guatemala, Ripley Foundation and The Courage Center. KC currently serves on The Jeremiah Program National Board.

  • Robin Diamonte

    CIO, United Technologies

    Diamonte joined United Technologies as Director of Pension Investments in December of 2004. She is responsible for overseeing UTC’s $52B in global retirement assets. This includes $24B in domestic pension plans, $7B in foreign pension plans and $21B in the defined contribution plan. Diamonte serves on UTC’s Finance Council and is a trustee on pension committees in the US and the UK. Prior to joining UTC, she spent thirteen years with Verizon Investment Management. She served as Managing Director of Global Investments, responsible for asset allocation and management for their $40B defined benefit plan. In December of 2013, Robin was appointed by President Obama to the Advisory Committee for the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation. Diamonte serves on the board for the Committee on Investment of Employee Benefit Assets (CIEBA), representing more than 100 of the country’s largest private sector retirement funds on fiduciary and investment issues in Washington. Robin was recently appointed as a corporate board member for Morningstar. She is a trustee of the Independent Day School in Middlefield, Connecticut where her two daughters attend elementary school. Diamonte earned a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering and her MBA in finance from the University of New Haven.

  • Greg Dowling

    Deputy CIO/Head of Research, Fund Evaluation Group

    Gregory M. Dowling, CFA, CAIA- Greg is a Managing Principal, Deputy CIO & Head of Research for Fund Evaluation Group (“FEG”). FEG is an institutional investment consultant headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio. His primary focus is the oversight of the firm’s manager due diligence process including manager sourcing, selection, operational assessment and risk management. In this role, he serves as the Chairman of the firm’s Investment Policy Committee. He works with both traditional consulting clients and discretionary clients. In this latter role, Greg serves as one of the portfolio managers on FEG’s discretionary hedge fund of funds products. Greg also serves on FEG’s Risk Committee and as a member of the Firm’s Board of Directors. He joined FEG in 2004. Prior to this, he was a Vice President for the asset manager, Bowling Portfolio Management, LLC (“BPM”). While at BPM, he was an investment analyst, member of the firm’s Investment Committee and helped to supervise both trading and trading operations. Greg started as a financial analyst with U.S. Bancorp (previously Firstar Bank). He received a M.B.A. from the Williams College of Business at Xavier University. He also earned a B.S.B.A. from the University of Cincinnati, where he currently serves as an adjunct professor in the College of Business. Additionally, Greg is a holder of both the CFA and CAIA designations. He is regularly quoted in the media including the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Reuters, and CNBC, and is a frequent speaker at industry events and conferences.

  • David Eichhorn

    Managing Director, Investment Strategies, NISA Investment Advisors

    David G. Eichhorn, CFA – Managing Director, Investment Strategies – David is a managing director, the vice chair of NISA’s Investment Committee, and a member of NISA’s Executive and Management Committees. He has written papers on fixed income and asset allocation strategies for defined benefit and defined contribution plans and presents on these topics at various conferences. David is responsible for the day-to-day oversight of NISA’s Investment Strategies Group, which develops custom strategies designed to meet client objectives. He also oversees new product development and growth initiatives. Prior to joining NISA in 1999, David worked for three years at JP Morgan Investment Management where he assisted institutional clients with investment policy development, strategic asset allocation and asset/liability management. David holds a BSBA from Washington University in St. Louis, with majors in Finance and Mathematics.

  • Lynn Esenwine

    Senior Risk Transfer Consultant, Mercer

    Lynn Esenwine is a partner with Mercer’s Financial Strategy Group proficient in executing insurance based risk transfer solutions for defined benefit sponsors.  Prior to joining Mercer, Lynn worked for two large insurance companies building a product suite for multifaceted pension risk transfer strategies.  In her prior roles, she executed several large retiree only transactions as well as complex terminations working in conjunction with consulting firms and plan sponsors to secure their employees’ benefits. BA in Actuarial Science, Minor in Mathematics and Business Logistics from the Pennsylvania State University; Executive MBA from the University of Connectitcut.; FINRA licensed Series 6, 63 and 26

  • Dawn Fitzpatrick

    Head of Equities, Multi-Asset and O'Connor, UBS Asset Management

    Dawn Fitzpatrick is Head of Equities, Multi-Asset and O’Connor at UBS Asset Management, responsible for overseeing more than CHF 300 billion in assets. Dawn is a member of the UBS Asset Management Executive Committee and the Americas Risk Committee. Prior to taking on her current role in January 2016, Dawn was Head and CIO of O’Connor, responsible for all aspects of O’Connor’s portfolio management, capital allocation and risk management. Dawn began her career with O’Connor & Associates in 1992. She served as head of various teams within O’Connor and specialized in investing in equities, equity options, index options, convertible arbitrage and merger arbitrage as well as derivatives. Dawn is a member of The Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s Investor Advisory Committee on Financial Markets. Dawn was named as one of Business Insider’s most powerful women on Wall Street in 2013, and one of American Banker’s 25 most powerful women in finance in 2015.

  • Arthur Guimaraes

    Associate Chief Investment Officer & COO, University of California

    Arthur R. Guimaraes is associate chief investment officer – chief operating officer at the University of California. He is accountable for managing the defined contribution products, as well as the operating environment in the investment office. Previously, Guimaraes was vice president of investment operations for Alberta Investment Management Corp. (AIMCo) in Canada. He also served as vice president of AIMCo Innovations, a $100 million operating and technology change program. Before joining AIMCo, Guimaraes served as director of marketing in the group pension division at Manulife Financial (Manulife). He also worked in the Canadian wealth management and finance divisions for Manulife. He earned his CA (CPA) and CBV during his tenure with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). Guimaraes received his B.B.A. degree with a specialization in accounting from York University in Toronto, Ontario.

  • Britt Harris

    CIO, Teacher Retirement System of Texas

    Britt Harris has more than 30 years of investment experience leading several of the largest, most successful, and most innovative investment organizations in America. In addition, Mr. Harris is currently a member of the President’s Working Group for Financial Markets and an advisor to the New York Federal Reserve. He is one of only a few people who have worked extensively in both the private and public sectors. Mr. Harris is currently the CIO for the Teacher Retirement System of Texas (TRS) which is among the 25 largest investment funds in the world. Prior to his arrival at TRS, he was the CEO for Bridgewater Associates and was also the CIO and President for Verizon Investment Management Corporation. Previously Mr. Harris was a managing director for Asea Brown Boveri in Europe. Mr. Harris got his start in his home state of Texas. He has three times been named one of America’s leading pension plan investment chiefs. Mr. Harris has been consistently named one of the top five asset investors in the world. In 2013 he was honored with a lifetime achievement for distinguished service to the financial industry. Mr. Harris also serves as an executive professor teaching two courses. The first is titled “Titans of Investing” at his alma mater Texas A&M University. The second is titled “BU4M” at Baylor University, his wife’s alma mater. He has also guest lectured on investments and public policy at Harvard, Princeton, Yale and The University of Texas. In addition, he is a frequent speaker on various spiritual matters and serves on a variety of public and private boards. Mr. Harris has been married for more than 35 years to his high school sweetheart. He and his wife Julia have four children and live in Austin, Texas.

  • David Holmgren

    Chief Investment Officer, Hartford HealthCare

    David Holmgren is Chief Investment Officer of Hartford HealthCare’s $3B of investment assets. Mr. Holmgren has lead responsibility for the hospitals’ investment portfolios which includes risk management, portfolio construction, asset allocation, manager selection and investment operations. Previously, he had served as Principal Investment Officer for the Connecticut State Treasury as well as Senior Portfolio Manager at DSI/UBS. David has 29 year of investment experience in the U.S., Europe and Middle East covering traditional and alternative investment management and earned his MBA from Columbia University.

  • Ari Jacobs

    Senior Partner, Global Retirement Solutions Leader, Aon Hewitt

    Ari Jacobs is a Senior Partner and Global Retirement Solutions Leader working in Aon Hewitt’s Norwalk, Connecticut office. He focuses on developing and implementing strategies and solutions that manage corporate pension plan risks. Ari has been with Aon Hewitt for over 20 years, rejoining the firm in 2009 after spending the prior two years in Citigroup’s Global Investment Banking group as a Managing Director and Head of the Retirement Benefits Advisory Group. He also serves on the Board of Aon Benfield Securities, Inc. In 2013, Institutional Investor magazine named Ari to their inaugural Pension 40 edition which listed “the 40 most influential people in the battle to decide the future of US pensions.” In each year from 2012 through 2015, CIO magazine named Ari as one of the top ten Most Influential Pension Consultants in their Knowledge Brokers edition for his authority on pension risk transfers and deal-making achievements, including number one in 2012, the inaugural year of the list. He is a frequent speaker on pension settlement and de-risking solutions. Ari is a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries and earned his bachelor’s degree in mathematics and economics from Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts.

  • Tony Johnson

    Head of OCIO Search & Evaluation, RVK

    Tony Johnson is the Director of Midwest Consulting and a Senior Consultant with RVK, which he joined in 2008 and is also a shareholder of the firm. His experience prior to RVK includes serving as the CIO of the City of Philadelphia Public Employees Retirement System and Deferred Compensation Program, a Senior Consultant with Franklin Park Associates researching and providing consulting services to institutional investors on private equity partnerships, and an investment consultant with Mercer on corporate and healthcare investment plans. Tony started his career as a risk analyst with an insurance brokerage firm.

  • Jeffrey Knight

    Global Head of Investment Solutions and Asset Allocation, Columbia Threadneedle Investments

    Jeffrey Knight, CFA Global Head of Investment Solutions, Co-Head of Global Asset Allocation – Jeffrey Knight joined Columbia Threadneedle Investments in 2013 and was named global head of investment solutions and co-head of global asset allocation in 2014. In this role Mr. Knight oversees a diverse lineup of institutional strategies and mutual funds, including capital allocation, risk allocation, risk parity and total return products and solutions. Previously, Mr. Knight was at Putnam Investments, where he most recently managed several mutual funds and institutional strategies as head of global asset allocation. He began at Putnam in 1993 as senior quantitative analyst in the Global Asset Allocation Group and was instrumental in the development of quantitative models and methodologies. He has been a member of the investment community since 1987. Mr. Knight received a B.A. from Colgate University and an MBA from the Amos Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College. Mr. Knight holds the Chartered Financial Analyst® designation.

  • Jodan Ledford

    Head of US Solutions, Legal & General Investment Management America

    Jodan Ledford, Head of US Solutions, Jodan joined LGIMA in 2013 as Head of US Solutions. He is responsible for managing a team of professionals dedicated to the development and implementation of risk management solutions for clients.Prior to joining LGIMA, Jodan was executive director and business head of asset liability investment solutions at UBS Global Asset Management. His responsibilities included product development and implementation of investment and risk management solutions for large institutional clients, including defined benefit pension plans. Prior to UBS, Jodan worked at J.P. Morgan in the Investment Bank, where he worked in an advisory capacity. At J.P. Morgan, Jodan worked within an Outsourced CIO framework, overseeing the development and implementation of strategic asset allocations, derisking glide paths, hedging implementation, as well as manager selection across traditional and alternative asset classes. In addition, Jodan worked in an advisory capacity for corporate transactions, including debt origination and mergers and acquisitions. Jodan began his career as an actuarial analyst at Watson Wyatt Worldwide, where he worked as consultant to large (>$50 billion) US defined benefit pension plans and post-retirement welfare plans. Jodan holds a BA in Mathematics from Emory University and an MS in Applied Statistics from the University of Miami, School of Business.

  • Robert C. Lee III

    Director of Hedge Funds, Employees Retirement System of Texas

    Robert is a Director of Investments for the Employees’ Retirement System of Texas, a $25 billion USD pension sponsor located in Austin, TX.  He joined ERS in 2011 to design and implement ERS’ new hedge fund program.  Robert manages ERS’ hedge fund program and portfolios and is a member of ERS’ Risk Management Committee.  Prior to ERS, Robert was Portfolio Manager at HFR Asset Management and its subsidiary Riverside Portfolio Management in Chicago, IL where he managed discretionary, co-advisory, and index fund of hedge fund products including the HFRX Indices.  He has a Masters in Econometrics from the Universitaet Konstanz in Germany and Bachelors degrees in Economics and Mathematics from Texas State University.  Robert is a board member of the Texas Hedge Fund Association and the Alignment of Interests Association.  He has been recognized by Institutional Investor as an “Alpha Generator” in 2015, as well as Chief Investment Officer as a “40 Under 40” asset allocator and “Power 100” asset allocator.

  • Samantha Levenstein

    Senior Portfolio Advisor, Aksia

    Ms. Levenstein is a Senior Portfolio Advisor at Aksia, an independent hedge fund and private markets strategies research and advisory firm based in New York. She joined Aksia’s Advisory team in 2009 and, since that time, her primary role has involved managing the firm’s relationships with current and prospective institutional investors throughout North America and Australia. Ms. Levenstein advises a number of Aksia’s largest relationships on their hedge fund programs, providing customized hedge fund investment recommendations based upon individual allocators’ portfolio needs and risk targets. In 2010, Ms. Levenstein launched Aksia’s Lunch & Learn Series, a weekly educational teach-in, where Aksia’s staff and the investor community at large are invited to participate. Prior to joining Aksia, Ms. Levenstein worked at Gottesman Consulting, Inc., where she conducted research and analysis for corporate development. Ms. Levenstein graduated with distinction from the University of Florida and also earned her Juris Doctor from New York Law School. She was recognized as a Rising Star of Public Funds by Institutional Investor’s Money Management Intelligence (2013) and as a Rising Star of Hedge Funds by Institutional Investor Magazine (2013).

  • Adam Levine

    Senior Investment Strategy Consultant, Willis Towers Watson

    Adam Levine is a senior consultant at Towers Watson Investment Services and currently heads their investment strategy / ALM team. Adam joined Watson Wyatt in September 2000 as a member of the ALM team and during his tenure has led studies for some of the largest corporate pension plans, welfare trusts, and nuclear decommissioning trusts in the US. A regular speaker at Pensions & Investments conferences, Adam is always happy to share his experiences from sixteen years of exclusively conducting and presenting asset/liability studies. He has modeled funds for the purpose of optimizing asset allocation, manager structure, and dynamic investment strategies and believes stochastic projections can provide guidance for any financial decision.Prior to working for Watson Wyatt, Adam was an Actuarial Analyst at Hewitt Associates in Norwalk, Connecticut. Adam graduated in May 1997 with a Bachelor of Science in Statistics from Cornell University. He became an Enrolled Actuary in 2003, a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries in 2004, and a Chartered Financial Analyst in 2013

  • Kim Lisella

    Head of Distribution and Retirement Solutions, Legal & General Investment Management America

    Kim Lisella currently serves as Head of Distribution and Retirement Solutions for Legal & General’s US Retirement business, where leads business development and client solutions. She joined Legal & General Investment Management America (‘LGIMA’) in 2013 as Senior Client Portfolio Manager and Assistant Head of Distribution where she was responsible for business development with a focus on pension, insurance and reinsurance clients. Prior to joining Legal & General, she served as a Director with Cutwater Asset Management, where she lead the development of pension de-risking strategies and insurance solutions within the Customized Strategies Group for a range of asset/liability clients, including pension funds, insurance companies, GIC programs, wind-down situations, and defeasances. Kim holds a Bachelor of Business Administration in public accounting from Pace University, Pleasantville, where she graduated Magna Cum Laude.  In addition, she also holds a Master of Business Administration from Marist College in Poughkeepsie.

  • Christine Loughlin

    Head of Defined Contribution Practice, NEPC

    Christine began her career in the investment industry in 1995. Christine is a team leader for a consulting group at NEPC, and the head of the defined contribution practice at NEPC. She is also a member of NEPC’s Executive Committee. She specializes in consulting to corporate defined contribution plans on plan design, investment, and governance issues. Christine is a regular speaker at conferences and has co-authored several pieces for NEPC, including “Participants Can Sue You, LaRue v. DeWolff”, “Mapping – What the New Regulations Suggest for Defined Contribution Plans, “TIPS for Defined Contribution Investors”, “Roth 401k Revisited”, and “A Closer Look at the Capital Preservation Funds Used within Defined Contribution Plans”. Prior to joining NEPC, Christine worked as an Investment Consultant at Watson Wyatt, spending five years in the Wellesley MA office and two years in the London office. While in the U.S., she was the east coast regional specialist for defined contribution investment consulting, and in London she helped launch and support new occupational defined contribution schemes. She also worked at Pioneer Investment Management in Boston, and Heiden Associates and Peter D. Hart Associates, both in Washington DC. Christine has an M.S. in Finance from the London Business School and a B.A. in Economics cum laude from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Christine holds the Chartered Financial Analyst designation. She became a Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst designee in 2008.

  • Kathy Lutito

    CIO, CenturyLink

    Senior Vice President-Finance, CenturyLink, Inc. President and Chief Investment Officer, CenturyLink Investment Management (CIM) Ms. Lutito is responsible for the investment management of over $18 billion in assets in the various employee benefit trusts which include pension and healthcare trusts and 401(k) savings plan. Ms. Lutito has over 25 years of investment experience and is a member of the CIM Board, Leadership Team and Investment Committee. Outside of CenturyLink, she is a member of the Committee on Investment of Employee Benefit Assets (CIEBA), the University of Colorado Investment Advisory Committee, the Archdiocese of Denver Finance Council and an external advisor for Exelon Corporation’s Investment Committee.

  • Jason MacDonald

    Senior Portfolio Manager, Private Markets, New Jersey Division of Investment

    Jason MacDonald – Sr. Portfolio Manager, Private Markets – NJ Division of Investment: Jason leads a team of 10 professionals overseeing NJ’s Alternative Investment Program. The Program consists of over $20 billion in NAV across private equity, real estate, hedge funds, real assets and opportunistic credit mandates. Jason has been w/ the Division for over 8 years and has a B.S. in Environmental Business Economics from Rutgers University and an MBA from St. Peter’s University.

  • Michael Manning

    Managing Partner, NEPC

    Mike began his investment career in 1993 and joined NEPC in 1997. Mike became President of NEPC, LLC in 2003 and Managing Partner in April 2011. Mike works with a broad array of clients, covering Taft-Hartley, Public, Corporate, and Endowment/Foundation investment programs. Mike is a member of NEPC’s Alternative Assets Committee. In addition, he is a frequent speaker at national industry conferences and seminars. Prior to joining NEPC, Mike worked in a money management division of Prudential Insurance Company of America focusing on private debt investing. Prior to Prudential, Mike worked at Putnam Investments and Fidelity Investments. Mike earned his M.B.A., with honors, from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business, with concentrations in Finance and Accounting. At University of Chicago, he served as a member of the school’s Admission’s Committee. He received his B.A. from the University of Notre Dame. Mike is a member of the Boston Security Analyst Society and the CFA Institute. Mike is a CFA charter holder and he also became a Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA) designee in 2005.

  • Sam Masoudi

    Chief Investment Officer, Wyoming Retirement System

    Sam became the Chief Investment Officer of the Wyoming Retirement System (WRS) in 2013. Prior to joining WRS, Sam was a Managing Director at the Tulane University Endowment for more than five years where he covered all asset classes. Prior to Tulane, Sam was the founder and PM of a long short hedge fund focused on U.S. equities for seven years. Sam was previously a Director at Veronis Suhler, a buyout fund focused on media, for three years. He also spent four years in real estate investment banking at Kidder Peabody and PaineWebber. Sam was named one of Trusted Insight’s Top 30 Pension Fund CIOs in 2016. He received a BS in Finance from Babson College and has earned the right to use the CFA and CAIA designations.

  • Carol McFate

    CIO, Xerox Corporation

    Ms. McFate is the Chief Investment Officer of Xerox Corporation where she is responsible for the investment management of roughly $9 billion in defined benefit and defined contribution investments for North American plans. Since November 2006, she has built a team and successfully in-sourced the management of the investment managers for Xerox’s U.S. qualified retirement plans. She was named to the CIO magazine’s Chief Investment Officer Power 100 list in 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2015. Xerox was awarded CIO magazine’s 2012 Industry Innovation Award (corporate pension plan assets under $5 billion) in December 2012. In 2014, she received the Thought Leadership award from the Investor Intelligence Network of Institutional Investor and the 2014 Small Corporate Plan Sponsor of the Year award from Institutional Investor magazine. Before joining Xerox, Ms. McFate was the Executive Vice President and Global Treasurer of XL Global Services, Inc., the global services subsidiary of XL Capital Ltd. Reporting to the CFO of XL Capital, she was responsible for building a global treasury platform for XL to manage bank relations, cash/liquidity, collateral, funding, capital, foreign exchange, and financial analysis. In addition, the credit risk management function reported to her. Prior to joining XL, Ms. McFate was with American International Group, Inc. (AIG) for nine years in a number of senior executive financial positions, including Vice President & Treasurer of AIG, Inc. During her four and a half years as Treasurer of AIG, she was responsible for bank relations, rating agency relationships, cash/liquidity management, corporate funding, foreign exchange management, capital management, and financial analysis. Before AIG, she was a Senior Vice President with the Financial Restructuring Group of the Prudential Insurance Company. Over her six year tenure with Prudential, Ms. McFate was in various investment management positions in the Private Placement Group of Prudential Investment Corp. Prior to Prudential, she was Assistant Treasurer of Macmillan, Inc., where she was responsible for corporate finance activities, bank and rating agency relationships and investor relations. Before Macmillan, Ms. McFate was a corporate lending officer with Citibank, N.A. where she was responsible for new business development and existing client relationships in two specialized industry groups: high technology and cable television. Ms. McFate received an MBA from the Harvard University Graduate School of Business Administration (Boston, MA) and a BS in Economics magna cum laude from Juniata College (Huntingdon, PA). She was awarded the designation of Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) in 1992. In 2008, she was awarded the Juniata College Alumni Achievement Award. She is also the Carl and Nancy Glaeser Executive in Residence at Juniata College for 2014. She served as a Trustee of the Parsons Dance Foundation, in New York, NY (2004-2006) and a Trustee and Treasurer of the Katherine Hepburn Cultural Art Center in Old Saybrook, CT (2007 – 2008). She currently serves on the board of directors for CIEBA, Inc. Ms. McFate is married and resides in Connecticut. December 2015

  • Kevin McLaughlin

    Head of Pension Risk Solutions, Deutsche Bank Securities Inc.

    Kevin is a senior investment and risk management professional specializing in advising global sponsors of defined benefit plans on a range of issues including pension corporate finance, capital structure costs and asset liability risk management strategies. He is currently the US Head of Pension Risk Solutions at Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. and is based in New York. ■ In his 19 year career, Kevin has advised numerous large US and European corporations on asset allocation, portfolio construction, liability driven investments, derivative overlays, longevity hedging and annuity risk transfers. ■ Kevin is a Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries in the UK and is a CFA charterholder. He also holds a degree in Finance and Actuarial Studies from University College Dublin as well as a Masters in Business Administration from Instituto de Impressa, Madrid.

  • Tam McVie

    Investment Director – Multi-Asset Investment Specialist, Standard Life Investments

    Tam is an Investment Director for Standard Life Investments (SLI). Headquartered in Edinburgh, SLI is a leading asset manager with considerable expertise in generating returns with a risk-based framework. Tam is responsible for providing investment and product support for SLI’s multi-asset solutions, including the firm’s flagship Global Absolute Return Strategies (GARS) portfolio. Working with the Multi-Asset Investing Team since 2007, he uses in-depth knowledge and technical expertise to support the ongoing needs of the firm’s institutional clients. Previously based in the UK, Tam joined SLI’s Boston Office in January 2012 and was instrumental in SLI’s expansion to the US. He is a frequent speaker at key industry conferences, including FundForum, Citywire and Asset International’s CIO Summit. Tam joined Standard Life Investments in 2004 and previously worked at UK pension manager, Friends Ivory & Sime (now part of Aberdeen Asset Management). He began his career with Standard Life Assurance Company in 1998.

  • Neil Messing

    Head of Hedge Funds, New York City Employees' Retirement System

    Neil Messing currently oversees the New York City Pension System’s hedge fund program. Previously, he was part of the hedge fund manager due diligence team for the US investment arm of Unigestion, a global alternatives investment firm. Prior to he was a hedge fund analyst for Glenwood Capital Investments, a pioneer in the hedge fund of funds industry.  He graduated with a degree in Finance from the University of Arizona.

  • Jason Morrow

    Deputy Chief Investment Officer, Utah Retirement System

    Jason Morrow, CFA, CAIA – Utah Retirement Systems, Deputy CIO Utah Retirement Systems employs more than 400 individuals providing retirement and insurance benefits to approximately 200,000 public employees in Utah. URS manages $26b of defined benefit assets and $5b defined contribution assets. The URS Investments teams manage equity, credit/fixed income, absolute return, and real assets globally. The defined benefit plan invests 60% of assets in traditional investments and 40% in non-traditional investments and is managed both internally as well as through partnerships with external managers. As deputy CIO Jason assists the CIO in directing the overall operations of the investment department. Prior to becoming the Deputy CIO in 2015 Jason was a portfolio manager and managed investments across various asset allocations, primarily with a credit and/or opportunistic orientation. He has been a material contributor to URS’ successful initiatives for better alignment of interests and building successful partnerships with external investment managers.

  • Gene Neavin

    Senior Investment Analyst/Portfolio Manager, Federated Investors

    Gene Neavin is responsible for portfolio management and research in the fixedincome area concentrating in the domestic high-yield sector. He has more than 10 years of investment experience. Gene joined Federated in 2001. Previous associations include senior credit analyst, MBNA America Bank. Gene has a bachelor’s degree from University of Delaware and an MBA from Carnegie Mellon University. Gene is a CFA charterholder.

  • Phillip Nelson

    Director of Asset Allocation, NEPC

    A veteran in the investment industry since 2002, Phillip joined NEPC in 2011. He is involved in NEPC’s asset allocation research, multi-asset research and due diligence activities for global asset allocation, risk parity and target date fund strategies. In addition to being a member of NEPC’s Asset Allocation Committee, which sets the firm’s investment assumptions and broad recommendations for clients, he is also a part of the Traditional Assets Due Diligence Committee and the Liability-Driven Investment (LDI) Advisory Group.

  • Maarten Nederlof

    CEO/CIO, Risk Premium Investment Management Company

    Mr. Nederlof began his career as a quantitative strategist at Salomon Brothers Inc, was the head of research and portfolio management at TSA Capital Management, the Head of Investor Risk at Capital Market Risk Advisors and a Portfolio Manager and Managing Director at K2 Advisors LLC in Stamford, CT. In addition, Mr. Nederlof was the Global Co-Head of the Hedge Fund Capital Group at Deutsche Bank Securities and the Global Head of the Pension Strategies Group for both Deutsche Bank and Deutsche Asset Management as well as serving on their global Investment Committee. Prior to launching Risk Premium Investment Management Company LLC, Mr. Nederlof was a Partner and Head of Portfolio Solutions at Pacific Alternative Asset Management Company (PAAMCO). Maarten was the technical advisor to the Risk Standards Working Group, the first blue-ribbon industry group to issue risk standards for institutional investment management in 1996. He was also the co-Chair of the Investor Risk Committee of the International Association of Financial Engineers, the first industry group to issue transparency guidelines for institutional investors in hedge funds in 2001 consisting of over 100 of the largest investors and hedge funds globally. He served as Deutsche Bank’s expect advisor to the European Commission and the European Parliament’s working group on private equity and hedge fund regulation. For ten years Mr. Nederlof served as a member of the Investment Committee of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

  • Robert O'Keef

    Corporate Vice President of Finance, Motorola Solutions, Inc.

    Robert O’Keef Corporate Vice President & Treasurer Motorola Solutions, Inc. Rob O’Keef is Corporate Vice President & Treasurer of Motorola Solutions. In this capacity he leads Global Treasury, Commercial Credit Operations, Global Tax, Risk Management and Corporate Real Estate. He is responsible for managing approximately $6 billion of global pension assets. Under his direction, in 2014 Motorola Solutions defeased approximately 50% of its U.S. pension obligation with $4.3 billion of pension risk transfers, including a $3.1 billion annuitization and $1.2 billion of lump sums. Rob joined Motorola Solutions in 2012 from Quest Diagnostics, where he was Vice President & Treasurer and head of corporate planning and analysis. Prior to Quest Diagnostics, Rob held a number of senior roles in corporate finance, capital markets, capital planning and mergers & acquisitions with General Motors Corporation. Rob holds a BBA in finance from the University of Wisconsin and an MBA in finance and accounting from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.

  • Brian Pellegrino

    Chief Investment Officer, United Parcel Service

    As Chief Investment Officer of the UPS Group Trust, Brian Pellegrino has established a reputation for achieving consistent portfolio performance and building a best-in-class investment organization. In his current role with United Parcel Service of America, Inc., Mr. Pellegrino maintains investment oversight for a $30+ billion defined benefit trust, including decisions related to strategic direction, asset allocation and risk management. During his tenure, he has improved efficiencies and reduced costs by transitioning the portfolio to a master trust structure and secured a material increase in the portfolio’s alternative allocation by enhancing its governance structure. Under his leadership, UPS has expanded its opportunity set by creating an in-house managed account platform for alternatives and implementing a secondary and co-investment program within private markets. Before assuming leadership of the investment team, Mr. Pellegrino advanced through the organization via a series of managerial roles, including corporate finance, treasury, and mergers and acquisitions. He earned his Master of Business Administration in Finance from Rutgers University and a Bachelor of Science in Accounting from Montclair State College. Mr. Pellegrino’s professional credentials include the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation and a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) license in the State of New Jersey.

  • Eugene Podkaminer

    SVP, Capital Market Research Group, Callan Associates

    Eugene L. Podkaminer, CFA, is a Senior Vice President and a consultant in the Capital Markets Research group. Eugene is responsible for assisting clients with their strategic investment planning, conducting asset allocation studies, developing optimal investment manager structures, and providing custom research on a variety of investment topics. Eugene is a shareholder of the firm. Prior to joining Callan in 2010 Eugene spent nearly a decade with Barclays Global Investors. As a Senior Strategist in the Client Advisory Group he advised some of the world’s largest and most sophisticated pension plans, non-profits, and sovereign wealth funds in the areas of strategic asset allocation, liability driven investing, manager structure optimization, and risk budgeting. As Chief Strategist of Barclays’ CIO-outsourcing platform Eugene executed CIO-level functions for corporate pension plans and endowments. Eugene was also a Senior Investment Consultant with Alan Biller and Associates. Eugene received a BA in Economics from the University of San Francisco and an MBA from Yale University. He earned the right to use the Chartered Financial Analyst designation and is a member of the CFA Society of San Francisco and CFA Institute, where he consults on curriculum development. He is a frequent speaker on investment related topics and has been featured in numerous publications; in 2014 he was named CIO Magazine’s “Consultant of the Year”. His paper on risk premia investing, “Risk Factors as Building Blocks for Portfolio Diversification: The Chemistry of Asset Allocation,” was published by the CFA Institute and his article on smart beta, “The Education of Beta: Can Alternative Indices Make Your Portfolio Smarter,” was featured in the Journal of Investing.

  • Richard Ratcliffe

    Executive Director of Corporate Solutions, Natixis

    Richard has joined Natixis in March 2014 from Credit Suisse, where he was part of Financial Solutions group focusing on Pensions. He has over 20 years of experience working with Institutional and Corporate clients managing their global pension liabilities. While at CS, Richard managed pension risk transfers and hedging transactions in the UK, The Netherlands and the US. Latest Conference participation: “Global Benefits and Compensation Roundtable”, sponsored by The Conference Board. Richard graduated from the University of British Columbia, Canada.

  • Ritirupa Samanta

    Head of Quantitative Research, Managing Director, State Street Global Advisors

    Ritirupa Samanta , Ph.D. Head of Quantitative Research & Senior PM Fixed Income / Currency – Riti Samanta is a managing director and part of the Senior Leadership Team (SLT) at State Street Global Advisors. She is responsible for the development of smart beta fixed income, currency, and active rates investment strategies for SSGA. Previously, she headed the Asset Allocation and Currency research teams developing investible strategies in these areas using quantitative models for return forecasting, risk measurement, and portfolio construction. She is part of the Fixed Income, Cash and Currency (FICC) SLT and a member of the Technical Committee that evaluates all quantitative research in the firm. She is a senior portfolio manager in FICC. Before joining SSGA, Riti was a senior research associate at State Street Associates using institutional flows, holdings and market returns to forecast investor behavior in equity and currency markets. She has published research on Extreme Value Theory, studying the effect of incorporating non-normalities and time-sensitive correlation structures in various aspects of quantitative modeling. Her research has been published in the Journal of Performance Measurement and presented at the Society for Nonlinear Dynamics and Econometrics. Riti holds a PhD in international finance and economics from Brandeis University, a MS in finance from Brandeis, and a BA in economics (minor in mathematics) from Reed College, where she held the Walter Mintz scholarship in economics.

  • Danielle Singer

    Senior Client Portfolio Manager, Multi Asset, Invesco

    Danielle Singer is a Senior Client Portfolio Manager for the Invesco Multi Asset team. Before joining Invesco in 2014, Ms. Singer was a strategist and director of the Global Investment Solutions (GIS) team at UBS. Her responsibilities included participating in the review and setting of multi-asset and currency strategies, interacting with the investment team to coordinate investment strategy, and assisting clients as part of the GIS initiative. Previously, Ms. Singer was an account manager for UBS’s Institutional Investment Management group, where she maintained client portfolios and presented investment reviews. Prior to joining UB Sin 2004, Ms. Singer worked on the auction rate securities desk at Deutsche Bank. Ms. Singer earned a BA degree at Middlebury College and an MBA at the University of Chicago with concentrations in analytic finance and econometrics. She holds the Series 7 and 66registrations. Ms. Singer is a CFA charter holder and a member of the New York Society of Security Analysts.

  • Carrie Thome

    Director of Investments, Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation

    Carrie Thome is an investment executive with 20 years of experience serving some of the largest portfolios in Wisconsin. In her role with WARF, Carrie oversees management of WARF’s $2.6 billion investment portfolio and co-manages its start-up portfolio investment activities to help steward the cycle of research, discovery, investment and commercialization for the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She manages a team of six financial professionals and works with WARF’s managing director and board of trustees to obtain the highest possible return while ensuring the portfolio continues to perform well regardless of economic conditions. In 2015 Thome was been named the 24th most powerful institutional investor in the world by Chief Investment Officer. Investors ranked asset owners by five factors: innovation, collaboration, talent development, fund size and tenure. The formula was devised by the editors, executive recruiters and other industry insiders. Later that year, WARF was recognized with an Industry Innovation Award by Chief Investment Officer magazine. The award specifically recognized WARF’s risk-balanced philosophy toward investment in the Foundation category. Thome joined WARF in 2001 as associate director of investments and was promoted to her current role in 2007. Previous to WARF she served for five years as an assistant portfolio manager for a $3 billion private equity portfolio at the State of Wisconsin Investment Board (SWIB). Thome serves on various community boards including Agrace HospiceCare’s Finance Committee and the Investment Committee of the Madison Community Foundation. Thome recently joined Discovery’s Town Center advisory board and serves as one of WARF’s representatives on the advisory board of 4490 Ventures, LP, venture capital fund, the joint initiative between the State of Wisconsin Investment Board and WARF. Thome earned a B.B.A. in finance and real estate as well as an M.S. in finance from UW-Madison and is a designated Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA).

  • Michael Trotsky

    Executive Director & Chief Investment Officer, Massachusetts Pension Reserves Investment Management

    Michael G. Trotsky, CFA, is the Executive Director and Chief Investment Officer of the Massachusetts Pension Reserves Investment Management (“PRIM”) Board, the entity responsible for investing the $62 billion Massachusetts pension fund, which contains the assets of the Massachusetts Teachers’ and State Employees’ Retirement Systems as well as the assets of approximately one hundred participating municipal and county retirement systems. Mr. Trotsky’s work at PRIM was preceded by a 25-year career in the private sector, most recently as senior vice president and portfolio manager at PAR Capital Management, a Boston-based absolute return strategy fund. Previously, he was a senior analyst at Greenberg-Summit Partners in Boston and also served as a principal and senior vice president at Independence Investment Associates (a John Hancock subsidiary), also in Boston. Mr. Trotsky began his professional career in 1985 as an engineer at Intel Corporation in California. Mr. Trotsky currently serves as a member of the CFA Institute Board of Governors and previously served as Chairman of the CFA Institute’s Asset Manager Code of Professional Conduct Advisory Committee. Mr. Trotsky is a member of the Boston Security Analyst Society’s Board of Directors and is a member of the Boston Economics Club. Mr. Trotsky serves on the Finance Committee at the Shady Hill School in Cambridge and is a Trustee of the Woodstock (Vermont) Ski Runners Association, one of the oldest ski racing clubs in the country. Mr. Trotsky received a BS in electrical engineering from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

  • Kevin Vandolder

    National DC Client Practice Leader, Aon Hewitt

    Kevin Vandolder, partner, serves as the firm’s National DC Client Practice Leader – a position he has held for over a decade while serving as lead consultant for several of the firm’s mega projects and retainer clients. Before joining Aon Hewitt Investment Consulting (predecessor EnnisKnupp) in 1996, Kevin was in the corporate finance group of the $9 billion Westcoast Energy group of companies and had previously served in the Canadian Navy (reserve) and Presbyterian World Service. Kevin holds an MBA from NYU Stern and a B.Comm. degree in finance from the Odette Business School at the University of Windsor and is a CFA charter holder. He is a member of the CFA Society of Austin and previously served as President and Treasurer of the CFA Society of Chicago. Kevin remains active on CFA Institute committees while serving many years as a grader for the Chartered Financial Analyst examination. Kevin’s published research and blog entries includes pieces on innovative investment option structure, how to improve DC participant retirement outcome and wellness and on global DC opportunities and challenges. Kevin has also served as a guest lecturer at DePaul and Northwestern University while serving on industry organizations such as the Executive Committee and founding member of the Defined Contribution Institutional Investment Association and chair of its Global DC investment committee and speaking at industry conferences such as key note speaker at FRA/DCIO DC Conference in early 2016 and at NAGDCA in the fall 2015.

  • Jim Vos

    CEO, Aksia

    Jim Vos, CEO – Jim has over 30 years of research, derivatives, and fund of hedge funds experience in New York, London and Tokyo. He is Aksia’s CEO, responsible for the overall management of the firm and leads the firm’s top down sector and strategy analysis. He is also a member of the Portfolio Strategies Group (PSG) that formulates Aksia’s strategy views. Prior to Aksia, Jim headed Credit Suisse’s Hedge Fund Investment Group from its inception through December 2005. The group combined the fund of hedge funds investment management of the firm’s investment bank and asset management divisions, which grew to over $8 billion AUM. Jim started his career in 1985 when he joined Credit Suisse’s Portfolio Strategies group, working on portfolio dedications, immunizations, and total return analysis. In 1987, Jim joined the research department in Tokyo where he ran a fixed income research desk. In 1991, he relocated to New York and joined Credit Suisse Financial Products, a derivatives trading boutique. From 1991 to 1997, Jim was responsible for structuring and marketing for the asset management, hedge fund and insurance areas. In 1998, Jim launched the Sapic-98 Fund of Hedge Funds, Credit Suisse’s first institutional multi-strategy fund of hedge funds. In 2000, Jim transferred to London where he managed the investment bank’s fund of hedge funds group as well as the Fund Linked Products business. In 2003, Jim took over responsibility for investment management for the firm’s Hedge Funds Investment Group. Jim graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1985 with a B.A. in Economics. Jim was recognized as Hedge Fund Consultant of the Year in 2009 and 2010 by Institutional Investor.

  • Jane Western

    Senior Director of Operations and Governance, American Red Cross

    Jane Western is Senior Director, Investment Operations & Administration for American Red Cross’ investment team responsible for its retirement and endowment assets; her areas of focus are governance, risk management, and investment operations. Prior to joining the Red Cross, Jane was Managing Director – Trust Operations & Risk Management for The Boeing Company. Jane’s career in the institutional investment business spans over thirty years, having held several plan sponsor positions with additional roles in investment consulting and marketing and client servicing. For many years, Jane has been a keen advocate of risk management, having supported industry panels and having co-led the CIEBA Risk Task Force. Currently, Jane is a member of the Investment Committee for St. Olaf College, her alma mater; she is also a member of the Investment Committee and the Board of the Presbyterian Homes. Jane has BA in Mathematics from St. Olaf and an MBA from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University.

  • Karyn Williams

    CIO, Farmers Insurance

    Karyn is Chief Investment Officer of Farmers Group, Inc., and responsible for all insurance and pension-related investments. She leads a highly effective team of investment professionals that manages best-in-class, outsourced investment programs. Karyn is a member of Farmers’ senior leadership team and helps to drive the firm’s strategic initiatives. As an institutional investment practitioner, advisor, software developer, and professor, Karyn has oriented her career to helping organizations skillfully invest, adapt to changing market dynamics, and modernize investment programs through expert governance; team development; technology, data and analytics; relevant risk management practices; and innovative solutions. Karyn has established a strong network among a broad class of investment and technology professionals around the globe. She is an active speaker and leader in the institutional investment community, and is an advisor and Trustee on various boards. She is a graduate of Arizona State University where she earned a B.S. in Economics and a Ph.D. in Finance.

  • David Wilson

    Managing Director and Head of Institutional Solutions, Nuveen Asset Management

    Managing Director, Head of Institutional Solutions Group Dave is the head of the Institutional Solutions Group at Nuveen Asset Management. He is responsible for utilizing the firm’s multi-asset class capabilities to develop customized investment solutions for defined benefit pension plans, insurance companies, workers compensation pools and other institutions. He is also a portfolio manager of Nuveen’s Intelligent Risk Portfolios® – a suite of volatility-managed, global allocation strategies. Dave began working in the financial services industry in 1998. Prior to joining the firm in 2013, he served as managing director and head of customized strategies at Cutwater Asset Management, where he managed over $9 billion of customized mandates. His background includes structuring and managing complex liability-driven investing programs, which utilize multiple strategies in different currencies. During his career, Dave has developed innovative solutions for clients seeking to optimize their business profile, generate value, de-risk or manage liquidity. He possesses strong capabilities in treasury management, structuring and capital modeling, risk management and hedging. He started his career in the financial industry as a mergers and acquisitions analyst at Thompson Financial. Dave received a B.A. in economics from the University of Albany and an M.B.A. in finance from Fordham University. He holds the Chartered Financial Analyst designation from the CFA Institute and is a member of the New York Society of Security Analysts.

  • Masahiro "Masi" Yamada

    Managing Director (Americas Cross Asset Structuring), JP Morgan

    Masahiro Yamada (“Masi”), Managing Director, heads Americas Cross Asset Structuring at JP Morgan.  He oversees a team of 40 structurers and marketers focused on various derivative businesses across asset classes, including, Rates, FX, Credit, Equity, Commodities and EM product structuring and financing as well as the firm’s Investable Index / Risk Premia effort in the Americas.  Prior to this, he headed the Tokyo Rates Exotics and Hybrids Trading desk, managing the firm’s Japan rates and cross asset structured derivatives business. Masi began his career in 1994 as a derivatives quantitative research analyst at Goldman Sachs after which he traded the US Rates Volatility book and then the Japan Rates Volatility book.  He joined JP Morgan in 2006 after a stint as an entrepreneur/co-founder of a mobile technology startup.  Masi holds a B.S.E in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from Princeton University.

Contact Information

Sponsorship Information

Rob Reif (212) 217-6906

General Information

Carol Popkins (203) 461-0985