Name the most noticeable generational divide in investment style between sub-40-year-old investors and baby boomers.
The different expected return environment. It’s much lower today versus the majority of the baby boomers’ generations. Also experience: Baby boomers have been through multiple market cycles while the sub-40 group can honestly only say we’ve been through one.
Your least favorite part of being an asset owner is...?
We’re limited to what’s out there product-wise. We can be involved in creating custom products, but often we don’t have the size or the resources to accomplish something unique or new being a public fund. Also, cold calls.
The manager you don’t currently work with whose brain you’d most like to pick for an hour is...?
Ray Dalio from Bridgewater Associates. I’ve worked with him in the past at a different fund but he was someone I never got to speak with.
... and where would that meeting take place?
Taos Ski Valley. It would be fun to meet with a manager out of the typical environment that they’re used to.
Describe the weirdest interaction you’ve had with an asset manager.
I had a manager start talking about his child’s trust fund during a meeting. I found it odd that 1) he would bring it up, and 2) he could be so clueless about who his audience was.
What asset class or investment troubles you most right now—and why?
Non-US equity/emerging markets because of the uncertainty over growth and currency impacts relative to US stocks… It’s been a challenged area, but finding the catalyst for a move higher isn’t easy.
Name your favorite food and drink.
Green chile chicken enchiladas with a good beer.
What’s the wildest institutional portfolio you’ve seen?
I haven’t seen anything too wild—but anything that’s 40% to 50% or more in alternatives...
Name a cultural aspect of asset management that gets under your skin.
Politics. I think whenever your governance structure requires an investment committee, a board, or consultants, you have to follow a process and there are a lot of different interests that are being served. Sometimes it makes getting things done difficult.
Donald Trump is ________.
A disaster waiting to happen.
Name your four-member investment dream team for your own family office.
My current team members: Jon Grabel, LeAnne Larrañaga-Ruffy, Joaquin Lujan, and Kristin Varela.
What’s the biggest investment or career misstep you’ve made?
I’m not sure I’d call it a misstep as opposed to bad timing, but I opened a retail business right before the great financial crisis. Needless to say, it was not successful.
What should be an investment trend, but isn’t (yet)?
Creating risk-balanced portfolios at the total fund level versus constructing a portfolio from a product level.
