Katita Palamar

Katita Palamar is the co-founder and CEO of LP Analyst, an industry-leading provider of private and public market data, reporting, analytics, intelligence and technology solutions for global institutional investors. Katita brings more than 20 years of PE experience advising institutional investors on portfolio construction, due diligence, monitoring and valuation. Previously, she co-led the research business at Cogent Partners, a leading PE secondary market advisor later acquired by Greenhill.

Katita began her career at Goldman Sachs and specialized in fixed-income securitization. Katita graduated summa cum laude with a B.S. in mathematical economics from Wake Forest University and is a CFA charter holder.

CIO: What do you think will be the biggest innovation in the institutional asset allocation industry in the next 10 years?

PALAMAR: Over the next decade, the most transformative innovation in institutional asset allocation will be the integration of advanced data infrastructure with real-time decisionmaking capabilities, powered by artificial intelligence. As datasets grow more complex and expansive, the firms that lead will be those that design systems not just to capture, validate and store data, but to dynamically interpret and act on it.

We are entering a new era in which allocators will increasingly use AI to uncover insights that were previously hidden. This includes identifying patterns, correlations, risks and opportunities across portfolios that traditional tools could not detect. The true breakthrough will not lie in AI alone, but in how effectively allocators architect their data ecosystems to support it in ways that align with their unique investment processes.

At LP Analyst, this belief drives our work. Our portfolio managed data collection and technology solutions are built on a simple principle: The best insights depend on clean, precise and decision-ready data. We aim to be the trusted partner that helps institutional investors create the infrastructure they need to harness AI, adapt to complexity and make smarter decisions with confidence.

CIO: What actionable thing have you learned over the course of your career that has proven itself this year?

PALAMAR: When I began my career at Goldman Sachs, a mentor gave me a piece of advice I’ve never forgotten: “Eat the frog,” which is another way of saying: Do the hard thing first. It is easy to stay busy with quick wins and surface-level progress, but real momentum comes from tackling the uncomfortable, complex work that often gets delayed.

That mindset has proven especially powerful this year. As the private capital landscape rapidly evolves, services that once felt advanced have become outdated. Meeting client needs today requires stepping back, questioning old assumptions and having the discipline to build solutions that truly fit how investors operate today—not just how things have always been done.

At LP Analyst, we have embraced that approach. We foster a “build culture” in which we seek out the hard problems early and invest in solving them before we are asked. This has allowed us to lead in several areas, including executing the fastest onboardings in the industry, delivering the most precise and customizable data, and providing the industry’s largest benchmark.

“Eating the frog” means choosing long-term impact over short-term comfort. When everyone on our team commits to doing the hard things first, we unlock new possibilities for our clients and position ourselves to lead the future of the industry.

CIO: What issues do you expect to dominate financial decision making and the economy in the next 18 months to three years?

PALAMAR: In the coming years, financial decisionmaking will be shaped less by any one macro factor, such as interest rates or geopolitics, and more by how well institutional investors can adapt to constant change. The real challenge will not be volatility itself, but how investment teams structure their data, systems and workflows to respond effectively in a complex environment.

Across our client base, we are seeing a clear shift. In the past, allocators valued static, answer-based deliverables. Today, that is just the starting point. What they truly value now is the ability to ask sharper questions and receive faster, more customized insights. That shift requires clean, connected and decision-ready data.

At LP Analyst, we see this evolution up close. Investment teams are increasingly integrated from front to back office and need solutions that support each function. Whether it is document timing analysis, source document look-through, data validation visuals, performance benchmarking or dynamic exposure monitoring, clients expect tools that work the way their teams work.

We believe the firms that succeed in this environment will be those that build proactively with their clients. Our approach is to act as an extension of the allocator’s team, providing not just precision in data, but the infrastructure to adapt to what comes next. As the pace of change accelerates, that adaptability will be the defining advantage.