CIO Announces Innovation Award Finalists for Dec. 7 Celebration

It’s time to celebrate those who have survived, flourished, and led the way.
Reported by CIO Staff

Welcome to CIO’s awards season, now in its 11th year!

This year, we are celebrating those who have survived, flourished, and been incredible leaders throughout the challenges of this pandemic environment. We are planning to gather in person to applaud their hard-won success on Dec. 7 at Chelsea Piers in New York.

Throughout this week, we will release the list of finalists who have been nominated by their industry peers for their fine work from 2020 to 2021. As we created our list, our mission was to search the industry for management firms that have truly and reliably enhanced the portfolios of their clients, and to find CIOs who have exceeded expectations under their mantles of responsibility.

All the CIOs who appear on our finalist list have not won an award in their categories at their firms (from us) in the past. And as we canvassed and read through award nominations, we learned just what an incredible two years it has been for many of you. Many have re-engineered business processes during the pandemic and turned portfolios around while being great mentors and thoughtful colleagues; others have led spin-offs, transformed funds to become in-house management firms, or headed incredible direct investment programs.

We also learned which managers are doing well for our CIOs, and which have remained dominant players in their niches, created powerful teams, and given CIOs precision-level details or smooth sailing through excess returns.

Our choices were highly influenced by our advisory board members—many were past CIO winners who lent their advice throughout the summer on top managers, top service providers, and the CIO peers they truly watch and learn from.

We’d like to extend a special thank you to our CIO advisers this year: Chris Ailman, California State Teachers Retirement System (CalSTRS); Mark Baumgartner, Carnegie Corporation of New York; Elizabeth Burton, Employees’ Retirement System State of Hawaii; Marcus Frampton, Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation; Jonathan Grabel, Los Angeles County Employees Retirement Association (LACERA); David Holmgren, Hartford Healthcare; Bob Hunkeler, International Paper; Leslie Lenzo, Advocate Aurora Health; Kim Lew, Columbia Investment Management Company; Mansco Perry, Minnesota State Board of Investment; Charmel Maynard, University of Miami; and Ash Williams, newly retired from Florida State Board Administration (FLSBA). (If you find a few of their names on the list, please note that not one of these CIOs nominated themselves.)

In all, we received more than 300 nominations.

And from that list, we chiseled out our finalists: all people and firms that are changing our industry for the better. Winners will be asked to prove their case and will be chosen by the CIO editorial team in conjunction with an advisory board of CIOs. The CIO of the Year Award and NextGen Award will also be announced during the award ceremony.

On Dec. 7, we will host both the Influential Investors Forum at Chelsea Piers and our glittery Innovation Awards celebration, where the finalists will gather to hear the winners announced for 2021.

Save the date, because you’ll want to be in the room to meet finalists, talk with them about investing, and join the excitement as our winners are announced. As many of you know, there is nothing like having a room full of respected peers to applaud your hard-won success. This year, we will also celebrate those who have decided to retire and the lives of those we have lost.

Our finalist list is as follows:

Public Defined Benefit Funds $100 Billion and Above


C. William Cary
Employees’ Retirement System of Georgia (ERSGA) and Teachers Retirement System of Georgia (TRSGA)

Edwin Denson
State of Wisconsin Investment Board (SWIB)

Paul Greff
Ohio Public Employees Retirement System (OPERS)

Mansco Perry III
Minnesota State Board of Investment (SBI)

Anastasia Titarchuk
New York State Common Retirement Fund

Allyson Tucker
Washington State Investment Board (WSIB)

Eduard van Gelderen
Public Sector Pension Investment Board (PSP Investments)

Public Defined Benefit Funds From $21 Billion to $99 Billion


Scott Davis
Indiana Public Retirement System (INPRS)

Ray Joseph
Los Angeles Fire and Police Pensions (LAFPP)

Barry Kenneth
Pension Protection Fund (PPF)

Amy McGarrity
Colorado Public Employees’ Retirement Association (PERA)

Molly Murphy
Orange County Employees Retirement System (OCERS)

Andrew Palmer
Maryland State Retirement and Pension System (MSRA)

Public Defined Benefit Funds Below $21 Billion


Jeb Burns
Municipal Employees’ Retirement System (MERS) of Michigan

Farouki Majeed
School Employees Retirement System of Ohio (SERS)

Katherine Molnar
Fairfax County Police Officers Retirement System Public Pension

and

Andrew Spellar
Fairfax County Retirement Systems

Kristin Varela (interim)
Public Employees Retirement Association of New Mexico (PERA)

Jeremy Wolfson
Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP)

Sovereign Wealth Funds


Jeffrey Jaensubhakij
GIC

Abdiel Santiago
Fondo de Ahorro Panama

Ruchit Shah
Texas Treasury Safekeeping Trust Company

Robert “Vince” Smith
New Mexico State Investment Council (NMSIC)

B. Holland Timmins
Texas Permanent School Fund

Corporate Defined Benefit Plans Above $20 Billion


Douglas Brown
Exelon

Harshal Chaudhari
General Electric (GE)

Laurence Fulton
Verizon Investment Management Corporation (VIMCO)

Jeff Lewis
FedEx

Jeff Pickett
Stellantis N.V.

Valerie Sill
DuPont Capital Management

Corporate Defined Benefit Plans Below $20 Billion


Kathleen Lutito
CenturyLink Investment Management

Ian McKnight
Royal Mail

Thomas Mucha
Eastman Kodak

Elena Parrino
Altria

Dekia Scott
Southern Company

Corporate Defined Contribution Plans


Angie Buk
3M Investment Management Corporation

Jeanmarie Grisi
Nokia

Kathleen Lutito
CenturyLink Investment Management

Andy Ward
Formerly of Boeing (currently University of Chicago)

Health Care Plans


Jason Klein
Memorial Sloan Kettering

Alyssa Rieder
CommonSpirit Health

Philip Rotner
Boston Children’s Hospital

Stefan Strein
Cleveland Clinic

J.C. Stilley
University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC)

Most Collaborative


Tim Corbett
Massachusetts Mutual

Walter Kress
EY

Jinwen Chen, Ryan Dotson and Jeff Smith 
Smithsonian Institution, working with Digital Asset Roundtable

“State of California CIOs”
including the state and city consortium of CIOs

“Health Care Posse”
Health care CIOs including Donna Snider at Hackensack Meridian Health, Syed Haque at Novant Health, and some 25 others

Risk Management


Harshal Chaudhari
General Electric (GE)

Edwin Denson
State of Wisconsin Investment Board (SWIB)

Jonathan Glidden
Delta Air Lines

Jonathan Grabel
Los Angeles County Employees Retirement Association (LACERA)

Bob Hunkeler
International Paper

Doug Brown
Exelon

Endowments


Seth Alexander
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

Collette Chilton
Williams College

Jane Dietze
Brown University

Kathleen Jacobs
New York University (NYU)

Meredith Jenkins
Trinity Church Wall Street

Anne Martin
Wesleyan University

Scott Richland
California Institute of Technology (Caltech)

Scott Wilson
Washington University in St. Louis

Foundations


Rukaiyah Adams
Meyer Memorial Trust

Sam Gallo
University System of Maryland (USM) Foundation

K.C. (McClelland) Krieger
Eli Broad’s Family Office and the Broad Foundations

Ana Marshall
The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation

Nick Moakes
The Wellcome Trust

Carlos Rangel
W.K. Kellogg Foundation

Kim Sargent
The David and Lucile Packard Foundation

Efforts in Diversity


Cheryl Alston
Employees’ Retirement Fund of the City of Dallas (ERF)

Robin Diamonte
Raytheon Technologies

Elizabeth Hewitt
The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation

Eric Doppstadt
Ford Foundation

Carlos Rangel
W.K. Kellogg Foundation

Anastasia Titarchuk
New York State Common Retirement Fund

Juan Martinez
Knight Foundation

Efforts in ESG


Chris Ailman
California State Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS)

Jonathan Grabel
Los Angeles County Employees Retirement Association (LACERA)

Tom Joy
Church of England

Michael Larson
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

David Lee
Chan Zuckerberg Initiative

Geraldine Leegwater
PGGM

Elizabeth McGeveran
McKnight Foundation

Consultant of the Year


Celia Dallas
Cambridge Associates

Allan Emkin
Meketa Investment Group

Russ Ivinjack
Aon

Taylor Mammen
RCLCO Fund Advisors (RFA)

Heidi Poon
Aksia

Liability-Driven Investing (LDI)


Goldman Sachs Asset Management

Insight Investment

NISA Investment Advisors

PIMCO

Wellington Management

Western Asset Management Company

OCIO


Bank of America

Goldman Sachs

Investment Office Resources

PNC Institutional Asset Management

State Street Global Advisors (SSGA)

Vanguard

Defined Contribution Plans


Albourne

BlackRock

Empower

J.P. Morgan

T. Rowe Price

Diversity


Goldman Sachs

KKR

Foresite Capital

Northern Trust Asset Management

Nuveen

Xponance

ESG


Aetos Alternatives Management

BlackRock

DoubleLine

KKR

Scientific Beta

TOBAM

TPG

Corporate Strategies


BlackRock

Columbia Threadneedle

John Hancock

Legal & General

NISA Investment Advisors

PIMCO

Starboard Capital Partners

Data and Technology


Aladdin

Albourne

Backstop Solutions Group

DiligenceVault

Empower

Moody’s PFaroe

MSCI

Solovis

Emerging Markets


Acadian Emerging Markets

AllianceBernstein

Asia Alternatives

Channing Global Advisors

Lazard

Man Numeric

State Street Global Advisors (SSGA)

Public Fixed Income


Fidelity

Goldman Sachs

Income Research + Management (IR+M) in Boston

Legal & General

Neuberger Berman

Prudential

Pugh Capital Management

Hedge Funds


Banner Asset Management

Balyasny Asset Management (BAM)

Heard Capital

Lone Peak Partners Management

PAAMCO Prisma

Stable Asset Management

Standard General

Starboard Capital Partners

Multi Assets


BlackRock

J.P. Morgan

Kepos Capital

PGIM – Institutional Plans

PIMCO

RockCreek

Private Credit


Abax Global Capital

AlbaCore Capital Group

Canvas Capital

Kerberos Capital Management

MGG Investment Group

Napier Park Global Capital

Private Equity


Balderton Capital

Blackstone

Cullen Group

Dyal Capital Partners (a subsidiary of Neuberger Berman)

K1 Investment Management

RedBird Capital Partners

Silicon Valley Capital Partners

Public Equity


Acadian Asset Management

American Funds

Baillie Gifford

EARNEST Partners

Frontier Asset Management

T. Rowe Price

Vontobel Asset Management

Real Assets


AEW

Apollo Aviation Group

Blackstone

Cohen & Steers

Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP)

Grain Management

Primary Wave Investment Management

Transition Management


Abel Noser

BTIG

Citigroup

Macquarie Group

Northern Trust 

Parametric Portfolio Associates

Pavilion Global Markets

NextGen of the Year Finalists


Alex Ambroz
Director, Cleveland Clinic Investment Office

Evril Clayton Jr.
Deputy Director of Global Equity, New York State Common Retirement Fund

Samantha Foster
Managing Director, University of Southern California Endowment

Lauren Jacobson
Managing Director, Columbia Investment Management Company

Jason Rector
Managing Analyst, State of Wisconsin Investment Board (SWIB)



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Awards, CIO, CIO awards, CIO Innovation Awards,