CIO Announces Innovation Award Finalists for Dec. 7 Celebration
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
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)