AAAIM High ELI

Our guest for today's podcast is Kim Lew, Chief Executive Officer of the Columbia Investment Management Company, where she oversees over $11 billion in endowment and university assets. Kim needs no introduction as she is by far one of the most admired investors and leaders in the world of investment management. Kim joined Columbia in late 2020, a groundbreaking moment for the industry and something I applauded as a 2x graduate of the university.

Kim is a great "storyteller" as she is authentic and her leadership qualities just makes you want to follow her. If there is ever a leader that you would ever want to charge up a hill to fight your final battle, Kim is that person.

Joining me on the podcast as co-host is fellow AAAIM board member, Susan Soh, Chief of Strategy and Capital Development for the Private Investments arm of Two Sigma. I am excited to welcome Susan to the podcast as she is one of the most admired business development professionals in our industry.

I was honored to join the conversation with two awesome female leaders in the business. Without further ado, here is our conversation with Kim Lew.

My guests for today's podcast are Andrew Chen and Marcos Veremis.

Andrew is a Portfolio Manager at Lockheed Martin Investment Management Company where he focuses on the Absolute Return portfolio. Andrew is an engineer by training and I was happy that he agreed to participate in this podcast given how much time he has spent learning and thinking about blockchain and the potential for the new technology. Marcos is a partner at Evanston Capital, a leading fund of funds that he joined in 2020. Previously, Marcos spent 14 years at Cambridge Associates where he led Cambridge Associates research on cryptoassets and blockchain including crypto manager due diligence in the venture and hedge funds spaces.

My guests for today's podcast are Troy Dixon, Founder and CIO of Hollis Park Partners, a $750mn+ independent alternative asset manager that specializes in structured products and Greg Maddox, Head of Global Manager Research at Wells Fargo Investment Institute.

I took a different approach for this podcast by asking my two guests to follow along with role playing the following scenario: Let's pretend that the three of us have recently started the "Emerging Manager Impact Fund" (EMIF), a new $1 billion fund focused on investing in top emerging and diverse managers. We are being seeded by Priscilla Chan Zuckerberg and Oprah Winfrey with the dual purpose of delivering best in class risk adjusted returns while making an impact by investing in emerging and diverse managers. (Note to audience, repeat - this is a role play so please don't call us to ask for money!)

Given Troy's and Greg's wealth of experience and juxtaposition of perspective: retail vs. institutional, sell side vs. buy side, investment bank vs. independent emerging manager, portfolio manager vs. allocator, having designed an emerging and diverse program vs having won mandates from emerging and diverse programs – I found this conversation especially insightful for all players in the investment game.

Without further ado, please enjoy my conversation with Troy and Greg.

My guest for today's podcast is James Chen, Founder and CIO of Ovata Capital, a $600mn+ multi-strategy, market neutral equities hedge fund headquartered in Hong Kong. James takes us on his journey from being born in Mongolia to growing up in Long Island, NY through his formative years as a proprietary and customer trader at Credit Suisse, Bear Stearns, JP Morgan and Barclays. In 2014, James made the decision to join Bluecrest where he established their equities business in Hong Kong. Following Bluecrest's decision to convert to a family office, James made the decision to start Ovata Capital, personally funding and underwriting the business hiring many of his former Bluecrest equities team members in Hong Kong. James shares many lessons he learned over his career, providing valuable insight to portfolio managers who aspire to launch their own independent firms. Joining me on this podcast as guest host is Christophe L'Ahelec, who most recently was a Senior Principal in the External Managers group at Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, one of the most widely respected allocators in the business. I leave it to Christophe to ask all the hard questions! Without further a due, here is my conversation with James and Christophe.

My guest for today's podcast is Puneet Kohli, Head of the Alternative Investments team at the Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan, also known as HOOPP, a $100bn+ Canadian pension fund well known for being one of the top performing investors globally over the past 20 years. Puneet is one of those rare breeds in asset management where he has literally done it all: trader, portfolio manager, proprietary trader, hedge fund manager, equities, fixed income, derivatives, and alternatives. I've known Puneet almost 20 years and it was a pleasure to interview him and hear his background from how he grew up in the business to his current task at hand, building out Alternative Investments at HOOPP. Puneet generously shares his stories from "his difficult teenage years" being one of the only visible minority kids growing up in Mississauga and Ottawa to his days as a proprietary trader eventually leading to his current role at HOOPP which includes hiring external managers, a new program HOOPP initiated only recently in 2018. Without further a due, here is my conversation with Puneet Kohli.

My guest for today's podcast is Kirk Sims who is the Head of the Emerging Manager Program at the Teachers Retirement System of Texas (TRS), one of the leading public retirement systems in the US with over $160 billion in assets under management. Since being established in 2005, TRS has committed $3.7 billion to one of the largest programs of its kind. An additional $2 billion has been invested directly with EM Program graduates. Each graduate was selected as a result of consistent outperformance among a group of more than 160 EM managers. Recognizing the Program's success, in early 2019, TRS rolled out a plan to invest another $3 billion over the next three to five years. Kirk joined TRS in March 2019 after building out the Emerging Manager Program at the Teachers' Retirement System of the State of Illinois, where he oversaw a $750 million evergreen pool of capital designed to identify and invest in emerging investment managers across all asset classes. Kirk is as smart as they come, having earned his CFA, MBA from Columbia Business School and BA from Howard University. I had a blast interviewing Kirk and his insights would be valuable to any emerging manager looking to raise assets. Without further a due, here is my conversation with Kirk Sims.

My guest for today's podcast is Monica Hsiao, Founder and CIO of Triada Capital, an Asian Credit Long/Short Fund. Monica is as amazing as they come, having launched Triada after a successful career as a corporate lawyer, proprietary trader, and portfolio manager. We talk about Monica's grandmother's early influence on her life, the initiative she took to see the world outside of Guam, and learn about her path from lawyer to proprietary trading to starting her own fund, globetrotting from Guam to California to New York to London to Hong Kong. Along the way, Monica shares some great insights about avoiding "the mommy track", "leveraging her legal background to differentiate herself as an investor", "starting a new business line within CQS", and "overcoming the odds and starting her fund with just $7 mn" Post this podcast recording, Triada Capital was recently named the "Best Asian Credit Long-Short Fund" from Eurekahedge, I am sure a very proud moment for Monica and a validation of the bet she made on herself. Joining me on this podcast as guest host is Sasha Kus, a Partner with Albourne Partners. In addition to her day job advising investors on portfolio construction and manager selection, Sasha also leads Albourne Partners' diversity initiatives to identify and uncover diverse and emerging managers. Please enjoy my conversation with Monica and Sasha.