AAAIM High ELI: Recent Episodes
The Association of Asian American Investment Managers (AAAIM)
AAAIM’s podcast series, “AAAIM High ELI” is focused on highlighting leaders whose voice and story can inspire the next generation of Asians in the investment management industry. Podcast guests will include senior asset allocators, industry leaders, established and emerging managers, and content experts passionate about raising the representation of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs) in the senior ranks across the industry. Over time, we hope our podcasts will serve as a library of valuable content for the AAAIM community as well as the extended investment community.
Our guest for today’s podcast is Wendy Li, Chief Investment Officer of Ivy Invest. Before founding Ivy Invest, Wendy spent her career as an institutional investor managing billions of dollars for some of New York’s largest endowments and foundations. Most recently, Wendy was Managing Director of Investments at the Mother Cabrini Health Foundation (MCHF). At MCHF, she was responsible for developing the foundation’s investment strategy, sourcing and executing investments across asset classes, and exercising day-to-day management over MCHF’s $4B portfolio. Prior to MCHF, Wendy held similar responsibilities at UJA-Federation of New York. She began her career in the Investment Office of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Wendy is a graduate of Columbia University and a CFA charterholder.
Without further ado, here is our conversation with Wendy Li.
Our guest for today’s podcast is Richard Chau, Chief Investment Officer of the Tulane University Endowment. Richard joined Tulane in 2013 and was promoted to CIO in 2021. Prior to Tulane, Richard helped manage a multi-billion dollar global private equity portfolio in Bessemer Trust's Private Equity Funds Group. Before Bessemer, Richard worked in the investment office at The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. His previous experience also includes investment banking at Houlihan Lokey and investment consulting at Cambridge Associates.
Richard has a BA in Economics and Chinese from Williams College and an MBA from Columbia Business School.
Without further ado, here is our conversation with Richard Chau.
Our guest for today’s podcast is Tina Suo, Head of Alternative Credit for the Office of NYC Comptroller. Tina joined the Office of the NYC Comptroller as a Senior Investment Officer in the Alternative Credit Group in August 2019. In this role, she assisted in making investment recommendations and advising on the alternative credit portfolio consisting of public and private non-traditional credit-oriented investments that include below-investment-grade debt. In May 2022, she was promoted to Head of Alternative Credit to oversee the alternative credit portfolio for the five New York City retirement systems.
Prior to the Office of the NYC Comptroller, Tina held roles in manager selection, risk management, trading, and portfolio management at leading sell-side and buy-side firms including PIMCO, Goldman Sachs, and New York Life Investments.
Tina received her M.B.A. degree from London Business School and B.S. degree in Information and Decision Sciences from University of Science and Technology of China.
Without further ado, here is our conversation with Tina Suo.
Our guest for today’s podcast is Sandor Hau, Managing Director and President of Charlesbank Credit. Sandor oversees the firm’s opportunistic Credit team and investing strategy. Sandor joined Charlesbank in 2016 from Nomura Securities, where he was a Managing Director and Head of Corporate Credit and Special Situations. Previously, he was a Managing Director at Goldman Sachs and Head of Credit Investing and Private Equity within the principal strategies group. Sandor was born and grew up in rural Lancaster, PA, and is a big Philadelphia sports fan. He currently lives in Rye, NY, and is actively involved with community and sports activities with his four kids. He likes running, basketball and racquet sports. He is actively involved with the Korean American community as co–chairman of The Korea Finance Society. He is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Without further ado, here is our conversation with Sandor Hau.
Our guest for today’s podcast is Michel Lowy, who co-founded SC Lowy in 2009. SC Lowy specializes in non-investment grade credit opportunities outside the United States, focusing on opportunistic corporate lending. SC Lowy has deployed $4.8 billion in capital and manages $1.6 billion in assets, with a presence across nine offices in Asia, the Middle East, and Europe.
Michel has focused on distressed, special situations and private credit investing for his entire career spanning more than 25 years. Before launching SC Lowy, Mr. Lowy founded Deutsche Bank’s distressed and strategic investments group for Asia Pacific in 1999. Based in Singapore, New York and lastly Hong Kong, he built and led a dominant Asia-focused proprietary trading and investment team over the span of 10 years, while later adding Latin America to his mandate. Without further ado, here is our conversation with Michel Lowy.
Our guest for today’s podcast is Philip Yau who is a Managing Director at GI Partners. Phil serves as a member of the firm’s Executive Committee and is head of the firm’s capital formation-business development team. His responsibilities include managing strategic relationships, developing new business initiatives, and overseeing the capital formation efforts. Prior to joining GI Partners, Phil spent over 24 years in investment banking, including 12 years as a senior leader of the UBS Private Funds Group.
I met Phil at the most recent AAAIM National Conference held in Los Angeles. Phil sought me out and shared his desire to be featured on the podcast in order to pay tribute to both his parents who served as great role models for Phil and his brother Andrew. Phil’s father, Dr. Stephen Yau, Is a famous professor of computer science who is still teaching after 63 years at 89 years old. Phil’s mother, Victoria Yau, was a well-recognized contemporary artist.
Without further ado, here is our conversation with Phil Yau.
Our guests for today’s podcast are Jen Vigilante and Maine Park, Counselors at College Labyrinth. College Labyrinth provides a highly personalized framework for students to pursue genuine interests, enriching the journey to college while finding the right next step.
Most recently, Jen spent the past decade working in the Princeton University Undergraduate Admission Office, where she was an Associate Dean primarily responsible for the New York City schools, evaluating more than 2,000 applications each year.
Maine is a long time friend AAAIM. During her own children’s college application processes, Maine recognized the incredible value in reassuring and steering parents and students through an often difficult period. In Maine’s own words, “Every child, including my own, has such different interests and strengths. It can feel overwhelming to try and find the right school, the right word, the right deadline! By starting College Labyrinth, I became the guide I wish I had when going through this process. My goal is for College Labyrinth to help students achieve more than just an acceptance letter, but an honest and healthy understanding of who they are and who they might become in the future.”
Without further ado, here is our conversation with Jen Vigilante and Maine Park.
Our guest for today’s podcast is Tim Hsia, founder and Managing Partner of Context Ventures, a venture fund that invests in military veteran founders and also in consumer startups. Some of Tim’s startup investments prior to Context Ventures include Workflow (acquired by Apple), Morning Brew (acquired by Business Insider), The Hustle (acquired by HubSpot), and Thredup (which IPO’d). Tim is also the CEO & Founder of Media Mobilize (an online ad network, marketing agency, and media company).
Tim is a distinguished honor graduate of West Point and was commissioned as an infantry officer in the US Army. Tim transitioned from active duty in 2010 and graduated from Stanford’s Graduate School of Business and Stanford Law School in 2014. While at Stanford he taught ROTC to cadets at Stanford and Santa Clara University.
Tim is the eptiome of the word “grit”. Without further ado, here is our conversation with Tim Hsia.
Our guest for today’s podcast is Vishal Bhutani, Chief Investment Officer of AMS Children’s Fund (AMS), a new fund launching in early 2025. Together with David Gaynes, Vishal is forming AMS to capitalize on the growing interest by institutional investors in the Indian equity markets. Vishal believes that the middle market opportunity in Indian equities is one of the best investment opportunities available today. Leveraging his experience as an event driven portfolio manager, AMS believes it will be able to achieve superior risk adjusted returns.
Vishal has spent the bulk of his 20 year investment career as an Event Driven investor, investing across the capital structure. Joining me on the podcast is Clark Cheng, CEO and CIO of Merrimac Corp, a large single family office with investments in hedge funds, private equity, venture capital and real estate AND David Gaynes, co-founder of AMS Children’s Fund.
So why should investors care about the Indian equity markets now? Vishal provides many insights and answers why in this podcast.
Without further ado, here is our conversation with Vishal Bhutani.
Our guest for today’s podcast is Darren Xu, Co-Founder and Portfolio Manager of Questline Capital. Questline Capital is a long/short equity fund focused on the gaming, media and communications sectors. After almost a decade as an investor at Farallon Capital Management, Darren decided to leave his job and will be launching his fund in the 1 st quarter of 2025. Darren started his career in investment banking in Mergers and Acquisitions at Citigroup after graduating with two degrees, one in Computer Science from the University of Pennsylvania and the other in Business from the Wharton School. I named this podcast “Living the dream: playing video games for fun and for work.” Literally, that is what Darren does. How fun is that? So, how does one create a career playing video games. Well, we are here to find out. Without further ado, here is our conversation with Darren Xu.
Our guest for today’s podcast is Dave Lu, Managing Partner of Hyphen Capital, an early stage venture capital firm focused on Asian American founders. Dave is a veteran of the technology industry, having founded two prior companies: Expo and Fanpop, as well as having worked at Apple, eBay, Cisco, Yahoo and Sony. Dave produced the Emmy-winning HBO documentary 38 at the Garden about Jeremy Lin. Amidst the rise of anti-Asian hate during the pandemic, Dave led a movement with an open letter signed by 8,000 leaders including President George Bush and the CEOs of Google, DoorDash, Zoom and others that was published in the Wall Street Journal and launched Stand with Asian Americans. Dave sits on the advisory board of the Smithsonian Asian Pacific Center and the Asian Pacific Fund. Dave received his MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and his BA from the University of Pennsylvania.
To say that Dave is a role model would be an understatement. I applaud Dave for his selfless efforts to help inspire and galvanize change for the AAPI community.
Without further ado, here is our conversation with Dave Lu.
Our guest for today’s podcast is Raymond Chan, Partner at Atalaya Capital Management, a leading private credit firm. Ray is responsible for the firm’s investing in Financial Assets, which focuses on sourcing and executing specialty finance and other private asset-backed transactions. Prior to joining Atalaya, Ray was a Partner and Co-Founder of TTM Capital, LLC, an investment firm focused on acquiring and lending against portfolios of financial and other assets. Previously, he was a Managing Director and co-head of the Assets Group at Highbridge/Zwirn Capital Management.
Earlier in his career, Ray was a member of the Principal Transaction and Principal Finance teams at Lehman Brothers and worked on numerous securitizations across multiple asset classes at Salomon Brothers. He began his career as a consultant at Price Waterhouse, followed by internal consulting and operations roles at Lehman Brothers. He holds a BA in Economics and Political Science from Columbia University.
As our podcast listeners know, I have a bias for featuring successful Columbia alumni, my alma mater. Ray’s success hits home for me as I knew him as a peer over 30 years ago and I am so happy for all the contributions he is making for the AAPI community, both professionally in his firms’s support of AAAIM and personally as a Board Member for Apex For Youth.
Without further ado, here is our conversation with Ray Chan.
Our guest for today’s podcast is Tem Tumurbat, Co-founder and Managing Partner of Nomadic Venture Partners (NVP), where he focuses on fund strategy, fundraising, portfolio construction, valuation, and financial analysis.
Prior to co-founding NVP, Tem was an investment professional at Resource Capital Funds (RCF), a mining focused private equity investment firm, managing early to late stage investments. He de-risked companies, commercialized their businesses and successfully completed M&As that delivered hundreds of millions of dollars to investors.
Prior to RCF, Tem worked for Newmont Mining Corporation as a mining engineer and then project engineer. Tem also co-founded MNG Summit, a non-profit organization supporting Mongolian students and early career professionals.
Tem started his professional career as an entrepreneur where he started and operated a transportation company in college to help pay for college tuition and support extended family.
I found Tem’s story to be fascinating. Joining me on the podcast and my guest co-host is Brian O’Neil, former CIO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and long time supporter of AAAIM.
Without further ado, here is our conversation with Tem Tumurbat.
Our guest for today’s podcast is Glenn Hosokawa, Director of Fixed Income at CalSTRS. After over 25 years serving CalSTRS, Glenn will be retiring at the end of August 2024 and riding off into the sunset. If you google or search for Glenn’s biography, you won’t be able to find anything. I tried. Glenn is as old school as they come and doesn’t have a social media profile.
For those that know Glenn, he is credited for building a world class Fixed Income investment division at one of the most admired places to work. Glenn isn’t looking for any accolades as he just enjoyed coming in, day in day out, working hard to generate returns to help secure the retirement benefits of all the great teachers that serve the State of California. Great mission, great guy, great career.
So who is Glenn and what is he known for? Well, Glenn was gracious enough to share his story with me and my guest co-host Sylvia Owens from Kennedy Lewis Investment Management.
Without further ado, here is our conversation with Glenn Hosokawa.
Our guest for today’s podcast is Gino Reina, Principal at SECOR Asset Management. Gino is a portfolio manager and member of the client advisory team at SECOR, responsible for client relationship management and business development. Gino has over 20 years of investment management industry experience, including time at Segal Advisors as Director of Research, UBS Paine Webber, and Neuberger Berman as a portfolio manager on the mutual fund wrap platform. Gino holds a Bachelors of Business Administration (BBA) in Banking and Finance from Hofstra University. In addition, he is a member of the CFA Society New York and Vice Chair of the CFA New Jersey Chapter.
I’ve always found Gino to be very pleasant to be around. In addition to his full time job, Gino is also a co-owner and restaurant entrepreneur of two pizza restaurants and an avid long distance runner, having completed a 100 mile ultra marathon.
Needless to say, Gino is an interesting person to get to know! Without further ado, here is our conversation with Gino Reina.
Our guest for today’s podcast is Bordon Lai, Managing Director at Beach Point Capital Management. Bordon joined Beach Point in 2021 to help build out the firm’s private equity and special situation investing capabilities.
Bordon has been in the industry for over 20 years and was previously at Quilvest Private Equity, a global multi-family office with $5B of AUM. Prior to Quilvest, Bordon worked at Pegasus Capital Advisors and Vision Capital, where he invested under a flexible mandate in opportunistic investments in the middle market.
Bordon started out his career as an investment banking analyst at Wachovia Securities and Credit Suisse First Boston. Bordon earned his bachelor’s degree from Georgetown University and MBA from The Wharton School of University of Pennsylvania.
Joining me on the podcast as co-host is Agnes Tan, who recently graduated from Columbia Business School and will be co-hosting/hosting a handful of podcasts on behalf of AAAIM in the coming weeks.
So what does it take to be a successful private equity investor? We asked Bordon and he was gracious enough to share good insights on how he differentiated himself. Without further ado, please enjoy our conversation with Bordon Lai.
Our guest for today’s podcast is Ingrid Yin, Co-Founder, Managing Partner and Majority Owner of MayTech Global Investments, a New York–based firm that specializes in managing global growth portfolios. Yin started her career as a research scientist and then made a leap to the finance industry, where she worked as an analyst and honed her focus to identifying investment opportunities in Asia and in healthcare. In 2017, with her extensive global investing experience, Yin launched MayTech with her business partner, Nels Wangensteen.
The investment team, based in New York City, has been investing globally on average for more than 20 years. MayTech believes that focusing on deep research, big long-term trends, and clients’ needs are the most important things for an investment firm. MayTech has significant research expertise in technology, healthcare, and emerging consumers sectors, where they see innovations will accelerate, therefore driving the growth of the global economy.
Ingrid earned her B.S. from Beijing University, an M.B.A. from MIT Sloan School of Management, and a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from SUNY-Stony Brook.
So who is Ingrid Yin, one of only a few Asian female led GPs? We are grateful to Ingrid for sharing her story. Without further ado, please enjoy our interview with Ingrid Yin.
Our guest for today’s podcast is Pam Chan, Managing Partner and Chief Investment Officer of Mosaic, a new private market strategy within Lingotto that will invest across asset classes, industries, and capital structures, and will be anchored by Exor. Pam’s mandate will be to invest in what she calls “the weird and wonderful” as she believes that flexible capital will create differentiated opportunities and sustained performance over the long term.
Prior to joining Lingotto, Pam was the Chief Investment Officer and Head of Direct Private Opportunities at BlackRock. While at BlackRock, Pam co-founded and led the firm’s Alternative Solutions group which grew to over $12bn assets under management across a range of private market strategies and investment themes.
Pam is a graduate of Harvard College magna cum laude and Harvard Business School with high honors. In 2020, Pam was recognized by the World Economic Forum as a Young Global Leader and was appointed a member of that organization’s Global Future Council on the Future of Responsible Investing and Women in Finance community. In 2022, Private Equity International included her on their list of Women of Influence in Private Markets.
Joining me on the podcast as co-host is Agnes Tan, who recently graduated from Columbia Business School and will be co-hosting/hosting a handful of podcasts on behalf of AAAIM in the coming weeks.
So what does it take to launch your own strategy and be seeded by one of the top investors in the world? Well, Pam shares her secrets. Without further ado, please enjoy our interview with Pam Chan.
Our guest for today’s podcast is Alka Goel, Founding Partner of Alkemi Growth Capital, a venture capital firm focused on early-stage healthcare and wellness focused companies based in Delhi. Alkemi became operational in 2018 and since then has committed to 10 companies in diverse sub-sectors such as hygiene, diagnostics, pharma supply chain, women’s reproduction, data digitization, etc. Prior to Alkemi, Alka was a partner in McKinsey’s global pharma and medical device practice & private equity practice based out of New York. At McKinsey, she worked for more than 100+ health care companies, advising them on a range of business issues - including M&A, go to market, operations, and organization. She completed her MBA from the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad in 2000 and BA (Economics) from Lady Shri Ram College in Delhi University.
Alka’s mission for Alkemi is to elevate the Health and Well-Being of the Indian consumer while maximizing returns to our shareholders. Alkemi is interested in passionate entrepreneurs who are inspired by a vision, have boldness in their DNA, are not afraid of taking a few punches, persevere under uncertainty and most importantly build companies that can make an out-sized difference to consumer wellness and healthcare industry.
Joining me on the podcast as co-host is Agnes Tan, who is a 2nd year MBA student at Columbia Business School. Agnes spent her pre-business school career in Private Equity in the Phillipines and will be co-hosting/hosting a handful of podcasts on behalf of AAAIM in the coming weeks.
So what does it take to launch a venture capital firm despite not having a prior track record and how did Alka persevere and secure institutional capital? Alka shares her approach on this podcast. Without further ado, please enjoy our interview with Alka Goel.
Our guest for today’s podcast is Eunice McHugh, Director of Private Credit at San Francisco Employees’ Retirement System (“SFERS”). Eunice is responsible for the buildout and management of the Private Credit portfolio, which has a 10% target allocation for the fund. Eunice has led SFERS' Private Credit efforts (initially as part of the Fixed Income portfolio) since she joined SFERS in early 2013. Under Eunice’s leadership, the Private Credit portfolio has delivered an annual return of 11% over the past decade, surpassing its benchmark by over 500 bps.
SFERS’ Private Credit portfolio is comprised of multiple alternative credit and credit-related strategies. These include investments in direct lending, mezzanine, credit opportunities, specialty finance including asset-based lending/structured credit and real assets-related credit, real estate debt, distressed/special situations, and other opportunistic strategies. In addition, SFERS’ Private Credit program is a global portfolio with investments across the U.S., Europe, Asia, Latin America, and other emerging markets. Eunice is responsible for portfolio construction and leads investment research, due diligence, and manager selection across all these opportunities. Joining me on the podcast as co-host is Sylvia Owens who is a Partner at Kennedy Lewis Investment Management, an opportunistic credit manager focusing on event-driven situations in which a catalyst may unlock investment value.
So what does it take to lead one of the top Private Credit portfolios in the business? Well, Eunice was gracious enough to spend the time with us to share her story. Without further ado, please enjoy our interview with Eunice McHugh.
Our guest for today’s podcast is Jonathan Xiong, former Asia-Pacific Co-CEO of Millennium. After a 20+ year career in portfolio management working for some of the top investment houses in the business including Millennium, GSAM, Mellon Capital and Franklin Templeton, Jonathan has taken the bold step to start his own asset management business.
I was intrigued with Jonathan’s background after reading a Bloomberg article about him launching his own Asia multi-strategy fund. The platform model is dominated by the largest and most well established firms like Millennium, Citadel, and Point 72. How could a small guy enter the market and compete with the Goliath’s in the business?
Well, I wanted to know and Jonathan was ready to share his story. Without further ado, please enjoy our interview with Jonathan Xiong.
Our guest for today’s podcast is Amanda Moore, CEO and Co-Founder of Aurora Peak Capital, a mission-driven investment firm, dedicated to alleviating the U.S. housing affordability crisis through investments in below market-rate multifamily housing communities.
Amanda's first home in the United States was an affordable housing complex in Los Angeles County. Her family were Vietnam war refugees who were rescued by the U.S. Airforce from refugee camps and flown to California and placed in a Section 8 community. Amanda is grateful for the Section 8 housing complex because it filled her childhood with happy memories where her family had a safe and beautiful environment with a strong sense of community. Amanda is on a mission to ensure affordable housing parallels her childhood experience: provide low -income families a safe environment where they are proud to call home and can thrive against the backdrop of a housing crisis: lack of affordable, safe, and quality housing.
Amanda has over 20 years of real estate experience, starting her career as an underwriter and then transitioning to become a capital raiser for Starwood Capital’s notable opportunistic global funds, covering Asia and U.S. institutional investors.
So what does it take to launch your own real estate investment firm? Authenticity, passion, and a fearless, kick-ass leader in Amanda Moore. Without further ado, here is our podcast with Amanda Moore.
Our guest for today’s podcast is Soo Kim, Managing Partner and CIO of Standard General, an investment firm he started in 2007. Soo also serves as Chairman of Bally's Corporation.
Soo has been investing in special situations strategies since 1997, including as co-founder of Cyrus Capital Partners from 2005 to 2007 and at Och-Ziff Capital Management from 1999 to 2005, where he was a Principal and co-founder of its fixed income business. Before joining Och-Ziff, he was an analyst for the Capital Management Group at Bankers Trust Company from 1997 to 1999. Soo holds an A.B. from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University and is a graduate of Stuyvesant High School, one of the top public high schools in New York City. I always learn a lot whenever I interact with Soo so I know the audience will get a lot from this conversation. Joining me on the podcast as co-host is Mike Kim, CIO of Lalia Capital, a single family office focused on private investments. Without further ado, here is our conversation with Soo Kim.
Our guest for today’s podcast is Eva Ho, General Partner of Fika Ventures, an early stage venture capital firm that invests in founders solving meaningful, systemic problems through the use of data, related AI-enabled technologies, and automation. While this horizontal thesis allows Fika Ventures to be fairly sector agnostic, the firm is especially drawn to innovations in enterprise software, fintech, marketplaces, and digital health. Fika is investing out of their Fund III and has committed capital of over $300 million life to date.
Prior to Fika, Eva was a founding GP at Susa Ventures. She is a serial entrepreneur and founder, most recently a founding executive at Factual, a leading location data provider in Los Angeles. Prior, she was a Senior Product Marketing Manager at Google and Youtube for 5 years. Prior to Google, she was the head of marketing for Applied Semantics, a company that sold to Google in 2003.
Eva holds an MBA from Cornell and a BA from Harvard. Eva also graduated from one of the top high schools in the country, Boston Latin School. And for those listeners who know me, I am biased as that is my high school. In fact, Eva and I were high school classmates and we took many of the same AP classes together back in the day!
So, how does one get their start to becoming a great venture capitalist? There isn’t a clear answer, but I know our listeners will get a lot from this interview. Without further ado, here is our conversation with Eva Ho.
Our guest for today’s podcast is Marcie Frost, Chief Executive Officer of CalPERS. Marcie joined CalPERS as CEO in October 2016. She is the ninth CEO and second woman to head America's largest pension fund. As CEO, Marcie oversees an annual budget of $1.8 billion, an experienced team of 2,800 professionals, and three lines of business for the fund: pensions, health benefits, and investments.
CalPERS administers a defined benefit retirement system for more than 1.9 million California public sector workers and their families. It is the nation's second-largest purchaser of health care benefits, covering more than 1.5 million lives. CalPERS' global investment portfolios stand at roughly $460 billion at the time of this recording.
Under Marcie's leadership, CalPERS is focused on maximizing long-term investment returns to meet the fund's fiduciary responsibility to members and leverage the fund's global strength to drive sustainable markets.
So how did Marcie land one of the most coveted jobs in the business? What does it take to run one of the nation’s most influential pensions? What is CalPERS looking for in the next CIO? You want to know? Well, we’ve got the answers.
Without further ado, here is our conversation with Marcie Frost.
Our guest for today’s podcast is Arun Assumall, Global Head of Cross Asset QIS and Commodity Investor Products at Macquarie Group. Since joining Macquarie in 2011, Arun has built an impressive global business within the bank by offering sophisticated investors access to beta and risk premia strategies commonly referred to as Quantitative Investment Strategies, QIS. In a recent article published by Bloomberg, they estimate that over $370 billion in investor assets are currently tied to QIS offered by investment banks.
So what does it take to build a global business from scratch? And how did Arun, who started off in sales, do it? Humility, luck, and not being afraid to hire people that are smarter than himself….
Congrats to Macquarie on becoming a market leader in QIS and Arun Assumall - a British Indian, an Asian leader, a champion of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion – for leading the way. And thanks to Arun for sharing his path on this podcast.
Without further ado, here is our conversation with Arun Assumall.
Our guest for today’s podcast is Andy Lee, Managing Partner of Parallaxes Capital, an investment firm he founded in 2017 at the age of 26. Previously, Andy was with Lone Star Funds and, with Lone Star’s support, he spun off to form Parallaxes Capital to take advantage of an esoteric and growing asset class – Tax Receivable Agreements (TRAs).
Andy is as smart and talented as they come, having entered college at 15 and earning his Bachelors in Finance and Accountancy from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He went on to earn his Masters in Accountancy before joining Citigroup as an investment banker for his first job out of college.
Andy has been featured in publications including Institutional Investor, NBC, Forbes (as part of the 2020 Class of 30 under 30), ReOrg Radio and Fitch’s LevFin Insights.
Joining me on this podcast as co-host is Nicholas Pon, Investment Director at the YMCA Retirement Fund, where he is part of a team that manages over $8.5 billion in assets under management. Nick’s expertise is on uncorrelated assets across public and private markets, where he focuses much of his time on evaluating hedge fund strategies. Thanks to Nick for joining this podcast and taking the time to interview Andy.
Without further ado, here is our conversation with Andy Lee.
Our guest for today’s podcast is David Ng, who is a Vice President at Avante Capital Partners, a boutique private credit firm with approximately $1 bn in AUM that harnesses the power of diversity and challenges the status quo. David joined Avante in 2022 and is responsible for identifying, underwriting, executing and managing investment opportunities.
David has over 10 years of middle-market debt and equity experience. Prior to Avante, David worked as a Vice President in Partners Group’s NYC office, where he was responsible for originating, underwriting, structuring, and managing middle market credit investments across a diverse range of industries. Prior to Partners Group, he spent his formative years at Nomura and KPMG.
David is a member of AAAIM’s Norman Mineta co-hort program and we look forward to all the great things he will continue to do in his career and for the industry.
Without further ado, here is our conversation with David Ng.
Our guest for today’s podcast is Sarah Hammer, Managing Director of the Center for Innovation in Finance and Senior Fellow of the Alternative Investments Program at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and who most recently served as Acting Secretary of the Dept of Banking for Commonwealth of PA and has now returned to her love for private capital investing and financial technology. She is also Adjunct Professor of Law at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, teaching a course on financial regulation and alternative investments. No stranger to public service, she also previously worked at the US Dept of Treasury as Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for Financial Institutions and Director of the Office of Financial Institutions Policy. She is a lifetime learner who instills the same passion in her students and with the Cypher Accelerator Program at Wharton supporting new startups in the fin tech space including blockchain and crypto.
Sarah has held various leadership positions throughout financial services in portfolio management, trading, marketing, research, and analytics at various firms like Vanguard, PIMCO, JP Morgan, BlackRock, and Tudor Investments.
But it’s her love of learning and connecting folks that has led Sarah from finance to law to academia to public policy and back to financial technology and always with the [mindset] of being a public servant and serving the greater good.
Without further delay, here is my conversation with Sarah Hammer.
Our guest for today’s podcast is Pedro Ramos, CEO of Somar Capital Management, a consumer focused equity long/short hedge fund he started in 2015 after perfecting his craft as a portfolio manager at Tremblant Capital.
Pedro combines strategy consulting, investment banking, entrepreneurial and buy-side public and private investing experience in multiple industries and countries. His investing activities have spanned multiple macro-economic and political scenarios (including the 1980s inflation, the 1990s dot.com bubble, the 2008 GFC, sovereign crisis, Brexit, and the 2020-2021 Covid-19 pandemic).
Joining me as guest co-host on this podcast is Rich Cheung, who looks after Alternative Investments and Hedge Funds for the private bank arm of Truist Financial. Rich is an experienced hedge fund allocator with over 20+ years experience in the space.
Without further ado, here is our conversation with Pedro Ramos.
Our guest for today’s podcast is Damien Dwin, Founder and CEO of Lafayette Square, a national investment platform. Founded in November 2020,
Lafayette Square aims to create investment opportunities in overlooked places and underserved markets. We invest across asset classes and seek to provide robust risk-adjusted returns to investors while positively supporting people and communities. By increasing access to economic opportunity, LaFayette Square is helping to build a more inclusive American economy. Previously, Damien served as Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Brightwood Capital Advisors for 10 years, and prior to that, Damien had a very successful Wall Street career with the majority of his time spent at Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse. Damien is an active thought leader on mass incarceration, economic inclusion, racial justice and representation, and the use of purpose and profit for good. Without further ado, here is our conversation with Damien Dwin.
Our guest for today’s podcast is Chris Shen, Co-Founder and COO of Revere VC, a start-up that he co-founded with Eric Woo, a veteran of the venture capital fund of fund business. Revere VC is looking to become “the Morningstar of Venture Capital” and is building the first rating system for evaluating early-stage venture capital firms.
Chris’ professional work experience is deep and wide where he has spent time as an investor and lawyer for over 15 years in the US and Greater China across public and private investments, asset management, and financial products.
Chris shares many insights on this podcast, from his journey to working in China, his time as a lawyer, building out a family office and starting Revere VC. Without further ado, here is our conversation with Chris Shen.
Our guest for today’s podcast is Victor Hu, Managing Partner and Co-Founder of Lumos Capital Group, an investment firm focused on growth companies in the human capital development and education technology sectors globally. Lumos partners with companies that are creating better outcomes for individuals and institutions in the learning, teaching and talent markets.
Victor believes deeply in the power of education to transform society and help people reach their full potential. Growing up in Asia and Africa, he saw how a commitment to investing in human capital is the foundation for lifting entire societies out of poverty. Victor’s career has been focused on the intersection of education, finance and technology. Prior to Lumos, Victor was a Managing Director and Global Head of Education Technology & Knowledge Services Investment Banking at Goldman Sachs. Prior to Goldman Sachs, Victor also spent time as an attorney at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton. Victor received an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, a JD from Harvard Law School and a BA from Amherst College.
Without further ado, here is our conversation with Victor Hu.
Our guest for today’s podcast is Jon Grabel, CIO of the Los Angeles County Employees Retirement Association, also known as LACERA. In his role, Jon has the responsibility for managing over $70 billion in AUM on behalf of LACERA’s active and retired members. Prior to LACERA, Jon was the CIO for New Mexico PERA and the Montgomery County Public Schools. In total, Jon has served the important role of CIO for over 12 years in the second act of his highly accomplished career. Previously, Jon was a general partner at a private equity firm focused on growth-stage investments in technology, networking industries, and digital communications. Jon spent his formative years as an investment banker and licensed CPA. He received his Bachelor of Science in economics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and his MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
I have to say, despite all his credentials and accomplishments, I am not sure if you will find a more humble and down to earth guy than Jon. Without further ado, here is our conversation with Jon Grabel.
Our guest for today’s podcast is Ellen Hung, Deputy CIO at the State Universities Retirement System (also knowns as SURS), which is based in Champaign, Illinois. As Deputy CIO, Ellen oversees over $22bn in fund assets and works closely with the CIO on asset allocation and implementing new initiatives across the fund. More recently, Ellen helped to develop SURS’ Crisis Risk sleeve which includes allocations to systematic trend following managers, long duration managers, as well as alternative risk premia managers. I thoroughly enjoyed my conversation with Ellen given we share many common experiences growing up as kids of Chinese immigrant parents that didn’t speak English and hustled to give their kids the ability to chase the American dream. It is no surprise that under Ellen’s leadership that SURS is well known as a large supporter of diverse investment managers with over 40% of the portfolio managed by diverse firms. Without further ado, here is our conversation with Ellen Hung.
Our guest for today’s podcast is Anthony Chiu, Deputy CIO at the Kentucky Public Pensions Authority based in Louisville, Kentucky. As Deputy CIO, Anthony is part of a team of 4 that oversees approximately $22 bn in fund assets. Anthony’s specific focus is on the fund’s private equity and alternatives program. Anthony is as talented as they come, having graduated as valedictorian of his high school, attending Stanford, and qualifying as a contestant on the game show, Jeopardy! In 2016, after spending his formative years learning the craft of private equity at GE, being an equity long/short analyst at a hedge fund, and spending time as an asset allocator sourcing and evaluating external managers across both public and private markets, Anthony returned home and joined the Kentucky Public Pensions Authority, rising to his current role as Deputy CIO this past summer in 2022. Anthony’s depth and breadth of experience is enviable and I hope the audience enjoys my conversation with him. Without further ado, here is our conversation with Anthony Chiu.
Our guest for today’s podcast is Gretchen Tai, VP of Investments at CSAA Insurance Group, a AAA Insurer. In her role, Gretchen effectively serves as the CIO and has a team of 7 investment professionals that oversees $10 billion in assets. Gretchen joined CSAA in 2019 after serving as a portfolio manager at SECOR Asset Management, a boutique global asset management firm known for providing comprehensive and customized solutions to a wide array of institutional clients. Prior to that, Gretchen spent 13 years at HP, including the last 6 years as the CIO of HP’s pension and 401(k) assets. So what does it take for an Asian female to rise to the top of her profession? You have questions, we have answers. Without further ado, here is our conversation with Gretchen Tai.
Our guest for today’s podcast is Scott Chan, Deputy Chief Investment Officer of the California State Teachers’ Retirement System (better known as CalSTRS). CalSTRS is the largest teachers’ retirement system and second largest public pension fund in the United States. A world-class financial services institution and state agency, CalSTRS is known for its unique organizational culture which emphasizes customer service, leadership and respect for its members and colleagues.
What a pleasure it was for me and fellow AAAIM Board member, Susan Soh, to hear Scott’s background and his path to becoming one of the most powerful people in finance. As Deputy CIO, Scott oversees CalSTRS’ investment division and is responsible for leading a diverse and growing team of over 200 investment professionals. He manages eight critical investment functions including investment strategy and risk, global equities, fixed income, real estate, private equity, risk mitigating strategies, inflation sensitive and sustainable investment and stewardship strategies. What a mouthful… And, he reports directly into the great Chris Ailman who is highly regarded to be one of the best CIOs in the business.
Direct investing; getting to net zero; embracing diversity, equity and inclusion – you want it, Scott delivers it… Without further ado, here is our conversation with Scott Chan.
Our guest for today’s podcast is Amie Patel, CEO of Elevar Equity, a venture capital impact firm with headquarters in India. Elevar Equity fuels the economic resilience and vibrancy of underserved customers and low income communities by investing early growth capital in entrepreneurs building at the intersection of inclusivity, affordability and massive scale. Led by an entrepreneurial emerging markets team passionate about addressing issues of access and inequity, Elevar invests in businesses that demonstrate a direct correlation between high impact and returns. So far in its 15-year journey, the Elevar Method of investing has democratized essential products and services for over 40 million households and catalyzed billions of dollars of capital into 40+ companies across India and Latin America. What a treat it was for me to interview Amie who is one of the kindest, most authentic do gooders” that I have come across in the business. Without further ado, here is our conversation with Amie Patel.
Our guest for today’s podcast is Brian O’Neil, Chief Investment Officer of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Brian is a legend in the business and has been at the helm of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation for the past 20 years helping to grow its foundation to well over $14 billion in AUM. Effective January 1st, 2023, Brian will be retiring from his role as CIO.
What a pleasure it was for me and AAAIM Executive Committee Board Co-Chair Brenda Chia to interview Brian, a long time supporter of AAAIM since its founding in 2006. In addition to being known as a great investor and steward of capital, Brian is also known for having started an emerging manager program and being a great developer of talent. We are grateful to Brian for sharing his insights on the topics of diversity and inclusion, talent management, and the secrets for how to get promoted to the coveted CIO position at an E&F.
Without further ado, here is our conversation with Brian O’Neil.
Our guest for today’s podcast is Jane Ma who is a Managing Director at Moelis & Company where she specializes in advising clients in the Asset Management and Wealth Management sector. She has over 15 years of investment banking experience.
Prior to joining Moelis & Company, Jane worked at both Greenhill and Deutsche Bank focusing on M&A. Jane holds a B.S. in Applied Economics & Management from Cornell University and an M.B.A. from Columbia Business School.
I met Jane at AAAIM’s National Conference in September and I found her to be pleasant, confident and knowledgeable – all things needed to be successful in the ultra-competitive field of M&A banking. Jane’s a role model for the AAAIM community and those looking to break the bamboo ceiling.
Without further ado, here is our conversation with Jane Ma.
Our guest for today’s podcast is Eugene Zhang, Founder & Partner of TSVC, a venture capital firm he started in 2010 to focus on seed stage investing. An engineer by training, Eugene spent his formative years working for a number of the top tech companies in our time including Sun Microsystems, Cisco and Juniper Networks. After successfully selling his own side hustle tech startup, Eugene took an interest in angel investing, subsequently catapulting his second career as a venture capitalist.
TSVC is now on its 5th fund in 12 years. It’s first fund is known for having invested in Zoom Video Communications when Eric Yuan raised its first $3mn in capital raise back in 2010. TSVC’s cost basis was $0.11 per share. Not bad so say the least!
Want to hear Eugene’s story about why he invested in Eric Yuan at Zoom back in 2010 when other venture capitalists passed. Well, we got it here for you.
Without further ado, here is our conversation with Eugene Zhang.
Our guest for today’s podcast is Grace Chen, Founder and CEO of Upmarket. Upmarket opens up alternative investment opportunities to qualified individual investors. Qualified investors now have direct access to selected private equity, hedge funds and other alternative private fund offerings with lower investment minimums, simplified online subscription and post reporting process. UpMarket aims to serve those who want to achieve a truly diversified portfolio by giving them exceptional alternative investment opportunities.
Some of upmarket’s past deals include pre-IPO shares in Space X and Bytedance and one of their current deals provides access to Andreessen Horowitz (aka a16z)’s latest fund.
Grace is an inspiration to the AAAIM community being an Asian female entrepreneur, having started upmarket at age 30.
Without further ado, please enjoy our conversation with Grace Chen.
Our guest for today’s podcast is Amy Chen, Chief Investment Officer at the Smithsonian Institution, the world’s largest museum, educational and research complex. Amy oversees overall investment strategy and management of the institution’s endowment. Under Amy’s leadership since 2006, the investment office has grown from $800 million to $2.5 billion while distributing $1 billion along the way… not bad!
Amy credits the culture of the organization and why having the right governance structure is key to being successful and maintaining the high level of success over time. Fun fact: her senior leadership team’s average tenure is over 13 years, which is unprecedented in the money management space.
Curious about what it takes to be one of the top CIOs in the business? Well, Amy shares many insights with the audience during this podcast.
Without further ado, please enjoy our conversation with Amy Chen.
Our guest for today’s podcast is Fiona Lui, who is the Chief Operating Officer for Financial Solutions at Bloomberg LP.
Over a 22+ year career in finance, Fiona has enjoyed amazing success climbing the corporate ladder at various investment banks as well as at Bloomberg, the market leader for financial data and news. Capital markets, structured derivatives, structured product sales, market data specialist, Head of Sales, COO…. Fiona has thrived in all of these roles and shares some of the secrets to her success on this podcast.
Without further ado, please enjoy our conversation with Fiona Lui.
Our guest for today’s podcast is Ying Cao, Founder and CEO, LIYT, an executive coaching firm and Co-Founder of Work in Fintech, an educational and recruiting firm launched to inspire and guide students, graduates, and young professionals to a career in fintech and web3.
After a 14+ year career on Wall Street, Ying wasn’t happy and, after some inner soul searching and helped by an executive coach, she decided to leave a lucrative job on Wall Street to start two different companies. While the decision didn’t come easy, Ying is now living her best life. In Ying’s own words: “I am grateful to myself that I do not have to settle and live life on other people's terms but in my own truth. It's great to wake up every day with a sense of purpose, work with people I love and admire, and create the reality I want for my own life.
LIYT stands for Live in your truth and Lead in your truth. LIYT is a digital executive coaching platform to provide the world's finest ontological coaching for anyone who wants a fulfilled life and wants to be a leader in this world. What Ying’s clients have in common are an extraordinary mindset and an open heart. They are leaders who want not only their own success but to make the world a better place.
Without further ado, here is our conversation with Ying Cao.
Our guest for today’s podcast is Ying Hosler, who was most recently Director of Investments at Penn State University’s investment office. Over a 13+ year career, Ying has been a major driving force behind Penn State’s success helping to grow total assets from $1B to over $6.5B.
Ying was the 3rd investment professional hired at Penn State and oversaw all investment activities for the endowment’s Private Equity and Venture Capital over the past six years.Previously, Ying was responsible for leading the endowment’s Global Public Equity portfolio.
Ying has been instrumental in setting up a wide range of in-house sourcing, due diligence and reporting capabilities, adding emerging managers and co-investments to Penn State’s private program. She was recently nominated by Kayo conference series as Top 22 Endowment’s today’s leaders in the NorthEast, and was cover featured as “the Rising Star of Top 30 Endowment” by Trusted Insight in 2017. Ying received her B.S. in E.E. and M.A in Economics from top universities in China and holds an MBA from the Yale School of Management. She is also a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA).
Without further ado, here is our conversation with Ying Hosler.
Our guest for today’s podcast is Hailey Ji, Founder of HULA, a community-driven friend discovery platform that connects like-minded people and propels meaningful relationships through shared offline experiences. Another way to think about HULA is a Bumble or Tinder app to find friends to attend cool events together, whether it be a Coldplay concert or an anime themed launch party.
I met Hailey at the Asian Hustle Network Conference in Las Vegas and I found her to be full of energy and optimism, two attributes that are definitely necessary for a start-up entrepreneur. Hailey is a USC graduate and, after spending 4 years in marketing and digital media working with iconic brands like HBO Max and Fox Broadcasting, decided to quit her job and go all-in on launching HULA.
Hailey’s inspiration for starting HULA was based on her own personal experience. In college, she was a big fan of Adele, yet none of her friends in her immediate circle shared her same passion for attending an Adele concert. She needed an app like HULA.
As an Expat living in the U.S., Hailey deeply understands the current generations' loneliness and struggles of locating communities and making meaningful relationships, especially in metropolitan cities like New York City.
Without further ado, here is our conversation with Hailey Ji.
Our guest for today’s podcast is Helen Hwang, Senior Executive Managing Director at Meridian Investment Sales. Helen is Head of the Institutional Investment Sales Group and is known as the most trusted commercial real estate advisor in NYC.
Over a 23+ year career in commercial real estate in NYC, Helen has executed over 100 institutional sales and recapitalization transactions exceeding $30 billion in value. Prior to joining Meridian, in 2015, Helen spent 16 years at Cushman & Wakefield as an Executive Vice President, as the head of NYC Investment Sales.
I truly enjoyed interviewing Helen for this podcast as she is a role model and inspiration for the AAAIM community. Want to hear what it takes to be at the top of your profession, well, you are in for a treat.
Without further ado, here is our conversation with Helen Hwang.
Podcast Specific Introduction (unique for each podcast):
Our guest for today’s podcast is Ed Cong, Principal at Marathon Asset Management, which was founded by Bruce Richards and Louis Hanover in 1998 and currently manages over $23bn as of this recording. Marathon is among the few storied asset management firms that has built an amazing brand over the past 20+ years.
Ed joined the firm in 2006 and has risen to become a member of the investment committee. Not only has Ed survived over 16 years at a top hedge fund, but he has thrived, helping the firm navigate the global financial crisis in 2008 and being a critical member of the team that helped manage the US Treasury Public-Private Investment Program. Structured credit has transformed significantly over the past decade and it takes a different type of intellect to pivot and evolve with the market’s demands – that’s Ed, he has been at the center of it all!
So what does it take to succeed as a hedge fund portfolio manager. Ed shares his path and some sound advice along the way.
Without further ado, here is our conversation with Ed Cong.
Our guest for today’s podcast is Sadek Wahba, Chairman and Managing Partner of I Squared Capital. He is an American economist and investor who focuses on infrastructure investments. Sadek began his career as an economist for the World Bank, where he worked on the social dimensions of structural adjustment. He subsequently joined Lehman Brothers and then Morgan Stanley, where he worked on structured financing. While with Morgan Stanley, Sadek launched Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners and was Chief Executive Officer of Morgan Stanley Infrastructure. In 2012, Sadek made the entrepreneurial leap and formed I Squared Capital, a U.S.-based private equity group that invests in infrastructure projects in the U.S. and in developing economies, particularly China and India.
As of this recording, I Squared Capital manages over $30 billion in assets. The firm’s assets are focused in the energy, utilities, transport, digital infrastructure and social sectors in the U.S., Europe and in select high-growth economies including China, India and Latin America. I Squared Capital's portfolio companies employ over 12,000 professionals.
You often hear the saying that nice guys finish last. This is certainly not the case for Sadek.
Without further ado, here is our conversation with Dr. Sadek Wahba.
Our guest for today’s podcast is Cindy Chen Delano, Co-Founder and Partner of Invictus Global Management, an emerging and diverse manager focused on opportunistic large-scale special situations across credit, bankruptcy claims and litigation finance. Along with her Co-Founder and former Whitebox Advisors colleague, Amit Patel, Cindy successfully launched Invictus Global Management in 2019 and the firm now manages $200 million in assets in private equity-like vehicles.
Cindy has been an underdog all her life and her story really hits home for all of us chasing the American dream. From her early days as an immigrant settling in New York City Chinatown to becoming a bankruptcy specialist lawyer, Cindy has overcome challenge after challenge and risen above time after time. Grit, hustle, perservance – these are all words that define Cindy, one of the few Asian American woman to have successfully launched her own firm.
Without further ado, here is our conversation with Cindy Chen Delano.
Our guest for today’s podcast is James Liang, Founder of Skyline Ventures, a Shanghai-based venture capital firm that invests in outbound opportunities from China to the rest of the world.
James has an impressive background given his 10 year experience in venture capital, including almost 4 years at Sequoia Capital China in his formative years. As many of you know, I am a big champion of the underdog and James’ story resonates with all of us that didn’t have all the advantages growing up. Like many families growing up in the 1980’s in rural China, James’ family was poor. But thorough grit, determination, hard work, education, and some luck, he managed to make it and has now launched an independent venture capital firm.
James shares his perspective on why China will continue to have a competitive advantage as the global manufacturing powerhouse for the world.
Without further ado, here is our conversation with James Liang.
Our guest for today’s podcast is Seamon Chan, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Palm Drive Capital, a venture capital fund that invests in early-growth companies with strong ideas and teams both in Silicon Valley and emerging tech centers around the world. Along with his Co-Founder and Stanford classmate, Hendrick Lee, Seamon launched Palm Drive Capital in 2014 while still in their 20’s after being inspired by Warren Buffett who said that “his only regret was not starting Berkshire Hathway earlier in this career.”
Seamon takes us through his upbringing and early influences and shares his story about how he broke into the venture capital industry, culminating in launching Palm Drive Capital. Since starting their firm, Palm Drive has successfully raised Funds I, II, and III and have had a number of early exits which he talks about in the podcast.
Our guest for today’s podcast is Gayatri Sarkar, Founder and General Partner of Advaita Capital, a venture capital firm she started in 2021. Advaita’s mission is to put more women and minority entrepreneurs on a path to IPO leveraging their expertise in DEI and ESG in making mainstream tech investments.
Many of you may know Gayatri from her She-VC videos on youtube, a podcast she launched to quite simply get more women funded. Through story telling and conversations, She-VC has featured women GPs, women LPs, and managers all around the world.
Gayatri is as unique as they come, wonderfully optimistic, and possesses the grit to become successful.
Without further ado, here is our conversation with Gayatri Sarkar.
Our guest for today’s podcast is David Chiang, Chief Investment Officer of Pritzker Family Foundations where he leads Ganesh Investments, the company that provides investment advisory services to the Funds and Partnerships group of PSP Partners and its affiliates. Ganesh Investments also provides investment advisory services to multiple Pritzker families and their foundations. Prior to joining Ganesh Investments in 2021, David was the Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Idyllic Partners, an outsourced CIO firm. Previously, David served as Head of External Funds at Soros Fund Management, Managing Director at Wilshire Private Markets and has also worked for GIC.
David earned dual BA degrees in Business Economics and Psychology from Brown University and an MBA from UCLA’s Anderson School Management. He currently serves on the Board of The Opportunity Network, a non-profit focused on helping underrepresented students gain access to high quality education and career opportunities.
Without further ado, here is our conversation with David Chiang.
Our guest for today’s podcast is Shuo Chen who is a General Partner at Innovation Overflow Venture Capital, also known as IOVC, where she has invested in 60-plus seed-stage startups focused on the future of work. Shuo is also on the faculty of UC Berkeley College of Engineering and Singularity University, where she has taught and mentored hundreds of students since 2010. Shuo’s investments have been acquired by companies from Goldman Sachs to Instacart, and she's helped close deals with the likes of Amazon and NASA.
Shuo serves as one of 13 voting members on California's Mental Health Commission, and has served as Chair of the Board of Decode, an innovation community co-hosted with UC Berkeley and Stanford. Shuo previously worked at Goldman Sachs and PwC, and co-authored a book on financial regulations in 2019.
Without further ado, here is our conversation with Shuo Chen.
Our guest for today’s podcast is Cynthia Tseng who is a Partner at Fairview Capital Partners, one of the longest running private equity fund of funds in the business. I hold Fairview in very high regard given that diversity has been woven into the fabric of their organization since the firm’s beginning. Fairview was founded in 1994 by Laurence Morse and Jo-Ann Price and prides itself on being one of the top managers for sourcing, evaluating and partnering with emerging managers in the venture capital space.
I’ve known Cindy through our time together serving on AAAIM’s board and I’ve always found Cindy to be pleasant, thoughtful and insightful. Cindy takes us through her journey from immigrating to the US at the age of 9, through her formative investment banking years, and finally pivoting to the fund of funds private equity business when she landed a role with Fairview in the midst of the Global Financial Crisis.
Without further ado, here is our conversation with Cindy Tseng.
Our guest for today’s podcast is Roger Sit, CEO, Sit Investment Associates, Inc which manages $16.6 billion in assets for institutional and individual clients with investments in both domestic and international markets. As the global chief investment officer, Roger leads the firm’s Investment Policy Committee and directs investments in custom separately-managed accounts, private investment funds, and mutual funds portfolios.
Prior to joining Sit Investment Associates, Roger was vice president and senior equity research analyst at Goldman Sachs & Co. in New York for seven years. He joined Goldman Sachs & Co. after receiving an M.B.A. degree from Harvard Business School.
Following graduation from the U.S. Air Force Academy with military distinction in 1984, Roger was an officer in the U.S. Air Force. He served six years of active duty with financial management responsibilities at Headquarters Space Division and rose to the rank of captain. While serving in the military, he earned an M.S. degree in Systems Management from the University of Southern California.
Roger currently serves on the boards of Convergent Capital, Huntington Bank, The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, and The McKnight Foundation. Roger chairs the board of the Minnesotans’ Military Appreciation Fund, a nonprofit and nonpartisan organization co-founded in 2005 by Gene Sit, Roger’s father.
As the leader of one of the oldest Asian American money management businesses in the US, Roger is a role model for all of us at AAAIM. What a pleasure it was for me and AAAIM Co-Chair, Brenda Chia, to interview Roger for this podcast.
Without further ado, here is our conversation with Roger Sit.
Our guest for today’s podcast is Sarah Chen, Co-Founder & Managing Partner of The Billion Dollar Fund for Women/ Beyond The Billion (BTB), a global consortium of 100+ venture capital funds and limited partner investors that have now pledged to and are actively deploying beyond US$1Bn to be invested into women-founded companies. Previously, Sarah pioneered a corporate venture capital spin-out within a $13Bn Asian conglomerate, investing into later-stage biotechnology companies. Determined to see more women at the helm, Sara sits on multiple boards, including 131 & Counting, a bipartisan effort to fete the unprecedented number of women serving in the House and Senate, encouraging more women to run for office in the US; She also sits on the board of Lean In Malaysia, which she co-founded, a platform accelerating women into leadership in Muslim- majority Malaysia. Named Forbes Under 30 VC and Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum, Sara is a recognized speaker, commentator and advisor on venture capital, innovation and women. Without further ado, here is our conversation with Sarah Chen.
Our guest for today’s podcast is Soo Chuen Tan, Founder & President of Discerene Group, an investment firm he started in 2010 channeling core investment principles practiced by the great value investors of our time. If you were to sketch out how a value investor should invest: never overpaying for stocks, being greedy when others are fearful, not being afraid to be contrarian, being patient, having an ownership mentality, understanding moats and competitive advantages, holding stocks forever…. Soo Chuen has implemented all of these disciplines and more at his firm.
As an Asian American founder of an investment firm that has surpassed the $1bn AUM mark with over a 10 year track record, Soo Chuen is as a rare breed in the business. I was happy to get to know Soo Chuen as he is humble, genuine, and a true gentleman practicing as pure a form of value investing that you learn in text books. As many of you know, I went to Columbia Business School, and it is refreshing to hear someone who has built a great firm following this philosophy. Despite the fact that Soo Chuen is a graduate of Harvard Business School, we won’t hold this against him.
Beyond investing, Soo Chuen’s intellect and how he thinks about complex systems, cultures, peoples, and economies shines through throughout the podcast. I know you will enjoy his views on the world.
Without further ado, here is our conversation with Soo Chuen Tan.
Our guest for today’s podcast is Carey Lai, Founding Member and Managing Director at Conductive Ventures, a venture capital firm that invests in expansion stage companies with a focus on software, hardware, and technology enabled services.
In 2016, after a 12 year career in venture capital working for two of the best in the business: Institutional Venture Partners (IVP) and Intel Capital, Carey left his job in pursuing the dream of most venture capitalists, starting his own venture capital firm. After over a year, 150+ investor meetings, and failing to secure enough capital to run their strategy, Carey and his partner concluded starting a fund was not in their cards.
In 2017, as Carey began to look for a job, his fortune took a turn for the best and he landed a $100 million seed commitment from an investor to launch his own venture capital firm. How did he do it? Well, you are in the right place to hear his story and the lessons learned during his journey.
Our guest for today’s podcast is Aaron Yoon, Assistant Professor of Accounting & Information Management at Northwestern University. According to the Financial Times, his research on ESG was a turning point on how investors viewed and integrated ESG information and the methodologies suggested in his research have been widely implemented by asset owners and investment managers.
He has presented his research to academics, regulators, and practitioners around the World and his work has been regularly cited in outlets such as Barron's, Bloomberg, Financial Times, Forbes, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal. He also received multiple awards for his research and teaching, including the Chair's Core Teaching Award from Kellogg, Crowell Prize for Best Paper in Quantitative Investing from PanAgora Asset Management, Best 40 Under 40 Professors Recognition from Poets & Quants, and the Best International Accounting Dissertation Award from the American Accounting Association.
Professor Yoon earned his Doctor of Business Administration from Harvard University; he also earned his masters in Economics and bachelors in Economics and Mathematical Methods in the Social Sciences (MMSS) from Northwestern University. Prior to academia, he worked as an equities salestrader and research analyst at Credit Suisse, and also controlled air traffic in the 8th US Army as a Korean augmentee.
Joining me on the podcast is Susan Oh, a 25+ year veteran and widely respected investment professional at the Pennsylvania Public School Employees’ Retirement System (PSERS), who we featured on Episode 11 of our podcast. Susan is a Director and Head of ESG Research where she is responsible for strategic ESG initiatives across the total plan, leading sustainability research with a focus on culture and transformative innovation to create long term value for the plan. I was thrilled to have Susan join me as co-host for this podcast to interview Aaron.
Without further ado, here is our conversation with Professor Aaron Yoon.
We have two special guests for our podcast today: Anita Ng, MD for Private Investments @ Cambridge Associates and Tanya Kemp, MD and Head of Private Markets at San Francisco Employees’ Retirement System. Anita has more than 25 years of investment experience, 15 of those managing client portfolios at Cambridge Associates (a global advisory investment firm responsible for advising on over $500B in aum). She is a trusted advisor to a broad group of institutional clients, including endowments and foundations, public pension plans, and private clients. In 2020, Anita was named in Chief Investment Officer’s annual list of Knowledge Brokers, a list of the most influential investment consultants and advisers. Prior to joining Cambridge Associates in 2006, Anita was a technology investment banker at CIBC World Markets, Credit Suisse First Boston and Banc of America Securities and earlier in her career, worked in Hong Kong at Merrill Lynch.
Our co-guest is Tanya Kemp, Head of Private Markets.SFERS is a public plan with over $34B assets. Tanya rose up through the ranks from inv analyst in VC then PE and head of Pvt mkts overseeing a $14 billion portfolio comprising private investments across leveraged buyouts, venture capital, growth equity, real estate and natural resources strategies. Prior to joining SFERS, Ms. Kemp was Risk and Performance Analyst with Missouri State Employees Retirement System. She holds an MA, MBA, CFA and CAIA designations. She has received numerous awards including Private Equity Buyouts “Trailblazers: Ten women pioneering new paths in private equity” in 2016; Trusted Insights Top Public Pension Investment Directors 2021, Rising Star 2021 Venture Capital Journal.
Anita and Tanya are two highly talented, engaging women in our industry passionate about investing and their roles. What a pleasure it was for me to speak with them together during this podcast.
Without further delay, here is my conversation with Anita and Tanya.
Our guest for today’s podcast is Randy Cohen, Senior Lecturer in the Finance Unit at Harvard Business School.
Randy is one of the most likeable professors in the business and has been at the top of teaching profession for over 20 years at HBS and MIT.More recently, along with his co-founder, Jean-Louis Lelogeais, Randy launched PEO Partners, an asset management firm that specializes in liquid private equity alternative offerings.
I truly enjoyed my wide ranging conversation with Randy as he shares his perspective on the path to becoming a professor, the obstacles he has overcome being blind, and why he thinks PEO Partners is really the next big idea in finance.
Our guest for today’s podcast is Les Baquiran, Founder of Alpine Capital Advisors, a leading placement agent that advises and raises assets for asset managers and businesses. Les is well known in the industry and, during the early months of the COVID pandemic in 2020, launched the Alpine Annual Asian Leaders in Investment virtual summit that has taken place the last two years in honor of Asian Awareness Month and in the support of UNICEF.
I found Les to be particularly insightful and humble and a real master at cultivating and building relationships. Les takes us through his professional career before launching his own independent placement agent firm after having great success at Park Hill. Throughout the podcast, Les shares valuable advice on how he has been able to navigate the business of finance to become a true role model for the AAPI community.
Without further ado, here is our conversation with Les Baquiran.
Our guest for today’s podcast is Christina Qi, Chief Executive Officer of Databento, an on-demand market data platform she co-founded after spending several years running a high frequency trading hedge fund. Earlier this year, Christina and her co-founder raised $7.5 million in seed funding to build out “their data-as-a-service” solution for the financial industry.
I very much enjoyed interviewing Christina as I found her to be quite authentic and transparent about her failures and missteps in her career. But as the great Winston Churchill once said, “Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss in enthusiasm.”
Christina has accomplished much in her early career including being named on Forbes “30 under 30” list in finance and she is absolutely a role model for the AAAIM community. I discovered Christina through linkedin as she is very generous about sharing her wisdom and experience for entrepreneurs looking to start their own firms.
Christina takes us through her upbringing in Utah, path to MIT, and subsequent launch of her hedge fund from her dorm room after failing to secure a permanent full time offer after a Wall Street summer internship.
Without further ado, here is our conversation with Christina Qi.
Our guest for today’s podcast is Dave Liu, a 30-Year Veteran of Wall Street and Silicon Valley. Dave is an entrepreneur who has started multiple companies, advisor who has raised over $15 billion for hundreds of companies, and investor in multiple billion dollar exits. He is passionate about advancing new ideas in technology and entertainment, and supporting philanthropic causes for disadvantaged groups. He is a creator who enjoys writing books and drawing cartoons.
I asked Bennett Kim, one of AAAIM’s founding board members, to conduct this podcast with Dave as they have been good friends since attending Harvard Business School together. Dave shares many lessons he learned along the way in achieving career success. AAAIM thanks Dave for taking the time to take us through his personal and professional life journey.
Our guest for today’s podcast is Sona Menon who is a Partner at Cambridge Associates. Sona serves as an Outsourced Chief Investment Officer and adviser to institutional clients such as pensions, endowments, and healthcare institutions. She is directly responsible for overseeing over $20 billion in assets.
Cambridge Associates is a global investment firm that focuses on building and managing investment portfolios for institutional clients such as endowments, foundations, pensions, and private clients. They have over $500 billion in assets under management/advisement.
As a woman and minority, Sona is a role model for us all, rising through the ranks at Cambridge Associates over her 20 year career at the storied firm. What a pleasure it was for me and AAAIM Co-Chair, Brenda Chia, to interview Sona for this podcast.
Without further ado, here is our conversation with Sona Menon.
Our guest for today’s podcast is Eric Nierenberg, Chief Strategy Officer for the $80 billion Massachusetts Pension Reserves Investment Management Board (MassPRIM) where he has been responsible for hedge funds and low vol strategies and over time, became the CSO. He is a “jack of all trades”, leading a team in asset allocation, risk mgmt., research, Real Assets and the Portfolio Completion Strategies effort. PRIM is known for a more active investment approach oftentimes including more esoteric strategies but also direct investments and SMAs allowing them to invest with and support highly talented but smaller, emerging managers.
Eric is well known in the industry and has received numerous awards as a top allocator and rising star, CIO Magazine’s “Forty Under 40”, Institutional Investor "Allocator Voice", the list goes on. While a top investment allocator, he is also a prized professor at Brandeis’ International Business School.
Eric takes us through his personal and professional path from equity portfolio manager to public service as an allocator at a public plan to academia. Hear how he his experiences growing up in a diverse community in Miami and working at large international academic institution at Brandeis ingrained in him the importance of diversity and being a strong mentor and sponsor. He is clearly passionate about the value of diversity.
I found my conversation with Eric to be enlightening and endearing as he talks about the importance of helping others to achieve greatness. He is extremely intelligent, thoughtful and caring and while viewed as a highly talented investor, he is also well deserving of the moniker “ fantastic mentor and Best boss ever!”
Without further ado, here is my conversation with Eric Nierenberg.
Our guest for today’s podcast is Pooja Malik, CEO & Founding Partner of Nipun Capital. Pooja founded Nipun Capital in 2011 after a very successful career at Barclays Global Investors (BGI) where she was promoted quickly to become one of the youngest Managing Directors at the firm after successfully turning around BGI’s active small cap equity strategy.
I very much enjoyed interviewing Pooja given she has been a perenial “underdog” all her life but has tackled every conceivable obstacle and overcome them by leaps and bounds. As the middle child and daughter of a strong Indian mother who raised her family as a single parent after the death of her father when Pooja was 12, Pooja learned a lot about grit and determination from her mother.
As a woman and minority, Pooja is a role model and an inspiration for all of us in the AAAIM community. I am so happy she believed enough in herself to launch her own hedge fund almost 10 years ago and took the time to share her story with us.
Our guest for today’s podcast is Dennis Jean-Jacques, Founder & CIO of Ocean Park Investments. Dennis is what I would characterize a “Benjamin Graham, Warren Buffet, Peter Lynch, Michael Price, and John Rogers” influenced value ninja… as he has spent the last 25 years perfecting his craft: studying, working with, and being mentored by these investment legends.
Starting a hedge fund without seed capital is hard. In fact, the probability for success is miniscule. Despite these odds, Dennis took the leap in 2016 to launch Ocean Park, given his prior 10 year successful track record running equity long/short absolute return portfolios. As the old saying goes: “If you don’t believe in yourself, why should anyone else!”
I found Dennis to be thoughtful and very down to earth as he shares snippets about growing up and going to school in Boston, how he caught the investment bug, and why he has such high conviction in hard cash flow businesses. As an emerging and diverse manager, Dennis has it all: pedigree, qualifications, experience, track record, integrity. If you are an allocator and a believer that diversity matters for generating long term sustainable returns, then Dennis is someone you should meet.
Without further ado, here is our conversation with Dennis Jean-Jacques.
Our guest for today’s podcast is Dr. Ranjan Bhaduri, Founder & CEO of Bodhi Research Group. After spending 15 years as a researcher and asset allocator in alternative investments working with a number of top investment firms, Ranjan decided to hang up his own shingle and start Bodhi Research Group to provide advisory, research and education in the alternatives investments space. Bodhi’s clients include some of the leading institutional investors and family offices in the field, including past assignments with top Canadian pension plans and Sovereign Wealth funds. Bodhi prides itself as being independent and completely unconflicted.
I found Ranjan to be humble and very thoughtful about how he is building out Bodhi leveraging his extensive network of experts across the alternatives space. It is great to see an Asian Canadian take the entrepreneurial plunge and we hope this podcast helps to highlight Bodhi’s unique approach and value proposition. Without further ado, here is our conversation with the Dr. Ranjan Bhaduri.
Our guest for today’s podcast is Barbara Byrne, Former Vice Chairman of Investment Banking at Barclays and Lehman Brothers. I had the good fortune of getting to know Barbara during my time at Barclays and she is quite simply a legend in the business. Inspirational leader, money maker, glass ceiling breaker, relentless motivator, role model, and comedian – these are all things I think about when I think about Barbara. Not many can say that they survived almost 40 years in the ultra competitive world of investment banking, but Barbara can and she did it with grace and character, leaving behind a legacy pulling both women and men up along the way.
Oh, and by the way, she raised 4 dynamic children along the way; easily earning the designation of super woman banker and mom. Grab a pen and paper because you will want to write down all the wonderful advice she shares during this podcast.
Without further ado, here is our conversation with the great Barbara Moakler Byrne.
Our guests for today’s podcast are Deepak Gurnani, Founder and Managing Partner, Versor Investments (formerly known as ARP Investments) and Thiago de Freitas, Portfolio Manager for Liquid Alternatives, UPS Group Trust.
Alpha is hard to come by, but uncorrelated alpha is even more rare. I wanted to dive deep into a hedge fund strategy that was truly uncorrelated to equity beta as well as long duration rate/credit beta. When discussing the topic with Thiago, one of the best in the business with a keen eye for uncorrelated alpha, he suggested a conversation with Deepak Gurnani who runs a systematic, relative value global macro strategy leveraging AI and ML. I found Deepak to be humble, transparent, and grounded despite the success he has achieved in his career formerly as the CIO for Investcorp’s fund of hedge funds and now as the founder and managing partner of his own hedge fund, Versor Investments. It is great to see a good guy, an Asian guy albeit, achieve success and truly build something unique and high impact for sophisticated institutional investors.
Without further ado, please enjoy my conversation with Deepak and Thiago.
Our guest for today’s podcast is Seema Hingorani, Managing Director at Morgan Stanley Investment Management and Founder/Chair of Girls Who Invest, a non-profit organization dedicated to increasing the number of women in portfolio management and executive leadership in the asset management industry. As part of the senior leadership team at MSIM, Seema is focused on strategic client relationships, investment talent development and diversity initiatives; She is part of the Diversity Council and Diversity and Inclusion Senior Leaders Advisory Council. Seema brings a unique perspective as she had been on the sellside as a banker and research analyst then buyside as long only then HF investor and ultimately became CIO for one of the world’s largest public pensions, NYC Retirement System.It was here that she recognized the need for more women investors in the investment management industry and through an OpEd piece with Bloomberg planted a seed about the need for an organization like GWI which could help to create a pipeline of talented women investors. This has now become a highly successful organization which has helped > 800 women start a career in finance through training, mentorships and internships.
Seema is a prolific speaker on the topic of a more robust inclusion of women in the corporate sector and most recently received the French Legion of Honor award and was the first AA to do so. She has numerous accolades including being recognized as one of 100 most influential women in U.S. finance by Barrons this year, as a 2019 Bloomberg 50 “Ones To Watch”, and Wall Street Women Entrepreneur of the Year in 2015 by Traders magazine.
Join me today as Seema takes us through her personal and professional journey and describes her commitment to serving the greater good. Born in CT and raised in an immigrant family from India where her parents had an arranged marriage, Seema is the embodiment of the AA success story having gone from Yale to Wharton and worked at some of the most prestigious investment firms. She is a talented investor who has become a champion of leveling the playing field for women in the investment world.
Seema has an entrepreneurial spirit, is engaging, passionate, a clear visionary, who attributes her success to her parents especially to her mother who inspired her to help others around her. Seema is a powerhouse figure in our industry and has succeeded in truly paving the way for women of all ages with her work at GWI as well as now at MSIM.
Without further ado, here is my conversation with Seema Hingorani.
Our guests for today’s podcast are Elizabeth Burton, Chief Investment Officer, Employees’ Retirement System of the State of Hawaii and Lindsay Burton, Founder and President of the Kayo Conference Series. Elizabeth and Lindsay are two trailblazers and extraordinary women in the finance industry and they happen to be sisters.
As CIO for Hawaii, Elizabeth is responsible for overseeing over $17 billion in assets for over 145,000 beneficiaries. That is a lot of responsibility, but for those who know Elizabeth, she is a task master and just knows how to get stuff done!
Equally as impressive is the success Lindsay has achieved by starting Kayo and being a catalyst for women in the private equity industry.
I had a fun time interviewing both Elizabeth and Lindsay, hearing about their upbringing and the path each took to getting to their current positions. Through hard work, grit, determination, and support for one another, both Elizabeth and Lindsay have achieved awesome success in their early careers thus far. There are many words of wisdoms in the podcast for mid career professionals aspiring to be CIO one day or launching their own business.
Without further ado, please enjoy my conversation with the Burton sisters.
Our guest for today’s podcast is Ginger Lew, who along with Maeley Tom, conceived and co-founded AAAIM in 2006. Not surprising, it took two awesome Asian women to get AAAIM started! Ginger has enjoyed amazing success in her career in both the public and private sectors, having served under the Clinton and Obama administrations in key roles and more recently having helped to start, operate and sell a very successful infrastructure company.
I asked Bennett Kim, one of AAAIM’s founding board members, to conduct this podcast with Ginger given their long and special relationship together. For those of you fortunate enough to know Ginger, she is one of the most delightful people to be around as she is full of optimism, positivity and altruism. There are so many tidbits of wisdom embodied in this podcast so without further ado, please enjoy Bennett’s conversation with Ginger Lew.
Our guest for today’s podcast is Carrie Lo, Portfolio Manager for the $25B Risk Mitigating Strategies group at CalSTRS (one of the largest public plans in the US) where she has led the venture into hedge funds, specifically those uncorrelated strategies to equities especially in global macro, trend following strategies and systematic risk premia.
Carrie takes us through her personal and professional path from investment banker turned venture startup to hedge fund investor before landing at CalSTRS over 12 years ago. Her journey took her from CA to NY to London (with some time in HK) and ultimately back to CA. Carrie started out in the Innovation and Risk group in 2009 and in 2016, due to the immense successes of this group, the Risk Mitigating Strategies group was born.
Coming from an immigrant family from HK, I found Carrie to be humble, thoughtful and gracious and immensely grateful to her family for their sacrifices in order to build a better life here in the U.S.Carrie is extremely intelligent and curious and a great role model for younger female investment professionals.She takes pride in setting the example that, with hard work, a commitment to excellence, and a “if you don’t ask, you don’t get” attitude, anything is possible.
Without further ado, here is my conversation with Carrie Lo.
Our guest for today’s podcast is Deborah Way, Managing Director, Co-Head of Global Markets Recruiting for Sheffield Haworth, a leading global executive search and talent advisory firm.
After spending over 20+ years in various roles in Global Markets both as a producer and desk head, Deborah made the transition to become a recruiter after leaving Barclays in 2019. From her early days growing up in Wyoming to the campus of Princeton University to the trading floors of Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns and Barclays, Deborah takes us through her journey rising to MD and heading up high power teams both in New York and Singapore.
As an Asian female, Deborah shares many insights on what it takes to be successful in the ultra competitive world of sales and trading and succeeding on Wall Street. We touch upon all topics including promotion, compensation, unconscious bias, grit, determination, the bamboo ceiling, and how you know when it is time to leave your job.
Without further ado, here is our conversation with Deborah Way.
Our guest for today’s podcast is Josh Lerner, the Jacob H. Schiff Professor of Investment Banking at Harvard Business School. This podcast is a replay of an AAAIM Virtual Webinar held in late 2020 and discusses the findings from an AAAIM commissioned study by Bella Private Markets, a consulting firm led by Professor Lerner. The AAAIM Study is the first in the market to quantify AAPIs’ representation, AUM, and performance. The results uncover a disturbingly low representation of AAPI ownership compared to the community’s population in the U.S. and other relevant benchmarks. In addition, the returns delivered by AAPI-sponsored investment vehicles meet or exceed industry benchmarks across asset classes. These findings echo earlier studies, which found that Diverse-owned funds collectively accounted for only 1.3% of total asset management AUM, despite performance in line with industry benchmarks. Brenda Chia, AAAIM Co-Chair and Founding Board Member, interviews Professor Lerner for this podcast. Without further ado, here is our replay with Professor Lerner and Brenda Chia.
Our guest for today’s podcast is Jason Hsu, Founder and CIO of Rayliant Global Advisors. Jason spun Rayliant out of Research Affiliates in 2016 after a very successful stint as co-founder of Research Affiliates with legendary thought leader and finance guru, Rob Arnott. At present, Rayliant has $26+ billion in AUM linked to its strategies and, beginning in 2021, launched an ETF in the US, symbol: RAYC, the Rayliant Quantamental China Equity ETF which is designed to give US investors access to beta in China A shares market. Jason takes us through his path attending top universities including Caltech, Stanford and UCLA culminating in earning his PhD in finance and tells the story of how Research Affiliates became successful and why he decided to form Rayliant as an independent company. Asian-led multi-billion AUM firms are rare so Jason’s story is inspiring and we look forward to the great impact Jason and Rayliant will have for investors for a long period of time. Without further ado, here is our conversation with Jason Hsu.
Our guest for today’s podcast is Geeta Kapadia, Associate Treasurer, Investments at Yale New Haven Health where she leads a team of 5 that manages a $5 billion pool of investment assets.
Geeta takes us through her personal and professional path globetrotting the world before landing at Yale New Haven Health over 12 years ago. In 2020, Geeta was named the Associate Treasurer for Investments effectively the CIO, a highly coveted position in the allocator world.
I found Geeta to be very personable, approachable, and welcoming. Geeta is a role model for investment professionals aspiring to be CIO one day. She takes pride in setting the example that, with hard work, patience and a commitment to excellence, anything is possible.
Without further ado, here is our conversation with Geeta Kapadia.
Our guest for today’s podcast is Rendel Solomon, Strategic Advisor to Goalsetter and Founder of One Stock One Future. I sought out Rendel after watching his TedXChicago Talk called “Sharecropper to Shareholder.” One word comes to mind when I think about Rendel, his vision for the future, and his selflessness to make his vision a reality: PROFOUND.
Rendel is the rare example of someone who has actually left high finance and a high paying job in private equity in his pursuit to change the trajectory of future generations: the mission for One Stock One Future is to make 1 million underserved youths into public company shareholders. Again, I’ll say it again: PROFOUND.
Joining me on this podcast as guest co-host is Brenda Chia, Board Co-Chair and Founding Board Member of AAAIM. What a treat it was for Brenda and me to interview someone of Rendel’s caliber and character. We were awe struck as we do believe Rendel will become known as a “generational leader of our time” one day.
Without further ado, here is our conversation with Rendel Solomon.
Our guest for today’s podcast is Lorence Kim, Venture Partner, Third Rock Ventures and Former CFO of Moderna. If there was ever someone you wanted to picture as having a perfect life, that’s Lorence. Lorence graduated magna cum laude from Harvard, then went on to earn a dual degree (Doctor of Medicine and MBA) from Penn. Upon graduation, he joined Goldman Sachs and rose through the ranks becoming a Managing Director and co-head of the Biotechnology Investment Banking division. In 2014, Lorence pivoted and joined a little known biotechnology firm called Moderna. The rest is history!!! What I admire about Lorence, in addition to his awesome professional career and accomplishments, is that deep down inside, he is a humble guy and a loving father and husband. I look forward to all the amazing things he will continue to do in the industry, Without further ado, here is our conversation with Lorence Kim.
Our guest for today’s podcast is Sammy Suzuki, Co-CIO of Strategic Core Equities at AllianceBernstein, also known as AB, a $686 billion research driven, asset manager. Over a 26+ year career at AB, Sammy shares his perspective and experience on what it took for him to climb the corporate ladder at AB, shattering the bamboo ceiling, and building out a new $12 billion AUM business. I tried to get Sammy to pound his chest a bit more on the podcast but he wouldn’t take the bait being his Asian self, ha ha. Note to audience, what he has accomplished at AB is no small feat and AAAIM is very proud to highlight his success. Away from his personal achievements, Sammy is also viewed as a leader in the AAAIM and extended finance community. Sammy has been instrumental in building out AB’s Asian network as well as serving on the board of the CFA Society New York. I look forward to Sammy’s continued ascension in the finance world. Without further ado, here is our conversation with Sammy Suzuki.
Our guest for today’s podcast is Evelyn Chen, Founder and Portfolio Manager of Grand Alliance Asset Management, an asset management firm focused on growth equity in Asia with a specific expertise in Taiwan and China.
What I love about interviewing different portfolio managers is the individual stories on what it takes to be the best at their craft. Growing up, Evelyn’s initial interest was to become a biologist given her love of insects and the patience required to be an expert in dissecting insects and understanding how they function. Luckily for investors, she pivoted to become an equity analyst and, leveraging that same level of patience and precision required to be a biologist, refocused her skills to eventually become a top stock picker. It is a cool story!
Joining me on this podcast as guest host is Meisan Lim, Head of Macro and Quantitative Strategies for Cambridge Associates, one of the top consulting firms in the hedge fund business. When I asked Meisan for her thoughts on an awesome Asian female hedge fund manager, Evelyn’s name immediately came to mind. Thank you again Meisan for inviting Evelyn.
Without further ado, here is my conversation with Evelyn Chen and Meisan Lim.
Our guest for today’s podcast is Maeley Tom, California State Legislature Extraordinaire and Founding Co-Chair of AAAIM. I stepped aside for this podcast and asked Gordon Liao, AAAIM Board Vice-Chair and ELI Committee Chair, to conduct this interview given their long history and friendship. In listening to Maeley’s story, I have to admit that a few (happy) tears came to my eyes, after hearing about her upbringing.
Maeley touches upon many important topics including being on her own from the age of 16, how she developed the grit to be successful, her views on the current Stop AAPI Hate Movement, how the idea for AAAIM was conceived, her personal journey in mustering up the courage to ask for the top job to become the Chief Administrative Officer of the California State Assembly, and the rationale for writing her book to inspire the next generation of leaders.
Atypical of Asian tendencies of “being humble, not speaking up, not being the nail that stands out, not talking about your achievements; Maeley shares why being the opposite was key for her success in a Western culture society”. Be prepared to be inspired.
Without further ado, please enjoy Gordon’s conversation with Maeley Tom.
Our guest for today’s podcast is Susan Oh, a 25 year veteran at the Pennsylvania Public School Employees' Retirement System, a $64 billion defined benefit pension plan. Over her career at PSERS, Susan has been a serial entrepreneur and a true innovator for the fund including 1) establishing their $13 billion swap overlay program, 2) building out their currency hedging program, 3) launching their internally managed risk parity program leveraging Bridgewater, and 4) now taking on the new challenge of implementing ESG for impact and returns. Susan is the epitome of GSD (Getting Stuff Done!)
Away from her personal accomplishments, we were inspired by Susan’s strong faith and her recognition that she has a higher calling. Having shattered both the bamboo and glass ceiling, Susan is a role model for Asian Americans and women in the industry, a responsibility she cherishes and doesn’t take lightly.
Joining me on the podcast as lead host is fellow AAAIM board member, Susan Soh, Chief of Strategy and Capital Development for the Private Investments arm of Two Sigma.
Without further ado, here is our conversation with Susan Oh.
Our guest for today’s podcast is Suzanne Yoon, Founder and Managing Partner of Kinzie Capital Partners, a Chicago-based private equity firm focused on providing creative solutions through equity investments in lower middle-market businesses going through transitions.
Suzanne openly takes us through her personal journey overcoming tragedy at a young age after the death of her father and jumping head first into world of finance. Through grit, determination, and a strong belief in “diversity and inclusion”, Suzanne successfully navigates the ultra competitive world of private equity, culminating in launching her own private equity firm in 2017. Her story not only sends chills through my body but also brings a bright smile to my face.
Joining me on the podcast as lead host is fellow AAAIM board member, Susan Soh, Chief of Strategy and Capital Development for the Private Investments arm of Two Sigma.
Brace yourself and prepare to hear what it takes to be the best. Without further ado, here is our conversation with Suzanne Yoon.
My guests for today’s podcast are Syed Haque, Director of Public Markets, and Roxton McNeal, Director of Multi-Asset Investment Strategy & Allocation, for the UPS Investment Trust. UPS has long been known as one of the more progressive pensions in the business and my conversation with Syed and Roxton tell the story on why the Trust has been successful both on the investing side as well as the talent development side. LDI, Factor Investing, Risk Premia, Tail Risk Hedging, Paying for Alpha but not for Beta, QIS – you’ve heard it, UPS has implemented it. I was fired up by the end of our conversation and I am sure you will be too. Without further ado, please enjoy my conversation with Syed and Roxton.
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 guest for today’s podcast is Danny Lee who is a Partner at Blue Pool Capital, one of the most highly regarded investment firms in the business. As a private equity investor, Danny has seen and experienced it all, building an awesome career that many of us would be envious about. Danny talks about his early days after moving to New York from China at the age of 13, attending Brooklyn Tech, a highly competitive magnet high school and his decision to attend Columbia College. We then turn to his formative years at Lehman Brothers in investment banking before his move to Hong Kong and eventual jump to private equity where he has spent the past 20+ years working for top firms including Investor AB, Bain Capital and now Blue Pool Capital. I enjoyed this conversation not only because Danny is a friend and an accomplished investor, but also because Danny’s story has come full circle from being a beneficiary of a major scholarship while at Columbia to endowing his own scholarship at Columbia 30 years later. Note to audience, although you may not be able to hear it on the podcast, I think “the tear” may have made its first appearance on the podcast! Without further ado, here is my conversation with Danny Lee.
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.