Three finance professors from Stanford University presented their latest papers on active management, private equity and financial regulation, which were debated and work-shopped by US institutional investors in a one-day investment think tank.
Chief investment officers from US public and corporate pension funds, endowments and foundations convened at Menlo Park, the home of Stanford University, for a one-day investment think-tank.
The roundtable sought to fuse the latest academic thinking with investment best practice to give investors an edge in decision making.
This highly interactive discussion was jointly facilitated by conexust1f.flywheelstaging.com and Professor Stephen Kotkin from Princeton University, and supported by BNY Mellon and Lexington Partners.
Anat Admati, Professor of Finance and Economics, Stanford University
Anat Admati is the George G.C. Parker Professor of Finance and Economics at Stanford Graduate School of Business. She has written extensively on information dissemination in financial markets, trading mechanisms, financial contracting, corporate governance and banking. Her book with Martin Hellwig, The Bankers’ New Clothes, was hailed as “the most important to emerge from the financial crisis” by Martin Wolf.
Admati holds a BS from Hebrew University, Jerusalem and a PhD from Yale. She is a fellow of the Econometric Society, has served on editorial boards and on the American Finance Association board, and currently serves on the FDIC Systemic Resolution Advisory Committee. Back to top
Eric Baggesen, senior investment officer for asset allocation and risk management, California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS)
Eric Baggesen is the senior investment officer of asset allocation and risk management for the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS). He is responsible for asset allocation implementation, and the monitoring and managing of CalPERS total investment portfolio.
He joined CalPERS in November 2004 and served as the fund’s senior portfolio manager and senior investment officer for global equity.
Baggesen holds bachelors and masters degrees from the University of Rhode Island and is a Chartered Financial Analyst and holds a Charter in Alternative Investments.
CalPERS is the largest public pension fund in the US with approximately $260 billion in market assets. It provides retirement benefits to more than 1.6 million Californians. Back to top
Jonathan Berk, Professor of Finance, Stanford University
Professor Berk, A.P. Giannini Professor of Finance at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, has co-authored two finance textbooks: Fundamentals in Finance as well as Corporate Finance, which remains the most successful first edition textbook ever published in financial economics.
His research has won numerous awards, including the TIAA-CREF Paul A. Samuelson Award, the Smith Breeden Prize, Best Paper of the Year in the Review of Financial Studies, and the FAME Research Prize. His article, “A Critique of Size-Related Anomalies,” was selected as one of the two best papers ever published in the Review of Financial Studies, and was also honored as one of the 100 seminal papers published by Oxford University Press. Also, he has received the Graham and Dodd Award of Excellence, the Roger F. Murray Prize, and the Bernstein Fabozzi/Jacobs Levy Award, in recognition of his influence on the practice of finance.
Professor Berk was born and grew up in Johannesburg, South Africa, and received his PhD in finance from Yale University. Back to top
Mary Cahill, chief investment officer, Emory University
Mary L. Cahill is vice president of investments and chief investment officer of Emory University overseeing investments of all endowment, trust, operating, and employee benefit funds of the University and related medical facilities. Prior to joining Emory, Mary was deputy chief investment officer of Xerox Corporation.
Cahill has 30 years of investment experience with prior positions including deputy director of the Virginia Retirement System, director of the SmithKline pension fund and pension management positions with BellSouth and Merck.
She is a member of the NYSE Pension Managers Advisory Committee, a board member of the Emory Center for Alternative Investments, a board member of The Institute For Quantitative Research in Finance, a trustee of The Woodruff Arts Center, and a director of the Robert Toigo Foundation. She has an MBA specializing in finance from St. John’s University and the Chartered Financial Analyst designation. Back to top
David Cooper, chief investment officer, Indiana Public Retirement System (PERF)
David Cooper is the chief investment officer and is responsible for overseeing investment assets totaling approximately $25 billion for Indiana Public Retirement System, formerly Indiana Public Employees Retirement Fund (PERF) and Indiana State Teachers Retirement Fund (TRF). INPRS serves the needs of more than 233,000 active members and 122,000 benefit recipients. INPRS also represents more than 1,400 employers including public universities, school corporations, municipalities and state agencies.
Cooper holds an undergraduate degree from Purdue University and a Masters of Business Administration (MBA) degree from Butler University. He is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) charterholder and a Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA) designee. Back to top
John Donaghey, head of North American institutional distribution, BNY Mellon Investment Management
John Donaghey leads North American institutional distribution for investment management at BNY Mellon Investment Management.
Donaghey is an executive vice president and board member of the MBSC Securities Corporation, BNY Mellon’s registered broker dealer, supervising all FINRA representatives in the Mellon Funds Division of MBSC. He is also a member of BNY Mellon’s Revenue Growth Board.
Prior to joining BNY Mellon in 2006, he worked on new business development and client service for Goldman Sachs Asset Management in San Francisco. He was also a senior vice president with Putnam Investments, responsible for Taft-Hartley defined benefit and defined contribution business in San Francisco and Boston, having been recruited from Putnam’s 1992 MBA internship program.
He holds an M.B.A. from Boston College and FINRA Series 7, 63 and 24 licenses. He is also both a Chartered Financial Analyst and a Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst. Back to top
Hershel Harper, chief investment officer, South Carolina Retirement Systems
Hershel Harper is the chief investment officer of the South Carolina Retirement System Investment Commission (RSIC). The RSIC is a $27 billion defined benefit pension plan serving more than 530,000 participants and retirees. Harper and his team analyze the liabilities of the pension obligation, determine the optimal asset allocation necessary to meet that obligation, and deploy those assets accordingly.
Prior to joining the RSIC, Harper gained valuable market experience conducting investment and industry research, focusing on asset allocation and global equity markets, at SSgA, Columbia Management, and Evergreen Investments.
Harper earned his Masters in Finance from Louisiana State University and his Bachelor in Finance from Louisiana Tech University. He earned his Chartered Financial Analyst designation and remains active in the CFA Society of South Carolina. Back to top
MaDoe Htun, chief investment officer, William Penn Foundation
MaDoe Htun is chief investment officer of the William Penn Foundation in Philadelphia where she is responsible for managing the foundation’s assets.
Prior to joining the William Penn Foundation, Htun served as the chief investment officer of the Xerox Worldwide Pension and Savings Plan assets. She began her career at Xerox where she held various finance positions before joining the Xerox Trust Investment Group in 1996, though she also served as director of Equity Strategies for General Motors Asset Management (GMAM) for a time before returning to Xerox.
Htun received a B.A. with honors from Smith College and went on to receive her Masters of Business Administration from the University of Chicago. She also holds a Juris Doctorate Degree from George Washington University. Htun is a Chartered Financial Analyst, a member of the bar in Illinois and Washington, D.C. and is a registered patent attorney. Back to top
Jennifer W. Kheng, principal, Lexington Partners
Jennifer Kheng is a principal of Lexington primarily engaged in the evaluation of secondary purchases of buyout, mezzanine and venture capital interests. Prior to joining Lexington in 2003, Kheng was an analyst in investment banking at Morgan Stanley.
Kheng graduated from Stanford University with a BS in biological sciences and an MS in management science and engineering. Back to top
Stephen Kotkin, professor, Princeton University
Professor Kotkin holds a joint appointment in the history department and the Woodrow Wilson School for Public and International Affairs at Princeton, where he has been teaching since 1989. He has served as vice dean and is currently acting director of international programs.
Professor Kotkin established the university’s global history workshop. He serves on the core editorial committee of the flagship journal, World Politics. He founded and edits a book series on Northeast Asia. From 1996 until 2009 he directed Princeton’s Program in Russian and Eurasian Studies. From 2003 until 2007, he was a member and then chair of the editorial board at Princeton University Press.
Outside Princeton, he has served as a consultant, investigator, and strategist for the Open Society Foundations (Soros) and other agencies in post-Communist higher education. From 2006 (until February 2009) he was the regular book reviewer for the New York Times Sunday Business section. Back to top
William Lee, VP, pension & foundation investments, chief investment officer, Kaiser Permanente
William Lee is chief investment officer and vice president of pensions and foundation investments at Kaiser Permanente. He has served as chair of Kaiser Permanente’s investment committee since 2005. Lee oversees approximately $34 billion in defined contribution, pension and foundation assets.
He managed interest rate and foreign exchange risk for Bank of America’s global proprietary desks in the 1980’s, then left for nine years to work as a police detective. In 1994 he returned to Bank of America, where he helped develop equity risk models before becoming senior vice president and chief investment officer for Bank of America’s retirement plans.
Lee managed the Levi Strauss Foundation and Red Tab Foundation assets as well as the Levi Strauss domestic and international retirement plans. He is a chartered financial analyst (CFA). Back to top
Jamie Lewin, head of manager research and performance analytics; chief investment officer, BNY Mellon Investment Management; Lockwood Advisors, a BNY Mellon co.
Jamie Lewin is head of manager research and performance analytics for BNY Mellon Investment Management and is chief investment officer for Lockwood Advisors, a BNY Mellon company.
He was formerly director of asset allocation strategies as a member of the investment strategy and solutions group of BNY Mellon and was responsible for overseeing the development and management of integrated multi-asset investment solutions that leverage the full complement of BNY Mellon specialist investment management capabilities.
He is a director of BNY Mellon Asset Management International Ltd and is a member of the BNY Mellon Asset Management International Executive Committee.
Lewin joined BNY Mellon from UBS Global Asset Management where he was senior asset allocation strategist for the global investment solutions group. Back to top
David Long, senior vice president and chief investment officer, Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan
Long is responsible for asset/liability modelling and portfolio construction, derivatives and fixed income, and short term and foreign exchange.
He holds a PhD in Statistics from the University of Waterloo and is a CFA charter holder. Back to top
Farouki Majeed, chief investment officer, Ohio School Employees Retirement Systems (OHSERS)
Farouki Majeed joined School Employees Retirement System of Ohio as director of investments in July, 2012.
Majeed comes to SERS of Ohio from CalPERS, where he served as senior investment officer asset allocation and risk management from 2007 to 2012. Previouslyhe was the inaugural CIO of the Abu Dhabi retirement Pensions and Benefits Fund of the United Arab Emirates. He was deputy director, investments, for the Ohio Public Employees Retirement System from 2002 to 2004. Majeed was chief investment officer for the Orange County Employees Retirement System from 1997 to 2002 and investment officer of the Minneapolis employees retirement Fund from 1991 to 1997.
Mr. Majeed began his finance career in 1980 with the National Development Bank of Sri Lanka, his homeland, and worked in the Asia Division of Bank of America prior to arriving in the US in 1987 to pursue graduate studies.
Majeed holds a Master’s Degree in Business Administration/Finance from Rutgers University, and a Bachelor Degree in Engineering from the University of Sri Lanka. He is a Chartered Financial Analyst. Mr. Majeed also serves on a voluntary basis as a member of the Investment Advisory Committee of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) Provident fund based in Amman, Jordan. Back to top
Tom Newby, partner Lexington Partners
Tom Newby is a partner of Lexington primarily engaged in the origination and evaluation of secondary purchases of buyout, mezzanine and venture capital interests. Prior to joining Lexington in 2007, he was a managing director and the head of principal investing at Montgomery & Co., an investment bank.
Prior to that, he was a general partner of Technology Crossover Ventures and an associate in investment banking at Montgomery Securities. Newby graduated from University of North Carolina with a BS in business administration and from the Stanford Graduate School of Business with an MBA. Back to top
Joshua Rauh, professor, Stanford University
Professor Rauh, Stanford Graduate School of Business and a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, has attracted national media coverage for his studies of state and local pension systems in the United States.
He has won numerous awards for his research papers. “Investment and Financing Constraints: Evidence from the Funding of Corporate Pension Plans” was awarded the 2006 Brattle Prize for the outstanding research paper on corporate finance published in the Journal of Finance. “Public Pension Promises: How Big Are They and What Are they Worth?” coauthored with Robert Novy-Marx, won the Smith Breeden Prize for the outstanding research paper on capital markets published in the Journal of Finance. “Earnings Manipulation, Pension Assumptions and Managerial Investment Decisions,”coauthored with Daniel Bergstresser and Mihir Desai, won the Barclays Global Investor Best Symposium Paper from the European Finance Association and appeared in the Quarterly Journal of Economics.
Professor Rauh received his PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Back to top
Stan Rupnik, chief investment officer, Illinois Teachers’ Retirement System
Stan Rupnik is the chief investment officer for the Teachers’ Retirement System of the State of Illinois (TRS). TRS is the largest public plan in the state of Illinois, with an investment portfolio of $40.8 billion. As CIO, Rupnik has direct oversight of all asset classes and manages an internal staff as well as the full roster of external investment managers.
Rupnik joined TRS in April 2003. He has held various investment-related roles including portfolio management, equity research, and credit analysis. Prior to TRS, he was associated with GE Asset Management in Stamford, Connecticut.
Rupnik is an alumnus of the University of Illinois, receiving both an undergraduate degree in Economics and a Master of Business Administration from the Urbana-Champaign campus. He is also a CFA Charterholder.
TRS is the retirement system for public school teachers and administrators employed in all Illinois public schools except the city of Chicago. It serves 389,900 members.
John Skjervem, chief investment officer, Oregon State Treasury
As chief investment officer for the Oregon State Treasury (OST), Skjervem oversees an investment team that manages a financial and real asset portfolio valued at over $80 billion as of June 30, 2013 and includes the state’s $63 billion Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund.
Prior to his appointment at OST, he held a variety of portfolio management and leadership positions at Northern Trust including chief investment officer for the firm’s $170 billion (AUM) personal financial services division. He started his career as an associate economist for consultants Natelson Levander Whitney, and also worked as a public finance specialist for investment bankers Ehrlich Bober & Co.
Skjervem earned an M.B.A. with concentrations in finance and statistics from the Booth School of Business at the University of Chicago, and received a bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of California at Santa Barbara. He is a Chartered Financial Analyst, former director of the CFA Society of Chicago and serves as an honorary board member for the St. Francis Foundation in Santa Barbara, CA. Back to top
Colin Tate, chief executive, Conexus Financial
Tate has nearly 20 years’ experience in media, both as a publisher and marketing executive at Trade News, Reed Business Publishing and InvestorInfo. Before Conexus Financial, he headed his own design and advertising agency. He has been a commentator on and proponent of industry reform, and the need for creating trust between superannuation members and the financial advice industry. Back to top
Amanda White, editor of conexust1f.flywheelstaging.com, Conexus Financial
White is responsible for the content across all Conexus Financial’s institutional media and events. She is the editor of conexust1f.flywheelstaging.com, the online news and analysis site for the world’s largest institutional investors. White has been an investment journalist for more than 18 years and has edited industry journals including Investment & Technology, Investor Weekly and MasterFunds Quarterly.
She waspreviously editorial director of InvestorInfo and has worked as a freelance journalist for the Australian Financial Review, CFO, Asset and Asia Asset Management.
She has a Bachelor of Economics and a Master of Arts in Journalism and is a columnist for the Canadian publication, Corporate Knights, which is distributed by the Globe and Mail and The Washington Post. Back to top
