Speakers

Michael P. Manning, CFA, CAIA

Emma Andrews

Emma conducts business analysis across all of NEPC’s client practice groups from a consulting operations perspective. She works to assess challenges related to process, technology and organizational structure, and develop targeted improvement plans.  She partners with the Information Technology and Data Governance teams to translate user requirements, create process models, and support system enhancements and implementations. Emma started at NEPC in 2016 and worked in operations on the Research team before moving into a business analysis role. Prior to joining NEPC, Emma worked as a program coordinator for a Boston-based non-profit.

Emma earned her B.A. in Mass Communication from the University of Maine, and her M.B.A. from Suffolk University.

Jennifer Appel, CFA

Jenn is a senior member of the asset allocation team within the research department at NEPC.  She assists in setting the firm’s macroeconomic outlook, dynamic asset class views, and capital market assumptions.  Jenn also performs global macroeconomic research, with a specific interest in monetary policy and emerging market economies. She is a key member of NEPC’s Asset Allocation Committee and aids in setting the firm’s investment assumptions and recommendations. Prior to joining NEPC in 2016, Jenn worked for MacKay Shields, a fixed-income investment manager, in investment operations.

Jenn earned her Bachelor of Science in Business Management from Babson College.  She also holds the Chartered Financial Analyst designation.

Dan Beaton

Dan joined NEPC in 2012 and began his career in the investment industry in 1998.  He specializes in consulting to defined contribution plans on plan design, investment and governance issues.  In addition to his client responsibilities, Dan has contributed to the effort behind NEPC’s annual Defined Contribution Plan and Fee Survey, and has co-authored white papers on that topic.  Dan also host’s NEPC DC Legal and Regulatory Webinar Series. Dan is also a Boston Ambassador for the Defined Contribution Institutional Investment Association (DCIIA) and is a member of their Public Policy Committee.  Dan is a member of the National Association of Government Defined Contribution Administrators (NAGDCA).  Dan leads NEPC’s public sector defined contribution services and consults to the most public sector defined contribution clients at the firm.

Prior to joining NEPC, Dan worked as a senior analyst for eight years at ING within its defined contribution investment group.  His primary responsibilities included production and presentation of quarterly investment reviews and investment manager research. Prior to ING, he worked at John Hancock Signature Services and Putnam Investments in operations for 401(k) plan recordkeeping.

Dan earned his B.A. in Political Science and Sociology from Boston College.  Dan holds the Institutional Certified 401(k) Professional designation.

Steven F. Charlton, CFA

Aaron Chastain, CFA

Thomas D. Cook

Larissa Davy

Larissa is a member of the real assets research team where she covers private infrastructure investment strategies and provides thought leadership on key themes related to the infrastructure industry. Prior to joining the real assets team, Larissa was a member of NEPC’s credit and diversifying strategies research team where she led due diligence on various diversifying hedge fund and public markets strategies including fund of hedge funds, multi-strategy hedge funds and risk parity. Before becoming an Investment Director, Larissa worked as an Investment Analyst on NEPC’s marketable securities team.  She is a member of NEPC’s Diverse Manager Committee. Prior to joining NEPC in 2012, Larissa worked in sales and marketing across various industries.

Larissa earned her B.A. from DeMontfort University.

Rose Dean, CFA

Oliver Fadly

Daniel S. Gimbel, CIMA®

Akila Grewal

Akila Grewal is a Partner in Client and Product Solutions, where she serves as the Lead of the Institutional Product Specialist team and Co-Lead of Product Management focused on strategies in Credit across Apollo’s platform. As part of her role, Akila leads a global team of professionals who work closely with internal stakeholders and external partners on capital formation across Credit, Private Equity, Real Assets and Infrastructure. Akila also sits on the Firm’s Credit Management team which helps set strategy for the credit platform and executes on key priorities.

Akila sits on several committees, including the Firm’s Credit Allocations Sub-Committee and the Apollo Opportunity Foundation’s Council. Akila also serves on the not-for-profit Braven’s NYC Board as well as PK AirFinance and Stable Asset Management’s Board. Prior to joining in 2016, Akila was on the Proprietary Trading and Risk Management team at Mariner Investment Group. Previously, she was in the Business Development group at MKP Capital and she started her career at Credit Suisse on the Hedge Fund of Fund’s Portfolio Management team. Akila graduated from New York University’s Stern School of Business with a BS in Finance and is a CFA charterholder.

Rosann Halleran

Rosann joined NEPC in 2000 and is a senior member of the Marketable Equity research team, leading our international equity all cap and large cap research. Rosann is an active member of multiple internal operations and is also a member of the Diverse Manager Committee. Previously, Rosann led the Manager Search group which oversees the customization and development of client search materials. In addition, Rosann led the firm’s custody, securities lending and transition management research.

Rosann earned her B.A. from the University of Massachusetts and her MBA from Suffolk University.

Andrew Heiskell

As an equity strategist, Andy collaborates with investors and macro strategists across the firm, as well as Wellington clients and prospects, to provide expertise on equity market dynamics and strategies. As a former equity portfolio manager and global industry analyst, he has over twenty years of investment experience conducting fundamental equity market research and managing both long-only and long/short strategies, particularly within the global banking, insurance and specialty finance industries. He joined the firm in 2002 and has been a senior managing director and partner since 2010. Prior to joining Wellington, he worked at Merrill Lynch (1995 – 1999).

Andy received his MBA from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business (now the University of Chicago Booth School of Business; 2001) and his BS in foreign service, magna cum laude, from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service (1995).

Kumber Husain

Kumber is a Managing Director for Audax Strategic Capital, focused on providing various capital solutions to companies owned by private equity sponsors.

Prior to joining Audax in 2022, Kumber was Managing Director, Head of Americas, for DWS Private Equity and previously worked at Morgan Stanley Alternative Investment Partners, WP Global Partners, and Swiss Re. Kumber’s experience spans private equity secondaries, co-investments and fund commitments, with the majority of investments being made into concentrated and customized secondary transactions.

Kumber received a BA from George Washington University and a MSc from the London School of Economics.

Rajiv Jain

Mr. Jain is the Chairman and Chief Investment Officer of GQG Partners and serves as a Portfolio Manager for all of the firm’s strategies. Since its founding in 2016, Mr. Jain has grown firm assets to more than $100 billion.

He commenced investment operations at GQG Partners in June 2016 and has over 30 years of investment experience. Previously, Mr. Jain served as a Co- Chief Executive Officer (from July 2014) and Chief Investment Officer and Head of Equities (from February 2002) at Vontobel Asset Management. He was the sole Portfolio Manager of the International Equities strategy (since 2002) and Emerging Markets Equities strategy (since 1997) and the Lead Portfolio Manager for the Global Equities strategy (since 2002).

Mr. Jain helped build the business from less than US$400 million under management to just under US$50 billion in 2016. He joined Vontobel Asset Management as a Co-Portfolio Manager of Emerging Markets Equities and International Equities in November 1994. Prior to that, he was an International Equity Analyst at Swiss Bank Corporation.

Chris Jaroch

Chris Jaroch is a Senior Managing Director at Newbury Partners, an investment firm specializing in the acquisition of private equity limited partnership interests and other private equity investments in the secondary market. Mr. Jaroch is responsible for the origination, valuation, and execution of transactions, as well as the monitoring of investments and management of the firm.

Newbury Partners is a Bridge Investment Group company, following Bridge’s acquisition the business in 2023. Mr. Jaroch has been a senior member of the Newbury team since the founding of the firm in 2006.

Newbury Partners currently manages approximately $6.5 billion of capital commitments on behalf of more than 100 limited partners worldwide. Newbury Partners is based in Stamford, CT and New York, NY.

Prior to Newbury Partners, Mr. Jaroch was a Vice President in the Secondary Group at Auda Private Equity (now HQ Capital Private Equity). Previously, Mr. Jaroch advised on investments at Perry Capital and was an investment banker at Salomon Smith Barney (now Citigroup) and Advest (ultimately acquired by Merrill Lynch).

Mr. Jaroch graduated with an MBA degree from Harvard Business School and received a BA degree from Amherst College.

Janis Kane, CFA, FSA, EA

Janis joined NEPC as the Director of LDI Solutions in September of 2022 and has almost 20 years of combined investment and actuarial experience. She works with Corporate DB and Healthcare clients on asset liability studies, liability driven investing and other pension risk management strategies, including Glide Path approaches. Janis also leads the firm’s Corporate Pension Solutions Group.

Prior to NEPC, Janis spent one year as a Financial Strategist with Mercer’s delegated solutions group. Janis also spent more than 11 years as a Managing Director at Rocaton and Vice President at GSAM, consulting for a variety of institutional clients. During her time at Rocaton, Janis was a member of the capital markets and asset allocation team leading various research and client asset allocation projects.  Prior to Rocaton, Janis spent the first 7 years of her career as a Consulting Actuary at Mercer.

Janis is a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries (FSA) and an Enrolled Actuary (EA). She holds the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation and earned a B.S. in Actuarial Science at the University of Calgary, Canada.

Colton Lavin, CFA

Colton joined NEPC in 2017 and is an Investment Director on NEPC’s Private Debt team.  He is responsible for NEPC’s research coverage and underwriting of direct lending, mezzanine and niche strategy funds globally. Additional responsibilities include working with client teams on portfolio construction, presenting market views and recommendations to clients, and creating strategy-specific education and opinions. He is also a member of NEPC’s Credit Beta group. Prior to NEPC, Colton was an Associate at Cambridge Associates.

Colton holds a B.S. in Finance from the University of Maryland and is a CFA charter holder.

Todd Liker

Mr. Liker is a managing director and co-portfolio manager of Oaktree’s Real Estate Opportunities strategy and leads the Real Estate team in New York.  He is a member of the real estate leadership team and serves on both the real estate investment committee and the real estate credit committee.  Mr. Liker is involved in the capital raising, management and investment of Oaktree’s real estate opportunities strategy and predominantly focuses on investment opportunities in the eastern half of the U.S. as well as corporate real estate-related platforms and companies nationally.  Prior to joining Oaktree in 2008, Mr. Liker was an executive director with J.P. Morgan Securities’ Real Estate, Lodging & Gaming Investment Banking group in New York and London.  Prior to joining J.P. Morgan, he spent four years at ABN AMRO in Chicago and Singapore.  Mr. Liker received a B.S.B.A. degree from the John M. Olin School of Business at Washington University and an M.B.A. from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth.  Previously, Mr. Liker served as a member of the Executive Board of Florida State University’s Real Estate Center, the M.B.A. Advisory Council at the Tuck School of Business and on the Advisory Board for the University of Miami’s Master of Real Estate and Development + Urbanism program.

Nick Mann

Paul Matson

Paul Matson has been with the Arizona State Retirement System (ASRS) since late 1995, serving initially as chief investment officer and since 2003 as executive director, overseeing a $50 billion investment portfolio and 220 employees. Oversight includes pension, health insurance, long-term disability, and defined contribution plans. Paul reports to a nine-member Board of Trustees.

From 1994 to 1995, Paul served as a senior investment advisor at the Treasury Division, Workers Compensation Board, Alberta, Canada.

From 1989 to 1994, Paul served as a financial analyst and portfolio analyst in the Investment Management Division, Alberta Treasury, Alberta, Canada.

In 2012, Paul was honored as “Leader of the Year in Public Policy – Government” by the Arizona Capitol Times.

Kathleen McCarthy

Kathleen McCarthy is the Global Co-Head of Blackstone Real Estate. Blackstone is the largest owner of commercial real estate globally and an industry leader in opportunistic, core plus and debt investing across North America, Europe and Asia. Ms. McCarthy focuses on driving performance and growth for Blackstone’s Real Estate business. Ms. McCarthy previously served as Global Chief Operating Officer of Blackstone Real Estate. Before joining Blackstone in 2010, Ms. McCarthy worked at Goldman Sachs, where she focused on investments for the Real Estate Principal Investment Area. Ms. McCarthy began her career at Goldman Sachs in the Mergers & Acquisitions Group. Ms. McCarthy received a BA from Yale University. Beginning in July 2024, Ms. McCarthy is set to begin a three-year term as Chair of the Real Estate Roundtable, the industry’s top federal advocacy organization. She also serves on the boards of City Harvest and the Blackstone Charitable Foundation, and is the President of the Board of Trustees of The Nightingale-Bamford School.

Timothy F. McCusker, FSA, CFA, CAIA

Kyan L. Nafissi, CFA

Kyan is a member of the research team primarily covering multi-strategy hedge funds, hedge fund of funds, and risk-parity.  Prior to joining NEPC, Kyan was a member of the multi-asset class investment team at Fidelity where he served as a liaison between the investment team and institutional clients.  Kyan has experience in portfolio construction, equity and manager research, portfolio analysis, and communicating capital markets and positioning to institutional audiences.

Kyan earned a B.A in Economics and Philosophy from Union College and he also holds the Chartered Financial Analyst designation.

Phillip R. Nelson, CFA

Mikaylee O’Connor

Kadmiel Onodje, CAIA

Kadmiel joined NEPC in May 2020. He is a member of NEPC’s Hedge Fund Research team covering primarily Global Macro, as well as GAA strategies. In addition to manager due diligence, Kadmiel works with a range of NEPC clients making recommendations on their hedge fund and multi-asset portfolios. Prior to joining NEPC, Kadmiel was an Internal Consultant and Research Analyst at AndCo Consulting, an independent institutional investment consulting firm based in Orlando, Florida, where he covered multi-asset investment strategies, including multi-asset hedge funds. Kadmiel’s prior experience also includes performance measurement and analysis, manager searches, and asset allocation studies at AndCo, RVK as a Senior Investment Analyst, and Morgan Stanley as a Portfolio Associate.

Kadmiel is a CAIA Charter holder, holds a B.S. in Computer Engineering from the University of Florida, and a Master of Business Administration from Stetson University.

Michael Painter

Michael is a co-founder and the Managing Partner at Plexus Capital. Michael leads the strategic direction of Plexus and heads the investment committee. He is also active in sourcing new investment opportunities and overseeing active portfolio companies.

Michael began his career in 1995 and has spent his entire career in the banking and investment industries. He spent 6 years with RBC Bank (fka “Centura Bank”) and worked for the bank’s investment fund, Centura Capital, as well as serving on the acquisition team while he reported to Kel Landis. Michael also worked in the investment banking group at Donaldson, Lufkin and Jenrette in New York where he worked in the financial institutions and leveraged finance groups. Before co-founding Plexus, Michael also spent time with Triangle Capital Partners in North Carolina and Endurance Capital Partners in New York.

Michael is a graduate of the University of North Carolina where he earned a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration.

Scott F. Perry, CAIA

Nedelina (Nina) Petkova

Nedelina (Nina) is a member of the Marketable Equity Team, overseeing long only global equity strategies. Prior to her role as part of NEPC Research, Nina worked as a Sr. Consultant advising healthcare organizations and endowments & foundations, and assisting clients with asset allocation studies, manager searches, performance measurement, investment policy development/ education and various technical projects. Nina co-authored the white paper, Achieving Synergies in Investment Portfolios During Healthcare Merger and Acquisitions, focused on equipping healthcare organizations with a short list and step-by-step guide to M&A. Nina is a member of the firm’s Diverse Manager Committee, which aims to identify highly qualified diverse investment firms that meet the unique goals, risk parameters, and financial objectives of NEPC’s clients. Nina has experience working with Public and Taft-Hartley clients, providing her with broad knowledge on different types of client governance and portfolio demands.

Prior to joining NEPC in 2013, Nina worked at Wells Fargo in the Home Mortgage Underwriting department where she was responsible for reviewing refinance loans by analyzing credit worthiness, salary, geographical location, and other factors.

Nina earned her B.B. in International Business and graduated Magna Cum Laude with a concentration in Finance and minors in Mathematics and Spanish from The University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

Andrew Pettersen, CFA

Andrew joined NEPC in 2018.  He is a member of the Firm’s Private Equity Research Group. Andrew leads the coverage of private equity venture and growth strategies globally. Andrew also has extensive experience covering long/short equity hedge fund strategies.

Prior to joining NEPC, Andrew was an associate director of investment research at TwinFocus Capital Partners, a boutique multi-family office in Boston, where he covered traditional and alternative managers and strategies.

Andrew earned his B.A. in Economics and Political Science from Villanova University and holds the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation. He began his professional career in 2011 and has been covering the traditional and alternative investment manager space since 2014.

Santo Politi

Santo Politi is the Founder and Managing Partner of Spark Capital, a technology-focused venture capital firm that invests in early-stage venture and venture-growth companies, with offices in San Francisco, New York, and Boston. Spark Capital currently manages $10B for its investors and has invested in over 350 companies in the last 18 years. Some of Spark’s past and current investments include Twitter, Tumblr, Oculus, Cruise, Coinbase, Affirm, Slack, Postmates, Discord, Anthropic, Plaid, Deel, eToro, Lightmatter, reMarkable, Handshake, Carta, GetYourGuide, Stoke Space, and many others.

Prior to founding Spark, Mr. Politi was a General Partner at Charles River Ventures, an early-stage technology fund in Boston, and earlier a General Partner of BT Venture Partners, an early-stage venture capital firm affiliated with Bankers Trust.

Mr. Politi was the President of Blockbuster Entertainment (NYSE: BBI) and held various engineering and management positions at Matsushita Electric Industrial, Panasonic in Japan, and Weston Instruments.

Mr. Politi holds an MBA in Finance from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, an MS in Electrical Engineering from NJIT, a BS in Electrical Engineering, and a BS in Physics from Bogazici University in Istanbul, Turkey.

Lindsay Powers

Lindsay joined NEPC in 2021. She is currently a member of the Firm’s Private Credit Team, covering Direct Lending, Credit Opportunities, and Niche Markets. She is a member of NEPC’s Credit Beta Group and assists with conducting manager due diligence as well as market research and analysis. Prior to her role as a Research Analyst, Lindsay worked as a Research Associate on the traditional assets team covering manager replacement searches for the client teams. Prior to joining the research team in May 2021, Lindsay was an intern on the Healthcare Consulting team at NEPC.

Lindsay earned her B.A. in English from Tufts University in 2021.

Dan Primack

Dan Primack is a business editor at Axios and author of the daily Axios Pro Rata newsletter. He covers the world of dealmakers across VC, PE and M&A. Before joining Axios in 2016, Primack was a senior editor at Fortune, where he created the Term Sheet newsletter, and spent 11 years writing for Thomson Reuters.

James E. Reichert, CFA

Alex Rickels, CFA

Alex joined NEPC in 2019 and is a member of NEPC’s marketable securities research group with a focus on manager research and due diligence for U.S. small cap equities, U.S. small-mid cap equities, and target date strategies. Prior to joining NEPC, Alex was a research analyst at Asset Consulting Group in St. Louis where he focused on manager research and due diligence for U.S. large cap equity strategies.

Alex earned his B.A. in Psychology with a Minor in Economics from Wittenberg University and his M.B.A. with concentrations in Finance and Marketing from The Ohio State University. Alex is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation holder.

Sarah Samuels, CFA, CAIA

Shelley R. Santulli

Lindsay Sharma

Lindsay concentrates on originating, valuing and managing primary fund commitments and direct investment opportunities for the Industry Ventures Tech Buyout team. She serves on the Investment Committee for the Industry Ventures Tech Buyout Fund and is actively involved in helping to enable successful exit scenarios in older venture-funded technology companies. Lindsay also brings four years of experience as part of the secondary team, purchasing secondary direct investments and limited partnership interests and assists in valuing companies.

Prior to joining Industry Ventures, Lindsay was a Principal in corporate strategy and development at Intuit, leading merger and acquisition activities for the company. Prior to Intuit, Lindsay developed tech buyout and investment banking industry expertise with Great Hill Partners and Bear Stearns.

Lindsay received her MBA from Harvard Business School and a BS in Business Administration in Finance and Accounting from Indiana University, where she graduated with honors.

William Stanco

Will is a Senior Consulting Analyst on NEPC’s Corporate Defined Contribution team. He supports consultants and clients with quarterly reporting, manager searches and investment due diligence. Additionally, his responsibilities include analyses from structural and fee perspectives, along with other client specific projects. Will is a member of NEPC’s DC Multi-Asset Solutions team, which evaluates target date funds, managed accounts, and other multi-asset class solutions. Will sits in the San Francisco office and joined NEPC in 2022 after previously working within Aon’s investment consulting practice.

Will earned his B.S. in Finance from Santa Clara University and is pursuing his CFA designation.

Jeff Stevenson

Jeff Stevenson founded October Three with the mission of radically changing how defined benefit plans are designed and administered. Jeff believes that many of the deficiencies of today’s defined benefit market can be overcome and successful financial outcomes can be achieved for both plan sponsors and plan participants through effective plan design strategies and technology developments.

Jeff is both an actuary and an attorney. He spent the first ten years of his career as an actuarial consultant within a large public accounting firm and a large international consulting firm. He spent the next ten years practicing law with Kirkland & Ellis, where he was a partner. While at Kirkland his practice was focused primarily on the human resource aspects of mergers and acquisitions. He also oversaw the firm’s partner and staff benefit programs.

Jeff left Kirkland in 1999 to help build the successful growth of CCA Strategies. Jeff was a Managing Director and a member of the Executive Committee at CCA, and President of CCA Small Business Group, a technology focused subsidiary. CCA was sold to JPMorgan in 2006 and Jeff became a Managing Director and head of the defined benefit practice within the emerging markets business segment, and a member of the Executive Committee of JPMorgan Retirement Plan Services. While at CCA and JPMorgan Jeff built and led the nation’s leading practice targeted at serving large professional service firms. Jeff and his team has advised over 50 firms in the Am Law 200 over the past decade.

Jeff is considered a national expert on law firm retirement programs and is sought after as an adviser on both qualified and nonqualified plan design engagements.

Sigurd Strack

Mr. Strack currently serves as the Chief Investment Officer of Private Investments at Trinity Alps Capital, an asset management firm based in San Francisco. In this capacity Mr. Strack manages the firm’s family of Private Opportunity Funds with assets under management in excess of $1bn. Mr. Strack focused on primary and secondary investments in private investment funds as well as direct and co-investments in private equity and venture-backed companies. Prior to Trinity Alps Capital, Mr. Strack was the Head of Private Equity and Venture investments at Willett Advisors, the investment firm managing Michael Bloomberg’s personal and philanthropic assets where he built an investment portfolio with aggregate commitments in excess of $4bn during his ten-year tenure. Prior to his role at Willett, Mr. Strack served as partner and advisor at Headlands Capital and Coliseum Capital and spent 10 years at McKinsey & Company, where he was a Partner in the firm’s Global Private Equity Practice. Siggy graduated with high distinction from the University Carolo Wilhelmina in Braunschweig (Germany) with a master’s degree in Engineering and earned an MBA from the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley.

Kristina Tomasik

Kristina is a member of the Research team and focuses on client searches for Custody, Securities Lending and Transition Management.

Prior to joining NEPC in 2022, Kristina was a Business Development Associate at Northern Trust. In this role, she worked alongside sales managers responsible for bringing new institutional trust and custody relationships to the bank across the Asset Owner and Asset Manager space. Kristina also helped manage the Sales unit’s interaction with North American consultants. Prior to Sales, Kristina held various client service positions within Northern Trust’s Global Family Office and Investment Manager Liaison Group.

Kristina earned her B.A. from Purdue University.

Amy Trainor, FSA

As a pension practice leader within the firm, Amy helps corporate sponsors set strategic multi-asset policy for their defined benefit pension plans. She also manages customized multi-asset-class portfolios designed to meet a client’s plan-specific objectives, including custom ‘glidepath’ approaches and completion mandates. She is chair of the firm’s LDI Team and works closely with the Fixed Income Team to advise on and implement liability-driven investment solutions.

Amy has spent her entire career working with corporate defined benefit plans. Before joining Wellington Management in 2006, she was a pension actuary at Aon Hewitt, where she consulted on the design, financing, and administration of corporate retirement plans (2002 – 2006; 1994 – 1999). She also spent two years with Willis Towers Watson (2000 – 2002).

Amy earned her BA in economics and mathematics from Wellesley College (1994). In addition, she is a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries (FSA, 2002). She is also chair of the firm’s Retirement Benefit Plans Oversight Committee and a member of the firm’s Investment Stewardship Committee and Audit Committee.

Thomas E. Wagner

Mr. Wagner is Head of North American Real Estate for Cerberus and is responsible for the sourcing, execution, and management of Cerberus’ real estate investments across North America. Since joining the Firm in 2006, Mr. Wagner has been instrumental in driving the expansion of Cerberus’ real estate activities in the United States. Mr. Wagner has more than 30 years of real estate experience, with significant expertise in investing across asset classes, property types, and geographies. Prior to Cerberus, he was a Managing Director at GE Real Estate from 1998 to 2006, where he was responsible for direct equity investments and was previously responsible for business development in North America. From 1987 to 1998, Mr. Wagner worked at Chemical Bank and Mitsubishi Bank in their respective real estate groups. Mr. Wagner graduated from Southern Methodist University and received an M.B.A. from Columbia University.

Lu Zhang

Lu Zhang, Founder and Managing Partner of Fusion Fund, is a renowned Silicon Valley-based investor, a serial entrepreneur, and a Stanford Engineering alumna. With a strong technical background, Lu has extensive experience bringing a broad range of technologies to commercialization, and deep domain expertise in AI in healthcare, Enterprise AI/Networks, Edge Computing and Data Privacy. Founded by Lu in 2015, Fusion Fund is dedicated to supporting early-stage entrepreneurs working on innovation in healthcare, enterprise AI and industrial automation. With investments in over 80 companies across the U.S. and Canada, Fusion Fund has generated substantial exits over the years.

Prior to starting Fusion Fund, Lu was a serial entrepreneur and materials science researcher. Following the acquisition of her startup by a leading public medical device company, Lu began investing in and supporting early-stage entrepreneurs. This eventually led her to create Fusion Fund in 2015. Since then, Lu has built a distinguished eco system and established her reputation in the VC industry. She was honored as Young Global Leader by World Economic Forum (Davos), Silicon Valley Women of Influence, Best 25 Female early-stage investor by Business Insider, Featured Honoree of VC of Forbes 30 under 30 and Town & Country 50 Modern Swans – Entrepreneurship Influencer

Lu frequently speaks at high profile tech conferences such as World Economic Forum(Davos), Future Investment Initiative (FII), Web Summit, SuperReturn, etc. and she is a guest lecturer at Stanford University and Wharton. Lu serves as a board member of many portfolio companies, the Board and Chairwomen of the Youth Council of Future Science Award, and Jury Board of the Cartier Women Initiative and Young Leader Award. She holds an M.S. in Materials Science and Engineering from Stanford University.