Speakers
Keynote Speakers
Rick Rieder
Orlando Bravo
Libby Cantrill
Zack Kass
Rick Rieder
Rick Rieder, Senior Managing Director, is BlackRock’s Chief Investment Officer of Global Fixed Income, Head of the Fundamental Fixed Income business, and Head of the Global Allocation Investment Team. Responsible for roughly $2.7 trillion in assets, Mr. Rieder is a member of BlackRock’s Global Executive Committee (GEC) and its GEC Investments Sub-Committee. He is also a member of BlackRock’s Global Operating Committee, and Chairman of the firm-wide BlackRock Investment Council.
Before joining BlackRock in 2009, Mr. Rieder was President and Chief Executive Officer of R3 Capital Partners. He served as Vice Chairman and member of the Borrowing Committee for the U.S. Treasury and member of the Federal Reserve’s Investment Advisory Committee on Financial Markets.
Mr. Rieder currently serves on the Alphabet/Google Investment Advisory Committee and the UBS Research Advisory Board. He has been awarded the 2023 Outstanding Portfolio Manager by Morningstar, was nominated for Outstanding Portfolio Manager by Morningstar in 2021, was awarded the Global Unconstrained Fixed Income Manager of the Year for 2015 by Institutional Investor, was nominated for Fixed Income Manager of the Year by Institutional Investor for 2014, and was inducted into the Fixed Income Analysts Society Fixed Income Hall of Fame in 2013. Five of the funds Mr. Rieder manages (Strategic Income Opportunities, Fixed Income Global Opportunities, Total Return, Strategic Global Bond, and Global Allocation) have been awarded Gold Medals by Morningstar.
From 1987 to 2008, Mr. Rieder was with Lehman Brothers, most recently as head of the firm’s Global Principal Strategies team, a global proprietary investment platform. He was also global head of the firm’s credit businesses, Chairman of the Corporate Bond and Loan Capital Commitment Committee, and a member of the Board of Trustees for the corporate pension fund. Before joining Lehman Brothers, Mr. Rieder was a credit analyst at SunTrust Banks in Atlanta.
Mr. Rieder earned a BBA degree in Finance from Emory University in 1983 and an MBA degree from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 1987. He is a member of the board of Emory University, Emory’s Goizueta Business School, and the University’s Finance Committee, and is the Vice Chairman of the Investment Committee. Mr. Rieder is founder and chairman of the Goizueta Business School’s BBA investment fund and community financial literacy program, Graduation Generation Public School Collaboration in Atlanta.
Mr. Rieder serves as Chairman and President of the Board of Education for North Star Academy’s fourteen Charter Schools in Newark, New Jersey. He is on the Board of the BlackRock Foundation, the Board of Advisors for the Hospital for Special Surgery, and the Board of Big Brothers/Big Sisters of Newark and Essex County. Mr. Rieder is a Member of the Ownership Group and Board of Advisors of the Baltimore Orioles. He formerly served on the Board and National Leadership Council of the Communities in Schools Educational Foundation, and Trustee for the US Olympic Foundation. Mr. Rieder was honored at the Choose Success Awards ceremony in Atlanta in 2015 for his dedication to public education in Atlanta through CIS and Graduation Generation.
Orlando Bravo
Orlando Bravo is a Founder and Managing Partner of Thoma Bravo. He led Thoma Bravo’s early entry into software buyouts and built the firm into one of the largest software-focused investors in the world. Today, Orlando directs the firm’s strategy and investment decisions in accordance with its principles of partnership, innovation and performance.
Orlando has overseen over 480 software and technology acquisitions conducted by the firm, representing approximately $265 billion in enterprise value. Forbes named him “Wall Street’s best dealmaker” in 2019, and he was dubbed “Private equity’s king of SaaS” by the Financial Times in 2021.
Orlando was born in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a bachelor’s degree in economics and political science from Brown University in 1992, and earned a JD from Stanford Law School and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business in 1998.
He is the Founder and Chairman of the Bravo Family Foundation, which aims to provide young adults in Puerto Rico with access to opportunity. In 2019, Mr. Bravo committed $100 million to the Foundation’s Rising Entrepreneurs Program (REP) with the goal of fostering entrepreneurship on the island. In addition, he has been personally involved in responding to the hurricanes that have devastated communities across Puerto Rico, providing an additional $20 million in funding for humanitarian and relief efforts following Hurricanes Maria (2017) and Fiona (2022).
The Orlando Bravo Center for Economics Research at Brown University supports innovative research, training and collaborative projects for faculty and students in the Department of Economics. At Stanford Law School, Orlando created the Bravo Family Public Interest Post-Graduate Fellowship Fund to support students seeking full-time employment in public interest.
Orlando’s philanthropic interests also include causes in healthcare. He endowed faculty scholar and fellow positions at Stanford University’s Sean N. Parker Center for Allergy Research and supports a wide range of medical research. He is a member of the Board of Trustees at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.
Libby Cantrill
Ms. Cantrill is head of U.S. public policy and a managing director in PIMCO’s portfolio management group. In her role, she analyzes policy and political risk for the firm’s Investment Committee and leads U.S. policymaker engagement and policy strategy for the firm. She also works closely with PIMCO’s Global Advisory Board, led by former Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke. She has served as a rotating member of the firm’s Executive Committee and is a founding member of PIMCO Families and PIMCO Women. Prior to joining PIMCO in 2007, she served as a legislative aide in the House of Representatives and also worked in the investment banking division at Morgan Stanley. She has 19 years of investment experience and holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and received her undergraduate degree in economics from Brown University. Ms. Cantrill is a CFA charterholder and a regular contributor to Bloomberg and CNBC. She is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and sits on the boards of Covenant House New York and the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (“SIFMA”).
Zack Kass
Zack Kass stands out as one of the brightest minds in AI today, with a robust 14-year journey at the epicenter of technological evolution. His significant tenure as Head of Go To Market at OpenAI put him front and center building AI strategies with many of the biggest companies in the world. His role in converting state of the art research into real-world business applications has positioned him as one the the foremost thinkers in Applied AI.
His mission is to ensure that businesses and governments are active participants in the AI-powered future, equipped to enable a future of abundance. Zack aims to do this by demystifying AI, making it accessible and understandable for everyone, and helping leaders navigate the rapidly evolving environment.
Beyond the corporate world, Zack is a staunch advocate for AI’s potential to revolutionize local governance. He works tirelessly to promote AI as a tool that can significantly enhance community service and overall societal welfare. His efforts seek to guarantee that the advancements in AI transcend commercial benefits and work towards the betterment of communities and societies at large.
All Speakers
Michael P. Manning, CFA, CAIA
Emma Andrews
Jennifer Appel, CFA
Dan Beaton
Steven F. Charlton, CFA
Aaron Chastain, CFA
Thomas D. Cook
Larissa Davy
Rose Dean, CFA
Oliver Fadly
Daniel S. Gimbel, CIMA®
Akila Grewal
Rosann Halleran
Andrew Heiskell
Kumber Husain
Rajiv Jain
Chris Jaroch
Janis Kane, CFA, FSA, EA
Colton Lavin, CFA
Todd Liker
Nick Mann
Paul Matson
Kathleen McCarthy
Timothy F. McCusker, FSA, CFA, CAIA
Kyan L. Nafissi, CFA
Phillip R. Nelson, CFA
Mikaylee O’Connor
Kadmiel Onodje, CAIA
Michael Painter
Scott F. Perry, CAIA
Nedelina (Nina) Petkova
Andrew Pettersen, CFA
Santo Politi
Lindsay Powers
James E. Reichert, CFA
Alex Rickels, CFA
Sarah Samuels, CFA, CAIA
Shelley R. Santulli
Lindsay Sharma
William Stanco
Jeff Stevenson
Sigurd Strack
Kristina Tomasik
Amy Trainor, FSA
Thomas E. Wagner
Lu Zhang
Michael P. Manning, CFA, CAIA
Mike began his investment career in 1993 and joined NEPC in 1997. Mike became President of NEPC, LLC in 2003 and Managing Partner in April 2011. During his time at NEPC, Mike has worked closely with a broad array of clients, covering all types that NEPC works with today, including Public, Healthcare, Private Wealth, Corporate, and Endowment/Foundation investment programs. Mike currently serves on NEPC’s Discretionary and Alternative Assets Committees. In addition, he is a frequent speaker at national industry conferences and seminars.
Prior to joining NEPC, Mike worked in a private debt management division of Prudential Insurance Company. Prior to Prudential, Mike worked at Putnam Investments and Fidelity Investments.
Mike earned his M.B.A., with honors, from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business, with concentrations in Finance and Accounting. He received his B.A. from the University of Notre Dame. Mike is a member of the Boston Security Analyst Society and the CFA Institute. Mike holds the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA) designations.
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
Steve provides strategic leadership in multiple areas at NEPC, including design and strategic direction for NEPC’s OCIO business. Prior to his current role Steve was the head of NEPC’s overall client-facing consulting business for four years and the head of one of NEPC’s major business lines for over ten years. Steve is a member of NEPC’s OCIO Committee, Management Group, and is involved in many of the technical projects performed at NEPC. Steve is a frequent speaker at national industry conferences, he is the author of multiple research and technical papers and is often quoted in the popular press.
Prior to joining NEPC in 1996, Steve worked as an Investment Specialist at Putnam Investments, where he was responsible for helping clients understand the products and performance offered through Putnam. Steve worked with Putnam’s clients to develop cohesive plan designs and investment policy statements and help plan sponsors better evaluate their long-term objectives and plan performance.
Steve earned a B.A. with two majors, Economics and English Writing, from St. Lawrence University in 1991. Steve is a CFA charter holder and a member of both the Boston Security Analysts Society, and the CFA Institute.
Aaron Chastain, CFA
Aaron is a Principal, Senior Consultant within NEPC’s Corporate Practice based out of the Atlanta, Georgia office. He manages consulting assignments for institutional client portfolios consisting of defined benefit plans, defined contribution plans, and corporate asset pools. He has experience working with large institutional clients ranging from $50 million to over $135 billion in total assets.
Aaron also serves as a member of NEPC’s Corporate Pension Solutions Group, focusing on developing investment solutions and thought leadership to guide advice delivery across NEPC’s corporate pension client base.
Prior to joining NEPC, he also served as Head of Aon’s North America Defined Contribution Multi-Asset Solutions Manager Research team, responsible for the firm’s ratings of target date funds, managed accounts, balanced funds, and target risk funds. He was also a Senior Custom Solutions Consultant, specializing in custom target date and multi-manager portfolios.
He has authored numerous thought leadership publications and has been interviewed by media outlets including the Wall Street Journal, Pensions & Investments, and PlanAdviser.
Aaron graduated summa cum laude from Berry College with a B.S. in Finance, where he also previously served as an Adjunct Professor of Economics and Finance. He holds the Chartered Financial Analyst designation and is a member of the CFA Society of Atlanta and CFA Institute.
Location:Atlanta, GA
Thomas D. Cook
Tom joined NEPC in 2007 and is a Principal and Senior Consultant in our Defined Contribution practice with over 20 years of industry experience.
Tom specializes in consulting to defined contribution plans on plan design, investment and governance issues. In addition to his client service role, Tom has spoken at many conferences, including Pensions & Investments, DCIIA, and NEPC’s own client conference, on the topic of white-label funds, custom target date funds, and financial wellness. He has previously been a member of the Global Asset Allocation Research Advisory Group striving to continuously improve research efforts within this asset class. Tom is a member of the Defined Contribution Institutional Investment Association (DCIIA).
Prior to joining NEPC, Tom worked as a data analyst at State Street Corporation in the institutional investor services department where he researched securities for sector and industry classification and worked in depth on security coding for ERISA reporting.
Tom earned his B.S. in Business Administration, with a concentration in Accounting, from Bryant University.
Location:Boston, MA
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
Rose Dean is a Partner with NEPC. She joined NEPC in April 2023. Prior to joining NEPC, Ms. Dean spent 8 years as a Managing Director and senior consultant at Wilshire Advisors, providing consulting services to corporate and public pensions funds, endowments and foundations.
Rose has over 22 years of industry experience. Prior to her tenure at Wilshire, she ran a start-up consulting business, advising on opportunities focused on private credit and asset-based loan portfolios. She also spent seven years trading fixed income at Citigroup in New York, both as a market maker and as a bank treasury portfolio manager. Subsequently, she was a Director at Harcourt Alternative Investments, a Swiss Fund of Hedge Funds. Rose was in charge of hedge fund investment due diligence for multiple strategies including fixed income arbitrage, global macro and emerging markets.
Rose holds a B.A. in Chemistry from the University of Chicago and two MBA degrees, one in Finance from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and one in International Brand Management from ESSEC (École Supérieure des Sciences Économiques et Commerciales) in France. She is fluent in Korean and conversant in Mandarin Chinese and French. Ms. Dean holds a Chartered Financial Analyst designation.
Location:Los Angeles, CA
Oliver Fadly
Oliver is part of the Private Markets team, leading the coverage of Private Debt strategies. Oliver is also a member of the Impact Investing Committee and the Credit and Equity Beta Groups. He joined us in 2011 as a Research Associate, producing searchbooks for the Traditional Research team before moving to the Private Equity team and taking on increasing responsibility over the past 10 years. At NEPC, we are proud of our early leadership in researching and allocating to Private Debt. Oliver has been a critical leader in developing our capabilities in this space. Oliver knows the ins and outs of the NEPC Research process, starting out as an Analyst and working his way up to Sr. Consultant before taking on this new role of Head of Private Debt in September 2022. In this new role, Oliver is already differentiating NEPC’s knowledge and depth of expertise in the PD space and has helped us attract and retain clients looking for this expertise.
Prior to joining NEPC in 2011, Oliver was employed at State Street Corporation as a Syndicated Bank Loan Associate. At State Street, Oliver managed multiple clients’ bank loan portfolios by processing all trade settlements, researching and resolving share breaks and interest discrepancies. Oliver was also responsible for producing accurate portfolio valuation on a daily, monthly and quarterly basis.
Oliver earned his B.A. from Bates College and is currently pursuing the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation.
Location:Boston, MA
Daniel S. Gimbel, CIMA®
Dan joined NEPC as a Principal and Senior Consultant and has over 39 years’ experience advising family offices and ultra-high net worth individuals. Dan’s expertise is in all aspects of client relationship management including asset allocation analysis, development of investment policy statements, portfolio construction, manager monitoring and performance reporting.
Prior to joining NEPC, Dan held the position of Director, Investment Advisory Services at CTClmyCFO. In addition to his client responsibilities at CTClmyCFO, Dan was also a voting member of the Investment Committee. Before his time at CTClmy CFO, Dan held a variety of roles with increasing responsibility at Charles Schwab & Company, including National Sales Manager of the Schwab Advisor Network. Additionally, for nearly ten years, Dan provided exclusive consulting advice to the staff and players of the PGA Tour (this included players’ and staff retirement plans, players’ investments and other PGA Tour related assets). Beyond this, Dan served as a Financial Consultant at Shearson Lehman Brothers and an Account Executive at Merrill Lynch, which is where Dan launched his career in the financial services industry.
Dan earned his B.S. in Business Administration and Finance from the University of Southern California and a Certified Investment Management AnalystSM (CIMA®) designation from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. Dan is an avid and competitive golfer, having competed in nine National Amateur Golf Championships in both the United States and the United Kingdom. Dan resides in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida with his wife and three children.
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
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
Nick joined NEPC in 2021 and is a member of the Firm’s Private Markets team. Nick leads the coverage of private equity buyout strategies, both North American and global strategies. Nick is also a member of the Impact Investing Committee and the Equity Beta Group.
Prior to joining NEPC, Nick was a Director at Windrose Advisors, a large multi-family office. In this position, he led manager due diligence and research across private investments, including private equity, venture capital, and real estate. He also worked closely with clients on designing and implementing investment portfolios. Nick’s previous experience also includes working for Brighton House Associates as a Senior Research Analyst, working closely with private equity and hedge funds on capital introduction efforts. Additionally, Nick worked at Ceres, where he worked with institutional investors and Fortune 500 businesses to address energy policy issues.
Nick received a BA in Political Science from Wheaton College and a MSc. in Comparative European Politics from Trinity College, Dublin. At Wheaton, Nick played on the varsity soccer team.
Location:Boston, MA
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
Tim joined NEPC in 2006 and began his career in the investment industry in 2002. Tim is responsible for overseeing Investment Research at NEPC, a group of 69 professionals including dedicated teams focusing on Alternative Investments, Public Markets, and Asset Allocation. As CIO, Tim leads investment strategy development for NEPC including market assessment and outlook, communication of key themes and best ideas, as well as evaluation of investment strategies. Tim also works closely with a wide variety of clients to construct investment portfolios to meet their long-term objectives. Tim is a member of the Marketable Investment Committee, the Private Investment Committee and the Asset Allocation Committee. Additionally, Tim is a member of the firm’s Management Group. Tim was named in CIO magazine’s “The Knowledge Brokers 2016” edition as one of the world’s most influential investment consultants. In 2015, Tim topped CIO magazine’s 2015 annual ranking of the world’s most influential investment consultants in the Generalist consultant category. In 2014, Tim was recognized by CIO magazine in their edition titled “The Knowledge Broker” as one of the top 25 of the world’s most influential investment consultants. Tim ranked 6th out of the 25 consultants recognized.[1]
Prior to becoming Chief Investment Officer, Tim served as NEPC’s Director of Traditional Research, overseeing long-only manager research and Asset Allocation. Previously, Tim worked in Asset Allocation and Manager Research functions, where his responsibilities included maintaining and developing asset allocation models and frameworks used broadly by NEPC clients as well as Global Asset Allocation and Risk Parity manager research. Before joining NEPC, Tim was an associate at Towers Perrin, where he provided actuarial consulting advice and addressed plan asset-liability issues for clients.
Tim earned his B.A. in Mathematics from Colgate University. He is a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries (FSA), and holds the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and Chartered Alternative Investments Analyst (CAIA) designations.
[1] CIO’s Most Influential Investment Consultants: CIO Magazine interviews pension and non-profit CIOs, asset managers and former consultants to approximate what it calls “the hierarchy of today’s institutional consultant industry”. The results should not be considered a recommendation of any specific firm or individual consultant. For more information, please visit CIO Magazine’s web site at https://www.ai-cio.com/lists/
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
Phillip leads NEPC’s asset allocation research and is responsible for the firm’s macroeconomic outlook, dynamic asset class views, and capital market assumptions. Phillip joined NEPC in 2011 having been in the investment industry since 2002. Prior to joining NEPC, Phillip was responsible for overseeing the investments of Pinnacle West Capital Corporation. Phillip received his B.A. in Political Science from the University of California, Irvine. He also holds the Chartered Financial Analyst designation.
Mikaylee O’Connor
Mikaylee joined NEPC in 2024 as Principal, Head of Defined Contribution (DC) Solutions. Mikaylee is responsible for leading the way NEPC’s DC practice delivers innovative and creative solutions to clients. In addition to serving clients, Mikaylee oversees NEPC’s DC plan trends research and data analytics, guiding strategic initiatives related to target date funds, managed accounts, retirement income solutions, and other investments that are vital to the retirement outcomes of participants.
Before joining NEPC, Mikaylee was Principal, Senior Defined Contribution Strategist within PGIM DC Solutions team. She provided thought leadership to DC plans on investment issues, plan design, investment structure and implementation, the implications of regulatory changes, and industry best practices. Prior to that, Mikaylee spearheaded RVK, Inc.’s DC practice as their Head of DC Solutions overseeing strategic direction and growth of the practice. She advised a number of client relationships including corporate, multiple-employer, and public DC plans, working directly with them on developing investment policies, investment menu design, plan fee reviews, target-date fund evaluations, white-label fund implementation and trustee education.
Mikaylee is actively involved with several industry organizations, including the Defined Contribution Institutional Investment Association (DCIIA), where she serves as a member of the Operating Committee and Executive Committee, and the National Association of Government Defined Contribution Administrators, Inc. (NAGDCA), where she is a member of the Legislative Committee.
Mikaylee earned her BA degree in finance from Portland State University.
Location:Portland, OR
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
Scott joined NEPC in 2006, with investment experience dating back to 2001. He is the Head of Portfolio Strategy for the OCIO Team that strategically builds, maintains, and opportunistically adjusts OCIO client portfolios. Scott works with NEPC’s client teams to understand objectives and communicates these with NEPC’s OCIO Committee. Previously, Scott was a long tenured member of the Endowment and Foundation team at NEPC and most recently was the Co-Team leader.
Scott is a member of NEPC’s Governance Board, Retirement Committee and Diversity & Inclusion Board. He has been a significant contributor to the firm’s Impact investing efforts over the years, which has included strategy development and manager research. He has helped clients assess SRI, ESG, and thematic strategies that best align with their respective missions.
Scott has authored white papers on Impact investing and the Endowment Model and was recognized in 2016 by CIO magazine in their edition titled “The Knowledge Brokers” as one of the world’s most influential investment consultants[1]. Scott is a frequent speaker at industry conferences on OCIO Industry trends, the Endowment Model, Alternative Investments, and Impact Investing. He is frequently featured and quoted in industry publications including Bloomberg, Institutional Investor & Pensions & Investments.
Prior to joining NEPC, Scott served as an analyst at Ashton Partners and Putnam Investments.
Scott received his M.B.A. from Babson College and his B.S.B.A. in Management from Bucknell University. Scott became a Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA) designee in 2008.
Scott is heavily involved at Year Up Boston where he has been a mentor, participated in mock interviews and organizes an annual basketball tournament fundraiser. Year Up is an organization that provides a one-year, intensive training program for talented and motivated, yet under-served young adults. Scott is also a board member of “e” Inc. an environmental science learning and action center that serves the Boston Public Schools. He is also actively involved in coaching youth sports in Charlestown.
[1] CIO’s Most Influential Investment Consultants: CIO Magazine interviews pension and non-profit CIOs, asset managers and former consultants to approximate what it calls “the hierarchy of today’s institutional consultant industry”. The results should not be considered a recommendation of any specific firm or individual consultant. For more information, please visit CIO Magazine’s web site at https://www.ai-cio.com/lists/
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.
James E. Reichert, CFA
James’ investment career began in 1999, and he joined NEPC in 2007. James is a member of the OCIO Team where he develops investment strategy and maintains and adjusts OCIO portfolios based on client objectives. James works with the NEPC client teams to understand objectives and communicates these with the OCIO Committee who approves initial and ongoing asset allocation changes.
James is a co-chair of NEPC’s Asset Allocation Committee and a member of the Fixed Income Research Advisory Group. James’ responsibilities in research include development of NEPC’s Key Market Themes and Current Opportunities and refinement of Asset Allocation and Risk Management tools used across the firm.
Previously, James worked with healthcare clients and endowments and foundations. In support of his client relationships, James developed investment programs incorporating results from NEPC’s proprietary Risk Models to inform development of investment policy statements, asset allocation and manager selection.
Prior to joining NEPC, James was a Senior Fixed Income Operations Manager at State Street Global Advisors.
James received his B.A. in History from Boston College. James holds the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation.
Location:Boston, MA
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
Sarah is a partner at NEPC and oversees the firm’s 45-person investment manager selection team across private equity (buyouts, growth equity, venture capital), private debt, private real estate and real assets, hedge funds and public markets. In this role, she oversees the investment of roughly $4 billion per year in private markets funds. Prior to joining NEPC, Sarah was managing director at Wellesley College where she was responsible for the investment of the College’s endowment, including manager selection, asset allocation and portfolio construction.
Earlier in her career, Sarah was deputy chief investment officer at Mass PRIM where she chaired the internal investment committee and oversaw asset allocation, investment research and manager selection across asset classes. Samuels led the portfolio management of the $80 billion pension fund and was a member of the Executive Management Team tasked with strategic planning and management of the organization. Sarah also worked as associate portfolio manager at Boston Advisors and in a variety of roles at Wellington Management Company.
Sarah is Chair of the CFA Society Boston Board, serves on the Advisory Board for Girls Who Invest and founded the Boston chapter of Private Equity Women Investor Network (PEWIN). Previously she chaired the Investment Committee and served as a Board Director for the University of New Hampshire.
Sarah holds the Chartered Financial Analyst and the Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst designations and earned an MBA in Finance at Boston University and a BA in German/minor in Business from the University of New Hampshire. She is an active angel investor, founded a podcast called Pull Up A Chair, wrote a children’s book called Braving Our Savings and is passionate about teaching children about investing.
Sarah has received recognition for her contributions to the industry, including: With Intelligence’s Advisor of the Year; Institutional Investor’s Influential Woman in Institutional Investing, Most Wanted Allocators, Hedge Fund Rising Star and Public Pension Plan of the Year; Trusted Insight’s Top 30 University Endowment Rising Star; Banker & Tradesman’s Women of FIRE; CIO Magazine’s Next Generation Award; ai-CIO’s Forty Under Forty
Location:Boston, MA
Shelley R. Santulli
Shelley Santulli joined NEPC in 2022 as a Principal, Senior Investment Director in Real Assets. She has extensive real estate investment experience with over 25 years acting as a principal on behalf of institutional investors executing core, value-added, and opportunistic real estate investments using a variety of structures including direct property acquisitions, development, joint venture equity, preferred equity, subordinated debt, entity-level investments, and publicly-traded CMBS and REIT securities. Shelley has significant experience investing across property sectors and most major domestic and select international markets with investments totaling over $7 billion in gross asset value.
Prior to NEPC, Shelley was an Executive Vice President, Portfolio Management at American Realty Advisors where she was focused on portfolio management and strategy of a diversified, open-end value fund. Previously, she was Managing Director, Head of Strategy & Business Development at Berkshire Group where she was a member of the Operating Committee and led strategic planning, product development, strategic business development initiatives, research, and corporate communications and marketing. Other prior experience includes senior level investment positions at The Congress Group, Broadview Investors, AEW Capital Management, and Fidelity Investments. Earlier in her career, Shelley worked in the Real Estate Advisory Services Groups of PricewaterhouseCoopers and Laventhol & Horwath.
Shelley has a Bachelor of Arts degree from Duke University, Magna Cum Laude, and an MBA from the University of Chicago.
Location:Boston, MA
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.