CAASA Annual Conference

Hazlitt Gill is a senior research director for Global Manager Research (GMR), a division of Wells Fargo Investment Institute. The GMR team selects and oversees the third-party money managers used throughout Wells Fargo’s brokerage, private banking, family wealth, and retirement businesses.

In his role, Mr. Gill oversees the investment manager research for alternative investments. Prior to joining Wells Fargo, Mr. Gill was the chief investment officer for RLJ Select Investments LLC. He has more than 20 years of experience in the financial services industry.

Mr. Gill earned both a Masters of Science in Operations Research and Statistics and a Bachelors of Science inMechanical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and holds Series 7, Series 63, and Series 3Exemption securities registrations with FINRA. He resides in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Dr. Ranjan Bhaduri is the Founder, President & CEO of Bodhi Research Group. Bodhi Research Group is focused on research and education in the alternative investments industry.

Dr. Bhaduri has extensive experience in hedge fund research, hedge fund factorization, portfolio management, and due diligence (investment, operational, and structural). Dr. Bhaduri has designed and implemented an institutional due diligence and research program. Dr. Bhaduri’s experience includes being on an Investment Committee at Morgan Stanley where he conducted due diligence and helped design customized portfolios of Alternatives. Earlier, he was at a Canadian Fund of Funds, and at a multi-billion dollar capital management firm where he was involved in all aspects of its fund of hedge funds and structured finance business. He has also worked with two major Canadian investment banks in the Financial Strategy Consulting Group and in Global Risk Management & Control, respectively.

Dr. Bhaduri has a winning track record of leadership and training. Several of his former analysts and interns have gone on to have successful careers and have held positions at prestigious organizations, including the following firms: Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, Goldman Sachs, J.P Morgan, Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, Securities Exchange Commission (SEC), Neuberger Berman, and Crabel Capital Management.

Dr. Bhaduri has held an advisory role at the East-West Center, a leading think tank on the Asia-Pacific region. He has taught finance and mathematics at several universities and lectured on Derivatives for the Montreal Exchange. Dr. Bhaduri has published papers on, and been invited to speak worldwide regarding hedge fund issues, and advanced portfolio and risk management techniques. Dr. Bhaduri was invited by the CME to be part of a special delegation that met with regulators in Beijing and Taipei to discuss hedge fund issues.

Dr. Bhaduri holds both the CFA and CAIA charters. He is a member of the American Mathematical
Society, the Mathematical Association of America, the Toronto CFA Society, and PRMIA. Dr. Bhaduri previously served as a member of the All About Alpha Editorial Board, and has previously served on the CAIA Chicago Chapter Executive. Dr. Bhaduri recently served on the Board of Directors of AIMA Canada, co-chair of AIMA Canada Managed Futures Committee, and on the AIMA Global Research Committee.

Randy Cohen is a Partner at Alignvest Investment Management. Mr. Cohen also teaches finance and entrepreneurship in the MBA program at Harvard Business School, as well as Investments at the MIT Sloan School of Management. Mr. Cohen has helped to start and grow a number of investment management firms. He has also served as an actuarial consultant specializing in pension plan asset/liability management. He is a frequent speaker at investment conferences globally, such as the Sovereign Investor Institute and the Foundation and Endowment Asset Management conference.

Mr. Cohen is a highly respected researcher whose main focus is on the relationship between institutional investors and the stock market. He has published frequently cited articles on the ex-ante identification of outstanding investment managers and the prediction of security and asset-class performance. His work has been published in top academic journals including the Journal of Finance, Quarterly Journal of Economics and Journal of Financial Economics. His 2003 paper “The Value Spread” (with Christopher Polk and Tuomo Vuolteenaho) and his 2005 article “Judging Fund Managers by the Company They Keep” (with Joshua Coval and Lubos Pastor), were both nominated for the annual Smith-Breeden Prize for the best asset-pricing paper published in the Journal of Finance.

Mr. Cohen holds an AB in Mathematics from Harvard College and a PhD in Finance from the University of Chicago.

James co-founded CAASA in response to industry support for a Canadian alternatives association to serve all aspects including: hedge / alternative strategies; private lending; private real estate; private equity; plus emerging areas where Canada is a leader such as digital assets / blockchain and robo-advisors.

Prior to CAASA, James was the Chief Operating Officer of AIMA Canada where his team of three worked with 12 committees to produce 50-60 events per annum across Canada, organize 100+ committee meetings, and increase member numbers over his 7-year tenure from 66 to 164 corporate entities.

James also has experience in research and writing for the CAIA Association as well as serving on CAIA’s Exam Council and as a grader for the Level II portion of the exam. He also had roles in institutional sales and FoHF structuring in Seoul, South Korea, as a Product Manager at ICICI Wealth Management, and an Investment Advisor at RBC Dominion Securities. He graduated from Simon Fraser University with a BBA (Finance).

Maureen heads the Managed Futures business within Morgan Stanley Investment Management. She joined Morgan Stanley in 2012 as head of the alternative investment intermediary sales team and moved to become a senior relationship manager focused on alternative investment business development. She has 26 years of industry experience. Prior to joining the firm, Maureen was a managing director for K2 Advisors. She spent 17 years at Citigroup as a Managing Director where she held various roles in the development and distribution of alternative investments.

Maureen began her involvement in managed futures in 1991 while at Rodman and Renshaw in Chicago. Maureen was responsible for manager due diligence and portfolio construction for Rodman’s managed futures fund effort. She moved to Smith Barney in 1993 and was part of the institutional business development effort that created sub-advised managed futures funds for several European banks and insurance companies. Previous to that, she worked in a derivatives and market research capacity at both Rodman Renshaw and Drexel Burnham Lambert, assisting institutional clients with their futures and options hedging and trading strategies. Maureen received a B.A. in Speech Pathology from California State University and a Masters in Finance from Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University. She holds the Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst designation.

Mr. Broadway joined Gryphon in 2017 as the President. Mr. Broadway’s duties include overseeing all of the daily operations of the family office as well providing strategic insight and direction in the areas of philanthropy and investment management for this multi-generation single family office. Mr. Broadway received his Bachelor of Science degree, with an emphasis in Accounting, from the University of Virginia in 1991 and an M.B.A., with an emphasis in Finance, from the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill in 1999.

From August 1991 through July 1995, Mr. Broadway worked in the assurance practice at Coopers & Lybrand, LLC, as a member of the Financial Services Team and became a licensed Certified Public Accountant in Virginia in 2004. From August 1995 through April 2014 Mr. Broadway was employed by Chesapeake Capital Corporation, an industry leading CTA, was a Principal, held various senior leadership positions and was the President of the family office of its’ founder. From 2014 until earlier this year he was the COO and Principal of Aspen Partners, Ltd, a CTA based in Richmond Virginia.

Mr. Broadway, and his wife, Janet, live in Manakin-Sabot, just outside of Richmond. Both he and his wife are involved in their church and in his spare time Mr. Broadway enjoys wing shooting, cycling, and international travel.

Capital Markets Outlook Group provides analytic guidance to institutional investors in 10 countries. They translate the economic situation into recommended portfolio strategy, and have identified all major turning points for the economy, equity, bond and credit markets since their founding in 1992. They have maintained a demonstration portfolio since 2003.

Ms. Everson co-founded the company, and has conducted capital markets research since 1981. She is a graduate of Smith College and Harvard Business School. She worked for Data Resources (now IHS Global Insight,) and Charles River Associates before joining The Boston Company, from whom she and her colleagues acquired their firm.

Ms. Everson serves on the investment committee of Mass PRIM, the $71 billion pension fund for Massachusetts public employees. She is a director of the Weredale Foundation in her native Montreal, and a past-President of the Boston Economic Club.

Michael Nicks is the Director of Investments for Pepperdine University’s Endowment. He is responsible for the endowment’s hedge fund investments, including the portable alpha strategy and a diversifying portfolio of market-independent investments. In addition, he is responsible for modelling, quantitative analysis and special investment projects for the overall portfolio. In 2015, he was named one of Trusted Insight’s Top 30 University Endowment Investors in Hedge Funds. He began managing this portfolio in 2005, and has been with the University since 2003. In addition to his investment duties, Mr. Nicks has taught investments at Pepperdine, served on the curriculum committee and as a senior grader for the Chartered Alternative Investments Analyst (CAIA) designation, and is a current member of the Alternative Investment Management Association (AIMA) Investor Steering Committee. Mr. Nicks earned his B.S. and M.B.A. (Finance) from Pepperdine’s Graziadio School of Business, and holds both the CAIA and CFA charters.

Faruk is a senior investment risk executive with 20 years of financial industry work experience primarily within asset management and focusing on investment risk management and oversight of investment strategies.

Faruk was appointed in early 2018 to the position of Interim Chief Risk Officer of Manulife’s Global Wealth and Asset Management (WAM) division which oversees nearly $500 Billion of assets under management. In this role, Faruk is responsible to lead the Global WAM Risk team and is responsible for developing ongoing all risk policies, processes and procedures to ensure identification, measurement, monitoring and reporting of risk assumed by Global Wealth Management businesses. In his role as Managing Director, Global Head of Investment Risk Governance, Faruk oversees the investment risk management frameworks within all of the Global WAM businesses, focusing on investment risk, counterparty credit risk, and liquidity risk.

Previously Faruk worked at the Alberta Investment Management Corporation (AIMCo) in Edmonton as Senior Manager, Investment Risk where he led the Investment risk team on quantitative risk measurement & risk analytics of AIMCo’s total fund, total fund risk analysis and risk governance. Prior to this, Faruk held roles at National Bank Financial Group in counterparty credit risk management (focusing on pension funds and asset managers), State Street Global Advisors Ltd. (Canada) in risk management and compliance, and CIBC Global Asset Management in oversight of investment strategies (focusing on risk and performance).

Faruk is completing a M.Sc Finance (Major of Quantitative Finance) with the University of London today and has completed a Bachelor of Commerce degree with a major in finance from Concordia University. Faruk has earned the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation and holds the Financial Risk Manager (FRM) and Professional Risk Manager (PRM) designations.
Faruk has also been an active volunteer leader with the Professional Risk Managers’ International Association (PRMIA) elected as Chairman of the Global Board of Directors and also successfully leading the Montreal and Edmonton chapters.

Prior to joining GPF, Dr. Srikanya spent more than 10 years studying and working in Japan and the United Kingdom. Upon returning to home country, she spent most of her time working in a well-recognized Japanese advertising agency and finished her advertising career as Managing Director and Regional Strategy Director, the only Thai woman ever been in that position. She is very much well-known in Thai advertising and academic world as she published many books on consumer behaviors, consumer research, marketing and branding. Some of them are in English and some are being used as a must-read book for advertising students in many universities.

Upon joining GPF, Dr. Srikanya was assigned to play a key role in developing and communicating member investment choices, including life-path choice to GPF’s plan members. She is very active in applying mathematical simulation models for communication. Those include retirement adequacy model, contribution simulation model and investment choice simulation model.

Dr. Srikanya also developed various kinds of investment games helping plan members to understand GPF’s operations including SAA, asset risk-return, business, investment cycle and etc. Currently she is working on using communication technology to personalize plan member communication.

Dr. Maryna Lundgren is an actuary, senior specialist in Finansinspektionen, Swedish Financial Authority, with 14 years of work experience as a life actuary on European market.

Year 2017 has Maryna joined FSA in Sweden where she is working closely with the questions related to the new European solvency requirements to insurance companies “Solvency II” and on the valuation of technical provisions. Maryna is a part of a team which is closely engaged in quantitative and qualitative reporting analysis and insurance on-site inspections on Swedish market.

Previously Maryna has been working with actuarial modelling for technical provision, embedded value and capital requirement calculations for different types of portfolios, as well as with own risk assessment process in two of top ten Swedish life insurance companies – SEB Life and Pension and Länsförsäkringar Liv.

Maryna has also an experience of working on developing markets and has been holding positions as a responsible actuary in Ukrainian companies SEB Life Ukraine and Illichivska, as well as a consulting actuary in eight other life insurance companies. During the time Maryna has been responsible for different types of actuarial and methodological questions – profit testing, pricing, reserving, reinsurance, business developing planning and others.

Year 2009 has Maryna defended PhD qualification thesis in the field of probability theory and stochastic processes “Mathematical investigation of insurance market with financial investments” in Kyiv National Taras Shevchenko University.

As a senior member of the Financial Markets Group, John McPartland advises senior management of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago on matters involving international netting systems, settlement systems for fixed income and equity securities in G-5 countries, exchange traded derivatives, privately negotiated derivatives, risk mitigation techniques, especially bilateral collateralization of foreign exchange and derivatives instruments, margining systems of derivatives exchanges in G-10 countries, idiosyncrasies affecting U.S. securities markets, payment initiatives and issues relevant to collateralizing or clearing Over the Counter (OTC) derivatives instruments.

He contributes to the Federal Reserve’s position on public policy issues involving netting systems, supervisory oversight of exchange-traded and OTC derivatives, international competitiveness, and appropriate regulatory structure of domestic financial markets. He additionally serves as a technical resource that can be seconded to other national authorities. Prior to joining the Bank, Mr. McPartland was a commercial banker to the futures industry, an executive of two Futures Commission Merchants and a member of the CME. He was the Deputy Manager of the CME Clearing House for a decade. He has previously served as a member of the CFTC’s Technology Advisory Committee and currently serves as an independent member of the Probable Cause and Business Conduct Committees of the CME and CBoT.

Darren Wolf is a Senior Investment Manager and is the Head of Hedge Fund Solutions, Americas. Darren joined Aberdeen via the acquisition of Arden Asset Management LLC in 2015 where he was the Director of Research and a member of Arden’s Investment Committee. At Arden, Darren was responsible for managing the day-to-day research activities of the firm. Previously, he was on the Investment Committee and the Head of Research at Robeco-Sage Investment Management, where he joined as a member of the investment team in 2001. Darren is a graduate of Yeshiva University’s Sy Syms School of Business where he studied Finance and advanced work in Management Information Systems. He is a CFA charterholder and a member of the New York Society of Security Analysts (NYSSA).

Darryl Orom is the Head of Absolute Return Investments at Alberta Teachers’ Retirement Fund (“ATRF”). He was responsible for the design and implementation of the Fund’s Absolute Return program in 2014 and today leads an investment team focused on the management of approximately $1.6 Billion in hedge fund assets for ATRF. Darryl is also a member of ATRF’s Management Investment Committee responsible for the Fund’s portfolio and asset allocation decisions as well as the assessment of illiquid asset investment opportunities.

Darryl began his career in 1994 as an Investment Advisor with BMO Nesbitt Burns and later National Bank Financial. In 2007 he joined Alberta Teachers’ Retirement Fund where he was initially responsible for the Fund’s external manager program until he assumed responsibility for ATRF’s Absolute Return program.

Darryl holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Alberta, the Chartered Investment Manager (CIM) designation and is a Fellow of the Canadian Securities Institute (FCSI).

Christopher Rapcewicz is Director of Risk and Operations at the Helmsley Charitable Trust. He is part of the development and implementation of the overall investment strategy and is principally responsible for the risk management of Helmsley’s investments across all asset classes and for ensuring the integrity and effectiveness of the investment operations. Christopher received the Investor Intelligence Award: Risk Management in 2016.

Prior to joining Helmsley, Christopher was chief risk officer and global head of quantitative solutions at UBP Asset Management, a multi-billion dollar fund of funds. Prior to that he was vice president of risk at Blackstone Alternative Asset Management where he was involved in all aspects of hedge fund risk management. He was also responsible for the selection of quantitative and systematic hedge funds. Christopher joined Blackstone after four years at Measurisk, a risk measurement vendor that was acquired by MSCI in 2010. At Measurisk, he was managing director responsible for the development and operation of the core risk factory. Christopher has also been an adjunct professor in the School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) at Columbia University.

Christopher received a Ph.D. in theoretical physics from Cornell University and his B.Sc. (summa cum laude) from McMaster University in Canada. He has worked as a risk professional for 17 years.

Ms. Mohta is a Senior Analyst within GM Asset Management’s ERM team and is responsible for conducting operational due diligence on alternative and traditional asset managers included within GMAM’s pension portfolio. Prior to GMAM, Ms. Mohta served as Vice President, Operational Due Diligence at Citi Private Bank. During her 10+ years experience in the finance and technology areas, Ms. Mohta has served various research and managerial roles within reputable firms including Alliance Bernstein, Willis Towers Watson and Castle Hall Alternatives. Ms. Mohta holds an MBA Finance and a BSc Mathematics and Computer Science from McGill University. She is actively involved within various hedge fund and private equity organizations in New York.

Thai An Le is a Vice President for AIP Private Markets and spearheads the development of its operational due diligence framework. Prior to joining the firm in 2018, Thai An was a Director and the Head of Operational Due Diligence at Castle Hall Alternatives, an ODD consulting firm representing institutional clients, family offices, funds of funds, and sovereign wealth funds, where she led diligence interviews with hedge fund and private equity investment managers across the globe. Thai An received a B.Com. in finance, strategy, and entrepreneurship from McGill University in Montreal, Canada. She holds the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and the Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA) designations.

Nicolas is Manager of the Absolute Return Program at Canadian National Railway Pension Fund in Montreal, Canada. He was named by Chief Investment Officer (aiCIO) as top 25 NextGen CIO list in 2018 and one of the 2015 top Forty Under Forty. He previously worked at several alternative funds in the capacity of quant analyst and derivatives trader. Outside the realm of finance, he is co-founder of Junto Montreal Society for Useful Knowledge, a non-profit organization with the mission to compound its members intellectual capital.

Patrick Augustin is an Assistant Professor of Finance at the Desautels Faculty of Management at McGill University, and an affiliated researcher with the Stockholm School of Economics and the Swedish House of Finance. He earned a PhD degree in Finance from the Stockholm School of Economics in 2013, a Master degree in Banking and Finance from the Luxembourg School of Finance, and a Master degree in Financial and Monetary Economics from the University Louis Pasteur in Strasbourg. He is also certified as Financial Risk Manager by the Global Association of Risk Professionals.

Professor Augustin’s research interests include derivatives, risk management, empirical asset pricing, sovereign credit risk and macro-finance. He has published in the Journal of Monetary Economics, Management Science, and in the Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis. His work on insider trading in options has been widely covered in the financial press, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and The Globe and Mail. Before joining academia, he worked as a structured credit officer at Dexia and as attaché to the Luxembourg Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Pam Chan is a Portfolio Manager in the Alternative Solutions Group at BlackRock and is one of the founding members of the team.

Prior to joining BlackRock in 2012, Ms. Chan worked as a senior research analyst for Governor Mark Carney in his capacity as Chair of the Financial Stability Board. In 2011, she worked at Harvard Management Company on strategic operations and prior to that, she was a Senior Investment Associate at Bridgewater. She started her career at Goldman, Sachs & Co. in their Financial Institutions Group, first as an investment banker and subsequently, as a member of their Capital Markets group, focused on private placements.

She graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College with a joint concentration in Philosophy and Government, and earned an MBA degree, with high honors, from Harvard Business School.

Chris Lawless is chief economist at the British Columbia Investment Management Corporation, providing analysis and advice on economic and financial issues, and long-horizon investment strategy and risks.

With extensive experience analyzing policy and forecasting the British Columbia, Canadian and global economies, Chris has served as chief economist with the B.C. Ministry of Finance, with the Library of Parliament’s economic research service, and as an advisor to House of Commons and Senate committees.

Chris has an M.A. in economics from Carleton University in Ottawa, and holds the Certified Business Economist designation from the National Association for Business Economics.

Chris is a director and past-president of the Canadian Association for Business Economics, vice-president of the Pacific Northwest Regional Economic Conference, and a member of various boards, including the Border Policy Research Institute at Western Washington University and the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria.

Omeir is currently the Head of Alternative Investments at the First Abu Dhabi Bank (Formerly known as the National Bank of Abu Dhabi’s), the largest Bank in the United Arab Emirates. Managing the Alternative Investments portfolio of the bank; he has been an integral part in establishing the Alternative Investments desk since 2008. Being a part of the team that manages Bank’s principal investments of over $30 billion; he has been an active member of the Global Markets Division, representing the Division at Group’s Asset Allocation Committee and the Investment Review Committee that outlines and discusses the Asset Allocation of the fiduciary capital. Omeir is also the Member of the Board of OneShare plc – 100% owned by FAB – an open-ended investment company incorporated in Ireland. Since Jan 2017; he was appointed as the Member of Investors Steering Committee for Alternative Investment Management Association (AIMA), an association that represents the global alternative investment industry.

Due to recognition of his knowledge and contribution; he has been the nominated host for the annual Global Financial Markets Forum, where he has hosted guests, such as Dr. Ben Bernanke, Larry Summers, Secretary James Baker, General Colin Powell, Dr. Mohamed El Erian, Jean-Claude Trichet, Tony Blair, David Cameron, Nicolas Sarkozy, Sir Paul Tucker, David Miliband, Niall Ferguson, Marc Faber, Paul Volcker, Axel Weber, Bob Diamond, to name a few. Prior to joining the FAB; he was a Portfolio Manager for an another Abu Dhabi-Based Commercial bank; the Union National Bank where he was a part of the Investment Team responsible for the management of Banks proprietary investments of over $1 billion, with over $700 million Fixed Income (including US GSE & GCC credit) and Structured Products portfolio and $150 million of Hedge Funds. Prior to UNB; he was the Investment and Development Analyst at The Private Office of His Highness Dr. Sheikh Sultan Bin Khalifa Al Nahyan (aka SBK Holdings) from the United Arab Emirates. During his tenor at the Private Office; in 2003, Omeir was selected as a local analyst for a high profile project for the Abu Dhabi Department of Economy, where he was actively involved with a UAE-based Investment boutique, Allied Investment House in the capacity of research and development for the group. He was an active member in the Feasibility Study of the establishment of $10 billion Petrochemical City prepared for the Department of Economy.

Omeir regularly speaks at Alternative Investments conferences representing asset allocators’ perspective. Omeir has earned his Honours Bachelors of Commerce (Accounting and Finance with minor in Economics) from Michael G. DeGroote School of Business, McMaster University, Hamilton (Canada) in 2001. He was awarded the Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA) designation in March 2010.

As Head of the Due Diligence & Advisory group, Mark Hannoush leads a team that specializes in conducting due diligence at the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board in Toronto, Canada. His role is to ensure that enterprise wide risk management is assessed and mitigated, as well as to provide direct support and assistance with deal implementation for the Plan’s External Manager Program which includes a variety of investment products from Hedge Funds to Private Equity Funds through a variety of structures from Managed Accounts to SPV’s and Fund Investments. The Group performs an internal and external advisory function (with its partners) in regard to risk management and infrastructure support and development; as well as business intelligence services.

The Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan has been a significant investor in External Managers since 1995. Mark was formerly in the Public Equities group within the Finance department, where he managed the middle and back office functions and processes for all internally traded and externally managed public equity portfolios.

He began his career as an auditor with Ernst & Young LLP in Ottawa, Canada where he earned his CPA, (CA) designation. He is also a CFA Charterholder.

Mathieu St-Jean is an innovative liquid capital markets entrepreneur who lives by the motto – “Active Management with a Purpose”.

Mathieu joined the CN Investment Division in 2001 where he occupied various functions within the Fund’s non-ownership activities. He built the Absolute Return portfolio from scratch and successfully managed the team for 13 years. Under Mathieu’s leadership, his team’s roles were to elaborate and, most importantly, execute the Pension Fund’s strategies to generate excess returns in a concentrated portfolio of external partnerships (hedge funds) and internalized quantitative risk premia strategies. Mathieu also actively participated in the Pension Fund’s core tactical policy allocation decisions, bringing a unique set of experiences regarding strategy implementation and execution.

A high energy and goal-driven professional, Mathieu approaches each business challenge with a natural talent for creative problem-solving. He is a measured risk-taker driving consistent bottom-line improvements and returns.

Mathieu has the ability to build relationships and trust with people, and then broker the relationships to make connections between individuals; he creates partnerships and the forward momentum necessary to “get things done”. Mathieu possesses strong macro analytical skills combined with a unique experience set which compounds capital markets innovation, in-depth knowledge of hedge funds and risk management, as well as a broad understanding of corporations’ needs in managing debt and pension plan liabilities.

Mathieu is a manager who empowers others to succeed. He hires talented and capable people and provides the environment and motivation to help them succeed.

Alexander Matthews is a Senior Investment Analyst at Palomino Capital, a Montreal-based family office that deploys proprietary capital across a broad spectrum of asset classes, including hedge funds, private equity (both directly and via fund commitments), and yield-oriented opportunities in real assets and private debt. He is responsible for evaluating direct investment opportunities, monitoring existing portfolio companies and assets, and managing the firm’s portfolio of private market funds and hedge funds.

Prior to joining Palomino in 2013, Alexander was on the research team at BCA, a leading provider of macroeconomic investment research.

Alexander is a Chapter Executive for the CAIA Association’s Canada Chapter and involved in various charitable initiatives through an affiliate of Rotary International. He completed his Bachelor of Commerce degree in Joint Honours Economics and Finance at McGill University. Alexander is also a CFA and CAIA charterholder.

Christophe L’Ahelec is a Senior Principal in the Capital Markets department, at Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board where he is responsible for the portfolio construction and risk management of the external manager portfolio. Prior to that he was a quantitative analyst and assistant portfolio manager at Mignon Genève SA/Alpstar Asset Management, in Switzerland, where he took part in the creation and portfolio management of a European systematic market neutral fund. Christophe is a graduate engineer in Finance and Applied Mathematics from the Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Informatique et de Mathématiques Appliquées de Grenoble, France and holds the Chartered Financial Analyst® designation.

Eric Wong established TCG in 2003 as an asset management and financial advisory firm focused on investments with superior risk adjusted returns that are uncorrelated to major asset classes and advising family office and corporate clients. TCG’s Celera division was formed in 2012 to consolidate the financial and technology sector business of TCG and its Vauban division has been engaged in real assets financing since 2011.

Prior to TCG, Mr. Wong was involved with his family’s chemicals and electronics interests in Greater China which date back to 1918 in Shanghai, 1950 in Hong Kong and 1970 in Taiwan. He holds an M.S. in Biotechnology from the Kellogg Center for Biotechnology at Northwestern University, a B.A. in Molecular Biology from Pomona College and is FRM certified. Mr. Wong is also registered with the U.S. CFTC as the principal of a CTA/CPO and IB.

Nour Elmostaqim is a senior risk manager at Bimcor – Bell Canada Pension Plan. For more than four years, she has been responsible for the risk management of multi-asset portfolio which exceeds 24B$. She also assists in managing the absolute return portfolio, where she performs HF manager selection, and investment due diligence. Prior to joining Bimcor, she was an investment analyst at HR strategies (fund of hedge fund) for which she obtained scholarship to complete her masters thesis. Nour has a Bachelor in Mathematics from Concordia University, and Master’s in Finance from HEC Montreal.

John is head of the team responsible for operational due diligence on CDPQ’s external managers, across most asset classes and investment strategies. His role is to manage all business and operational risks, both in the pre and post investment phases, as well as to support fund structuring.

John joined CDPQ in 2012 and has an MBA from HEC Montréal.

Dave Finstad is Visiting Researcher at Bodhi Research Group. His duties include manager research, portfolio analysis, and assisting with any mandates from pension clients.

Mr. Finstad has over 25 years of investment industry experience. Most recently, he built and led the external management team at the New York office of OMERS, a Canadian pension fund based in Toronto. Previously, he spent 10 years at AIMCo in Edmonton, Alberta in a similar position. He also worked for Frank Russell Canada (now Russell Investments) and for the Workers’ Compensation Board – Alberta.

Mr. Finstad is a member of the board for Alignment of Interests, a non-profit, investor-driven organization focused on strengthening the alignment between hedge fund industry participants. He has spoken at numerous industry conferences and has written a number of articles across a range of investment topics including manager selection and investment culture.

Mr. Finstad has a M.Sc. in Finance from the London School of Economics and is a CFA charterholder. Dave is also an avid ice hockey fan.

Julie DeMatteo is currently Managing Director of the Asset Management division of R.J. O’Brien and oversight of the OASIS managed account platform. She is responsible for overseeing the activities of the firm’s commodity pool operator and broker dealer. She primarily focuses on business development for the division working with both investors and managers to provide alternative investment solutions. Prior to joining R.J. O’Brien, she held various legal and business development positions for banks and asset managers.

Enzo Gabrielli has been with the family office of the Right Honorable Paul Martin for the past 15 years and is currently the Executive Vice President and CFO of the parent company. The principal holding is CSL Group (Canada Steamship Lines) which is the world’s largest commercial manager of self-unloading vessels and operates highly specialized fleet for off-shore transhippers and bulk carriers.

Horizon Capital Holdings Group is a broad-based investment vehicle and management organization that provides diversification to marine logistics. Its portfolio includes North American real estate and direct investments in private companies.

In his capacity, Enzo holds the title of President for various subsidiaries companies and also serves as a director and audit committee chairman for several portfolio investments and not-for-profit entities. He oversees the groups real estate and investment portfolio, assist with the groups various philanthropic initiatives and manages the various facets of a family office.

Prior to joining Horizon, Enzo worked for accounting firms in the financial advisory services, with significant experience in corporate finance, M&A transactions, financial due diligence, auditing, insolvency and corporate restructuring in Canada and United States. Enzo pursued his graduate studies at McGill University where he graduated with Great Distinction. He holds both a chartered accountant and chartered financial analyst designation as well as the ICD.D designation. He lectured in the business program at McGill University.

Mohamed Farid is a Principal Portfolio Manager, managing $2.7 billion portfolio of the absolute return strategies at the World Bank Pension Fund in Washington D.C. He has extensive experience investing directly in hedge funds and he is an active member of the Investment Committee of the Pension Plan of the World Bank.

Prior to joining the World Bank Pension Plan in 2001, Mohamed has worked for Deloitte & Touche and KPMG financial consulting groups. Mohamed started his career in commercial banking and worked in several positions in Treasury and Trade finance functions. He holds a Master’s degree from the Johns Hopkins University in International economics and political science as well as Master’s degree in Banking and Finance from Finafrica foundation in Milan, Italy.

Chris Schindler was responsible for a variety of roles during his 18 years at Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan. He started in the Research and Economics team where he worked on the Asset Liability Model before transitioning to the asset management side of the firm as a founding member of the newly formed Tactical Asset Allocation group.

Over the next 12 years, he was responsible for researching and managing a wide variety of systematic programs as head of the Global Systematic Investing group. Notable programs included an internal CTA, risk parity portfolio, alternative risk premium program, quantitative cash equities and the enhanced beta strategy, all of which were launched between 2005 and 2007, as well as a large number of pure alpha strategies (models not highly correlated to traditional alternative risk premiums). He and his team were also responsible for evaluating and hiring external managers in the systematic space.

In 2016 Chris joined the newly formed Portfolio Construction Group as head of Asset Allocation and Portfolio Management, where he was responsible for making recommendations to the CIO on Total Fund asset allocation decisions, including risk factor balance, asset class composition and weightings, FX hedging policy, tail mitigation strategies and constrained resource allocation. As of September 2018, Chris is taking some time to recharge his batteries before considering his next role.

Hilary Till is a principal of Premia Research LLC, which designs investment indices that are calculated by S&P Dow Jones Indices. Prior to Premia, Ms. Till was the Chief of Derivatives Strategies at Putnam Investments where she oversaw the strategy development and execution of about $90 billion annually in exchange-traded and over-the-counter derivatives.

Before her appointment at Putnam, Ms. Till was a quantitative analyst at Harvard Management Company. She also held systems development and trading positions while working for the derivatives trading desks at the following two banks: Continental Bank (in Chicago and London) and at Bank of Boston, both of which later merged into Bank of America. Ms. Till began her professional career in the Artificial Intelligence Group of (then) Arthur Andersen (now Accenture), developing expert systems for corporate clients.

Ms. Till also holds a number of academic affiliations. She is the Solich Scholar at the J.P. Morgan Center for Commodities (JPMCC), University of Colorado Denver Business School; a member of the JPMCC’s Research Council; and the Contributing Editor of the JPMCC’s Global Commodities Applied Research Digest, http://www.jpmcc-gcard.com/subscribe. Ms. Till’s additional affiliations include her membership in the North American Advisory Board of the London School of Economics and her position as a Research Associate at the EDHEC-Risk Institute in Nice, France.

In Chicago, Ms. Till is a member of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago’s Working Group on Financial Markets and serves on the Advisory Board of DePaul University’s Arditti Center for Risk Management. She has provided seminars (in Chicago) to staff from the Shanghai Futures Exchange, China Financial Futures Exchange, Zhengzhou Commodity Exchange, and the Dalian Commodity Exchange. In addition, Ms. Till is a board member of the International Association for Quantitative Finance (New York).

She has a B.A. with General Honors in Statistics from the University of Chicago and an M.Sc. degree in Statistics from the London School of Economics (LSE). She studied at the LSE under a private fellowship administered by the Fulbright Commission.

Ms. Till is a dual U.S. / Canadian citizen with her family originally hailing from Saskatchewan. She has continued to spend her summers in Prince Albert National Park in Saskatchewan, a tradition for her family since childhood.