SFU Career Panel

Michael Nicks joined the Investment Office in 2002. Prior to joining the University, he served in a variety of roles in the business world, including programming, database creation/management, technical support management, and marketing management in the technology sector. In 2004, Nicks became the director of Absolute Return Strategies, primarily overseeing the University’s hedge fund investments.

As Director of Investments, his primary areas of responsibility include the endowment’s marketable alternative investments (hedge funds), analysis of managers, asset classes, and quantitative analysis and modeling. Nicks is a CFA Charterholder (’06) and also a Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (’06), and has been a grader for the CAIA Level 2 Exam since 2007. In addition to his duties in the Investment Office, he is also an adjunct professor at Pepperdine University’s Seaver College.

Nicks has a bachelor of science in management degree from Pepperdine University and an MBA with an Emphasis in Finance from Pepperdine’s Graziadio School of Business and Management (’02).

Emil Khimji is Co-Founder and CEO of White Crane Capital Corp. which acts as the investment advisor to the White Crane Multi-Strategy Master Fund. The Fund is an event-driven multi-strategy hedge fund that seeks to identify undervalued securities across the capital structure with a catalyst. Prior to co-founding White Crane Capital Corp., Mr. Khimji was part of a three-person Alternative Investments team at PH&N (RBC Global Asset Management) that managed the PH&N Absolute Return Fund and the PH&N High Yield Bond Fund from 2007-2017.

Mr. Khimji holds a Chartered Financial Analyst designation and a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of British Columbia.

Skye has worked in financial services since 2007, including roles at retail full-service brokerages, and in asset management and advisor distribution. Her former positions include Vice-President, Sales and Marketing at AlphaNorth Asset Management and Vice-President, Regional Sales at Norrep Capital Management Ltd. She also served as a senior consultant in client services for various financial, technology and media outlets, including on-air coverage for BNN Bloomberg.
She holds an MBA from the University of British Columbia and successfully completed a Global Network of Advanced Management program from the Yale School of Management.

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).