Christopher Ailman
Chairman - North American Chapter, Chief Investment Officer of the California State Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS)
Mr. Ailman has been the Chief Investment Officer of the $195+ billion CalSTRS, for 16 years. Mr. Ailman leads an investment staff of 155. He has over 31 years of institutional investment experience. Annually, he is listed as one of the top CIO’s in the U.S.A and globally, and he is Chair of the SASB Investor Advisory Group, helping promote integration of the standards in security analysis and portfolio construction. In 2016, he was part of the first cohort to achieve a Fundamental of Sustainable Accounting (FSA) credential.
He has served on several boards and advisory boards in the U.S. and U.K. He is the North American Chair of the “300” CIO Club and the Milken Global Capital Markets Committee. He has received numerous awards and recognitions over his career, from CIO of the Year in 2000 to being named the number #3 CIO in the world and Investment Innovator of the Year in 2013.
Mr. Ailman is a regular guest on the TV and radio and is frequently quoted in in major financial publications. He has a BA from UCSB, is married with three daughters, and is a committed Promise Keeper.
Jaap van Dam
Chairman - European Chapter, Principal Director Investment Strategy, PGGM
Jaap is the Chairman of the European Chapter of The 300 Club. He is the Principal Director of Investment Strategy at PGGM, Chairman of the Dutch Association of Investors for Sustainable Development (VBDO) and of the International Advisory Board of EDHEC. He holds a Master’s Degree in Finance from Erasmus University in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Jaap’s career in investment management spans more than three decades. His lifelong ambition is to improve institutional investment management by integrating academic insights into practice and by asking academia for help in solving practical investment challenges.
Jaap has performed many roles within the field, ranging from fundamental and quantitative analysis to external manager selection and portfolio construction. He joined PGGM in 2005 as Head of Internal Equity Management. In 2006 he was appointed Chief Strategist. Jaap is a member of the NEST (UK) Investment Committee and ICPM’s research committee.
Saker Nusseibeh, CBE
Founder, 300 Club and CEO, Federated Hermes International
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Saker Nusseibeh, CBE
Founder, 300 Club and CEO, Federated Hermes International
Saker is CEO of the international business of Federated Hermes, appointed November 2011, having joined in June 2009 as CIO. He is also a member of the Federated Hermes Executive team. Prior to this, Saker was Global Head of Equities at Fortis Investments, having previously been CIO Global Equities since 2005. Before this, he was CIO of Global Equities and Head of Marketing for SGAM UK. This followed SGAM’s acquisition of Trust Company of the West, where Saker was a Managing Director running global and international strategies, as well the London office. He started his career at Mercury Asset Management in 1987.
Saker is founder of the 300 Club and was an inaugural member of the CFA Institute’s Future of Finance Advisory Council from 2013 until 2019. He is a member of the IIRC Council, the FCA-PRA Climate Financial Risk Forum, the United Nations Environmental Programme Financial Initiative Steering Committee, the Banking Standards Board, the UK National Advisory Board on Impact Investing, and the advisory Board of the National Youth Orchestra.
In 2018, Saker was named CEO of the Year at the Financial News Asset Management Europe Awards. He has a BA and PhD in Medieval History from King's College, University of London. Saker was awarded a CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in the Queen’s 2019 New Year's Honours list for services to Responsible Business and Finance.
Pascal Blanqué
Chief Investment Officer, Amundi
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Pascal Blanqué
Chief Investment Officer, Amundi
Pascal Blanqué has been Global Chief Investment Officer at AMUNDI (formerly known as Crédit Agricole Asset Management, CAAM), Head of Institutional Investors and Third Party Distributors and member of the Executive Committee since February 2005. He was also appointed Chairman of the Board of CPR AM in January 2007. From 2000 to 2005 he was Head of Economic Research and Chief Economist of Crédit Agricole. Before joining Crédit Agricole, Pascal Blanqué was Deputy Director of the Economic Research Department at Paribas (1997-2000) following four years as a strategist in asset allocation at Paribas Asset Management in London (1992- 1996). He began his career in institutional and private asset management at Paribas in 1991.
As an economist and a financial historian Pascal Blanqué is the author of several contributions. His research interests and his academic work focus on monetary issues, the functioning of financial markets and the philosophical foundations of economics. His books include Money, Memory and Asset Prices, The Social Economy of Freedom, Philosophy in Economics and Essays in Positive Investment Management, all published and distributed by Economica and Brookings Institution Press. His publications in international Journals and specialized newspapers include numerous articles concerning financial history, economics and policy making. He taught and carried out research at Ecole Normale Supérieure, Ecole Polytechnique and Paris-Dauphine University. He is a member of the French Société d’Economie Politique.
Pascal Blanqué was awarded European CIO of the Year 2013 by Funds Europe Magazine.
Born in 1964, Pascal Blanqué studied at the Ecole Normale Supérieure. He is a graduate of Paris’s Institut d’Etudes Politiques and holds a Phd in Finance from Paris-Dauphine University.
Sally Bridgeland
Senior Consultant, Avida International
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Sally Bridgeland
Senior Consultant, Avida International
Well known in the UK pensions industry, Sally currently combines governance consultancy for Avida International with a number of complementary non-executive and advisory roles.
Sally is a non-executive director at insurer Royal London, at Impax Asset Management plc and Local Pensions Partnership (LPP) Limited, where she chairs its FCA regulated investment company. She is a trustee at both NEST Corporation and the Lloyds Bank pension schemes.
Sally was previously the Chief Executive Officer of BP Pension Trustees Limited. Before BP, Sally spent twenty years with Aon Hewitt (originally Bacon & Woodrow) working both as a pensions consultant and in the investment practice.
Sally is currently Master of the Worshipful Company of Actuaries.
As well as being named in Engaged Investor’s Top 50 People In Pensions 2014, Sally was featured in the Timewise Power Part-Timers list in December 2013. She founded and runs the charity Executive Shift.
Alan Brown
Former Chief Investment Officer, Schroders
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Alan Brown
Former Chief Investment Officer, Schroders
Alan has forty years background in international investment management, having led two of the most highly respected investment businesses in both the UK and US. His most recent full time position was as a main board director and Chief Investment Officer of Schroders. Prior to that he was Group Chief Investment Officer and Vice Chairman of State Street Global Advisors, and Executive Vice President of State Street Corporation. He has been awarded Chief Investment Officer of the Year on three occasions.
In 25 years as Chief Investment Officer at three companies, Alan has worked extensively on investment strategy and business development. All three companies operated globally and across both institutional and retail markets, and were active in all main asset classes.
Alan has wide ranging experience of Chairing and acting as a Director/Governor. He currently holds the following positions:
Wellcome Trust – Governor
Pool Re – Director
CDP – Chairman
Westway Trust – Chairman
Alan has a strong interest in ethics and corporate governance and has held the following positions:
IMA – Director
Takeover Panel – Alternate IMA member
CFA Advisory Board – Chairman
MSCI Barra Advisory Board – Member
CERGE-EI – Director (Previously Chairman and Treasurer)
Alan is a frequent speaker at international conferences. He was an early advocate of the need to reform the pensions annuity system in the UK. On behalf of Schroders he lobbied government extensively and worked with the media and Policy Exchange on this issue. He has always promoted thought leadership and continues to campaign for changes in best practice standards in the asset management industry.
Alan was awarded the Jan Masaryk Honorary Medal for services to Czech education.
Yves Choueifaty Choueifaty
President, TOBAM
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Yves Choueifaty Choueifaty
President, TOBAM
Mr. Choueifaty built TOBAM in 2006, as Managing Director, Head of the Quantitative Asset Management business in Europe, and Head of Lehman Brothers Asset Management France.
Prior to joining Lehman Brothers, Mr. Choueifaty was CEO of Credit Lyonnais Asset Management (“CLAM”). He was CIO of CLAM from 2000 with direct responsibility for all aspects of the Investment Management process as well as Marketing and Sales. From 1998 to 2000 Mr. Choueifaty was Head of Financial Engineering and Quantitative Investment Management, having developed the structured products and financial engineering business units since 1992.
Mr. Choueifaty graduated in 1992 from ENSAE in Statistics, Actuarial studies, Finance, and Artificial Intelligence.
Elizabeth Corley
Chairman, Impact Investing Institute
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Elizabeth Corley
Chairman, Impact Investing Institute
Elizabeth was CEO of Allianz Global Investors, initially for Europe and then globally, from 2005 to 2016. She continued to act as an advisor to the company in various capacities until the end of 2019. Elizabeth was previously at Merrill Lynch Investment Managers (formerly Mercury Asset Management), Coopers & Lybrand, where she was a consulting partner and at Sun Alliance.
Currently, she serves as chair of the Impact Investing Institute; a director of the Green Finance Institute; serves on the investment committee of the Leverhulme Trust; is a member of the CFA Future of Finance Advisory Council, AQR Asset Management Institute, the Committee of 200 and the 300 Club.
As well as being a trustee of the British Museum, Elizabeth is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and is also a published author of crime thrillers. She was awarded a CBE in January 2015 and a DBE in June 2019 for services to the economy and financial services.
In 2016 Elizabeth received an honorary doctorate from the London Institute of Banking and Finance (formerly the IFS University College) and in June 2019 she was made an honorary fellow of the London Business School.
Lars Dijkstra
Chief Investment Officer, Kempen Capital Management
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Lars Dijkstra
Chief Investment Officer, Kempen Capital Management
Lars joined KCM in August 2005 as Chief Investment Officer. He holds a degree in Macro-Economics from the University of Groningen. He joined the Philips Pension Fund in 1991 as a macro-economist. Later he became Head of Investment Strategy responsible for strategic and tactical asset allocation. In 1998 he became Chief Investment Officer of the Philips Fund.
Within KCM he is responsible for the overall investment philosophy/process and investment results of all the Kempen Funds. Furthermore Lars Dijkstra is responsible for the asset allocation and selection of multi-managers for private as well as institutional portfolios.
Zuhair Mohammed
Partner, Lane Clark & Peacock LLP
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Zuhair Mohammed
Partner, Lane Clark & Peacock LLP
Zuhair is a partner at Lane Clark & Peacock LLP.
Previously Zuhair headed up Aon Insurance Asset Solutions & Aon’s Corporate Investment Advisory team.
Zuhair has built a broad range of expertise across the investment industry, having held a number of senior management positions and is a qualified Actuary with over 20 years experience. This experience extends to a diverse cross section of institutional investors by asset size and geographic location.
Zuhair specialises in developing nimble and efficient asset strategies. Until 2012, he was Chief Executive of Aon Hewitt’s Delegated Consulting Business, having built that from a standing start in 2007. He regularly speaks at conferences and has written numerous articles on optimal asset governance models and investment strategies.
Professor Amin Rajan
Chief Executive, CREATE
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Professor Amin Rajan
Chief Executive, CREATE
Amin Rajan is the CEO of CREATE–Research, a UK based think tank that specialises in future trends in global fund management. It works with prominent partners to publish acclaimed annual reports on prospective challenges and potential responses in the industry.
Amin also offers strategic advisory and coaching services to CEOs and CIOs in fund management as they grapple with unfolding industry dynamics. He has developed special expertise in emerging business models and their successful implementation. Since 2001, he has undertaken specialist advisory assignments for clients including Aviva Investors, Allianz Global Investors, Axa Investment Managers, BlackRock, Citigroup Asset Management, Credit Suisse Asset Management, Deutsche Asset Management, Invesco, JPMorgan Asset Management, M&G, Martin Currie Investment Management, Morgan Stanley Asset Management, Principal Global Investors, T. Rowe Price, and UBS Asset Management.
Amin has published numerous books and articles on leadership, business cultures, socio-economic forecasting, globalisation and new technologies.
He is a visiting professor at the Centre for Leadership Studies at Exeter University and a Fellow at Oxford University’s Said Business School. He is on the WHU Programme Advisory Board at Otto Beisheim School of Management in Koblenz, Germany.
Jan Straatman
Chairman, Astarte Capital Partners
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Jan Straatman
Chairman, Astarte Capital Partners
Jan is Partner and Chairman of the Investment Committee at Astarte Capital Partners. Previously Jan was the Global Chief Investment Officer of Lombard Odier Investment Managers and since 2012 until 2017 acted as an advisor and member of the Fund Board.
Prior to joining LOIM, Jan was Global Chief Investment Officer at ING Investment Management, overseeing EUR 330 billion of client assets and 800 investment professionals across 30 locations. Previously, he was Chief Executive Officer/Chief Investment Officer at Pearl Group’s Axial Asset Management from 2006 to 2008.
Jan earned an MBA with specialization in finance and accountancy from the University of Hasselt in 1988. He also holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the College for Business Administration and Economics in Eindhoven.
Robert Talbut
Former Chief Investment Officer, Royal London Asset Management
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Robert Talbut
Former Chief Investment Officer, Royal London Asset Management
Robert Talbut was CIO of Royal London Asset Management for ten years through to the end of 2014 and has worked in financial services for over 30. His experience covers portfolio management, business strategy, people management and remuneration. He had previous asset/business management roles at Threadneedle, ISIS/F&C and Chase Manhattan. He has provided strategic asset allocation advice to a range of institutional clients and has a strong interest in the accountability of management to shareholders and of institutions to their ultimate clients.
He now performs a range of consultancy and NED roles spanning asset management, insurance, pensions and charities.
Roger Urwin
Global Head of Investment Content, Willis Towers Watson
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Roger Urwin
Global Head of Investment Content, Willis Towers Watson
Roger assumed the new post of Global Head of Investment Content at Willis Towers Watson in July 2008 after acting as the Global Head of the investment practice from 1995 to 2008. Roger joined Watson Wyatt in 1989 to start the firm’s investment consulting practice and under his leadership the practice grew to a global team of over 500. His prior career involved heading the Mercer investment practice and leading the business development and quantitative investment functions at Gartmore Investment Management. Roger’s current role includes work for some of the firm’s major investment clients both in the UK and internationally. He leads the firm’s work on transformational change and has conducted major strategic reviews at a number of global leading funds. He is also involved with the Towers Watson thought leadership group (Thinking Ahead Group). His investment innovations include three global firsts: the origination of the first target date DC funds (in 1988), the risk budget framework (in 1999) and the governance budget framework for assessing asset owner organisational effectiveness (in 2007). He is also the author of a number of papers on asset allocation policy, manager selection and governance and sustainability. He is on the Board of the CFA Institute and an Advisory Director to MSCI Inc.
Roger has a degree in Mathematics from Oxford University and a Masters in Applied Statistics also from Oxford. He qualified as a Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries in 1983.
Mark Walker
Chief Investment Officer, Coal Pension Trustees Investment
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Mark Walker
Chief Investment Officer, Coal Pension Trustees Investment
Mark is Chief Investment Officer of Coal Pension Trustees Investment.
Previously Mark was Managing Director and Global Chief Investment Officer of the Univest Company, Unilever’s internal investment group. The Univest Company oversees the investments of Unilever’s pension plans in over 40 countries. Prior to joining Unilever, Mark was a Partner at Mercer and was head of the London Investment Consulting Unit.
Mark has over 20 years of experience in actuarial, pensions and investment work. Whilst at Mercer he was the lead consultant to Unilever in relation to the set up and ongoing advice to Unilever’s multi country asset pooling vehicles.
Mark has a degree in mathematics from Durham University and is a Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries.
Christopher Ailman
Chairman - North American Chapter, Chief Investment Officer of the California State Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS)
Mr. Ailman has been the Chief Investment Officer of the $195+ billion CalSTRS, for 16 years. Mr. Ailman leads an investment staff of 155. He has over 31 years of institutional investment experience. Annually, he is listed as one of the top CIO’s in the U.S.A and globally, and he is Chair of the SASB Investor Advisory Group, helping promote integration of the standards in security analysis and portfolio construction. In 2016, he was part of the first cohort to achieve a Fundamental of Sustainable Accounting (FSA) credential.
He has served on several boards and advisory boards in the U.S. and U.K. He is the North American Chair of the “300” CIO Club and the Milken Global Capital Markets Committee. He has received numerous awards and recognitions over his career, from CIO of the Year in 2000 to being named the number #3 CIO in the world and Investment Innovator of the Year in 2013.
Mr. Ailman is a regular guest on the TV and radio and is frequently quoted in in major financial publications. He has a BA from UCSB, is married with three daughters, and is a committed Promise Keeper.
Ron Barin
Senior Advisor, River & Mercantile
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Ron Barin
Senior Advisor, River & Mercantile
Ron Barin is currently a Senior Advisor at River & Mercantile's Solutions New York office. Prior to this role, he was Chief Investment Officer of Alcoa Corporation and Alcoa Inc. for ten years. During this time, he was responsible for the investment of assets totaling $13 billion in Alcoa’s retirement benefits plans and the Alcoa Foundation.
Previously, Ron served as Senior Director, Pension Investments for Pfizer Inc, a leading pharmaceutical firm, where he was responsible for assets totaling $22 billion in Pfizer’s benefits plans and Foundation. Before this assignment, Ron was Director, Financial Risk Management for Pfizer. Earlier in his career, he worked for Emcor Financial Risk Management Consulting, Estee Lauder, and Unilever in various treasury-related roles.
Ron earned his B.S. in Finance and an MBA from New York University. He is co-founder of Smile In A Bag Inc, a nonprofit organization that collects and donates toy-filled activity bags to Long Island, New York hospitals each month to help brighten a hospitalized child’s day.
Sam Masoudi
Chief Investment Officer, Wyoming Retirement System
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Sam Masoudi
Chief Investment Officer, Wyoming Retirement System
Sam became the Chief Investment Officer of the Wyoming Retirement System (WRS) in 2013. Prior to joining WRS, Sam was a Managing Director at the Tulane University Endowment for more than five years where he covered all asset classes including public and private equities and fixed income as well as alternatives. Prior to Tulane, Sam was the founder and portfolio manager of a long short hedge fund focused on U.S. equities. Sam was previously a Director at Veronis Suhler, a buyout fund focused on media and communications, for three years. Sam also spent four years in real estate investment banking at Kidder Peabody and PaineWebber. Sam received a BS in Finance from Babson College and is CFA and CAIA charter holder.
Bob Maynard
Chief Investment Officer, Public Employee Retirement System of Idaho
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Bob Maynard
Chief Investment Officer, Public Employee Retirement System of Idaho
Bob is responsible for all investment activities for $11.5 billion Idaho state public employee retirement system portfolio with both defined benefit and defined contribution components.
Previously Bob was Deputy Executive Director, Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation and was responsible for investment and administrative activities of a then $13 billion sovereign wealth fund funded by the oil revenues of the State of Alaska.
Stefan Dunatov
Head of Investment Risk, Strategy and Research at bcIMC
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Stefan Dunatov
Head of Investment Risk, Strategy and Research at bcIMC
Stefan is head of Investment Risk, Strategy and Research at bcIMC, which has $130bn in assets under management for various pension and insurance clients. He is also the a member of the Wellcome Trust investment committee. Previously, he was Chief Investment Officer at Coal Pension Investments and has worked at Deutsche Asset Management, Equitas Insurance, the Reserve Bank of New Zealand and HSBC. He studied economics and law at the University of Auckland and completed his masters in economics at the London School of Economics.
Craig Husting
Chief Investment Officer, Public School and Education Employee Retirement Systems of Missouri
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Craig Husting
Chief Investment Officer, Public School and Education Employee Retirement Systems of Missouri
Craig Husting is the Chief Investment Officer (CIO) for the Public School and Education Employee Retirement Systems of Missouri. As CIO, he directs the management of the Systems’ $58 billion investment portfolio. Specifically, Mr. Husting has been responsible for strategically diversifying the asset allocation for the Systems including the development of real estate, private equity, private credit and hedge fund portfolios. He joined the Retirement Systems as CIO in January 1999.
Prior to that, Mr. Husting was the Director of Investments and Deposit Programs for the Missouri State Treasurer’s Office where he managed all aspects of the State’s $3.5 billion investment portfolio. Mr. Husting has also worked in county government as the Deputy Treasurer for the Johnson County, KS government. Mr. Husting began his career in finance in 1989 with Ernst and Young’s national cash management consulting practice.
Mr. Husting earned an MBA from the University of Notre Dame and a B.A. degree from Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas. He has earned the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation.
Matt Whineray
CEO, Guardians NZ Superfund
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Matt Whineray
CEO, Guardians NZ Superfund
Matt was appointed Chief Executive Officer 1 July 2018. He joined the Guardians in May 2008 as General Manager, Private Markets. In 2014 Matt became Chief Investment Officer.
Before joining the Guardians, Matt was at Credit Suisse (Hong Kong) where he was Head of Financial Sponsor Coverage for non-Japan Asia. Prior to this, he was a Managing Director at First NZ Capital in New Zealand and a Vice President at Credit Suisse First Boston in New York. Matt began his career as a Barrister and Solicitor with Russell McVeagh in Auckland.
Matt is a member of Focusing Capital on the Long Term and a Director of Netball New Zealand. Matt has previously served as Co-Chair of the Aotearoa Circle’s Sustainable Finance Forum, a member of the World Economic Forum General Agenda Council on the Future of Investing, and as Chair of the InZone Education Foundation.
Gumersindo Oliveros
CEO & Chief Investment Officer, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST)
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Gumersindo Oliveros
CEO & Chief Investment Officer, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST)
Sindo Oliveros is the CEO and CIO of the financial endowment for King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), an international graduate-level research university in Saudi Arabia which started operations in 2009. Prior to that he managed the World Bank’s Pension Plan, Medical Plan and Endowments, and was a member of the senior Treasury team that had oversight responsibility over more than USD 100 billion of World Bank and external clients’ assets. In that capacity he advised Central Banks, foreign pension plans and Sovereign Wealth Funds on strategic asset allocation and multi-asset management. Before that Mr. Oliveros headed the World Bank's Capital Markets and Financial Engineering Department, worked for nine years at the International Monetary Fund on adjustment programs in Latin America, Asia and Africa, was Assistant Professor at the University of Minnesota and a consultant for Chemie Linz AG (Austria).
Mr. Oliveros, a Spanish national, is a graduate from the Universidad Complutense (Madrid) and holds a PhD and M.A. in Economics from the University of Minnesota, where he was a Fulbright Scholar and a recipient of the Andreas Scholarship. He holds literature diplomas from the Université de Toulouse (France) and the Ludwig-Maximilians Universität/München (Germany) and is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA). He has been a member of several Boards in the past and is now a member of the Investment Fund For Foundations (TIFF), the Public Welfare Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation Investment Committee, the MSCI Advisory Council, the École des Hautes Études Commercials (EDHEC) Advisory Board, and the Alternative Investment Management Association (AIMA) Investment Steering Committee.
Geoffrey Rubin
Chief Investment Strategist, CPP Investments
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Geoffrey Rubin
Chief Investment Strategist, CPP Investments
As Chief Investment Strategist, Geoffrey is responsible for designing and implementing CPP Investments’ long-term investment strategy, a One Fund approach that exploits the new and existing sources of competitive advantage of our unique global organization.
He joined CPP Investments in 2011, at the inception of the former Total Portfolio Management department, and has helped shape its growth and evolution, to define and execute CPP Investments’ Total Portfolio Approach. Previously, Geoffrey held finance roles with Fannie Mae and Capital One Financial where he managed the global balance sheet. Geoffrey also ran a consulting practice and was Adjunct Professor at American University’s Kogod School of Business in Washington, DC.
He holds a BA in Economics from the University of Virginia and a PhD in Economics from Princeton University. Geoffrey serves on the Board of Directors of Antares Capital.