Investment Management Operations

Latest Episodes:

Beth Gilje, Founder – Union Park Consulting (EP.18) Jan 16, 2024

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Today’s Sponsored Insight features Beth Gilje, the founder of Union Park Consulting, a leading investment operations consulting firm that provides operational and technical consulting to some of the world’s leading institutions and family offices. Prior to founding Union Park, Beth worked at the investment office of the University of Pennsylvania from 2015 to 2020. Prior to Penn, Beth spent time at Partners Capital before beginning her career at Lehman Brothers.

As we all know upgrading your investment operations is a complex matter. Beth provides great insight on the common, yet often overlooked challenges for investment institutions. We spend time uncovering how to enhance performance data, finalize performance reporting faster, and best practices on managing service providers. I also enjoyed talking about technology selection as a function of one’s operational strengths and weaknesses. Whether you are running lean or have a deep bench, there are tons of helpful takeaways.

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Shaun Ng, COO – Cleveland Clinic Investment Office (EP.17) Jan 02, 2024

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Shaun Ng is the Managing Director of Risk, Analytics, and Investment Operations at the Cleveland Clinic Investment Office.

Shaun joined Cleveland Clinic in 2016 after working over 10 years at the World Bank. He shares how they created their investment office from scratch after the board opted to insource their investments from an OCIO. We later turn to how they partner with the hospital’s data and analytics team to build more than 200 dashboards of dynamic data sets for the investment team.

Shaun has been quite busy at Cleveland Clinic and does a few things differently that operational professionals should observe. Maybe, this is why he and his team have won the Allocator Prize for Best Investment Operations of the Year.

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Frank Perez, MD, Head of ODD – Makena Capital (EP.16) Dec 19, 2023

Show notes

Frank Perez is a Managing Director and Head of Operational Due Diligence at Makena Capital, an OCIO whose roots emanate from Stanford’s Endowment.

Prior to joining Makena in 2015, Frank was engaged in ODD efforts at Saguenay Strathmore Capital, Morgan Stanley and UBP where he focused on private equity, real estate, and hedge fund investments. Frank’s background is unique given his risk management experience within several investment banks where he was responsible for conducting due diligence on hedge fund trading counterparties.

Frank goes deep on the ins and outs of ODD, the 5 pillars he follows when assessing a manager, the differences to consider with emerging and mature managers, and common deal breakers. What is an ODD talk without hearing some stories of when things go a little sideways with a potential manager? I think you will learn a thing or two here. As they say, ODD is not where you win a mandate but you can certainly lose it.

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Dan Houlihan, CEO – STP Investment Services (EP.15) Dec 07, 2023

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Today’s Sponsored Insight features Dan Houlihan, the CEO of STP Investment Services, a global investment operations firm that provides complete front, middle, and back office services for investment managers.

Dan joined STP in August 2022 after spending 11 years at Northern Trust as the EVP and Head of Asset Servicing. Prior to Northern Trust he was President of Citisoft, a management consulting group to the investment industry.

If you are currently outsourcing operations or exploring the subject, this is a master class. Dan shares some key insights on the trends and considerations of operational outsourcing, the common triggers to begin the conversation, what to look for in an outsourcer and how outsourcing can potentially launch products faster and enter new markets.

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Ashok Raju, COO – VR Capital Group (EP.14) Dec 05, 2023

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Ashok Raju is the Chief Operating Officer of VR Group, an alternative asset manager focused on distressed securities and special situations investments in emerging markets.

Ashok joined VR Group in 2010 initially to create the firm’s client facing efforts before becoming the COO, where he now oversees operations, analytics, and business development. Ashok began his career in equity research at Deutsche Bank and spent time at a multi-family office where he covered hedge fund and public equity investments.

I really enjoyed my conversation with Ashok. He’s the first guest on the podcast to oversee both internal operations at VR and client relationships. This perspective is an interesting and common one for small-to-medium organizations, and his insights are valuable for anyone beginning client facing efforts or overseeing fund operations. Or both! . . . He’s also a wealth of information for younger professionals navigating their own careers in financial services, and I especially love his concept of “frientors.”

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Danielle Roseman, COO – Lazard Family Office Services (EP.13) Nov 21, 2023

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Danielle Roseman is a Managing Director and Co-Head of Lazard Family Office Services, a multifamily office that started managing capital for some of the world’s most sophisticated families over 175 years ago.

Danielle started her career at Goldman Sachs where she worked on the mortgage desk during the Great Financial Crisis. Danielle joined Lazard following the acquisition of Truuvo Partners.

If you work with family offices or want to learn more about it, this is the episode.

Danielle goes deep on how to provide operational value to families, the power of operational support as a skill set and how the next generation is changing the client service engagement model. Danielle riffs on their tech stack, data consumption trends, family governance, and the complexity of tracking documentation of family assets.

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Bryan Corbett, CEO – Managed Funds Association (EP.12) Nov 07, 2023

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Bryan Corbett is the president and CEO of the Managed Funds Association, which represents the global alternative asset management industry. With offices in Washington DC, New York, Brussels, and London, MFA has over 170 members, including hedge funds, credit funds, and crossover funds that collectively manage over 3 trillion in AUM.

Bryan joined the MFA in January of 2020 after spending 11 years in private equity at The Carlyle Group. Before Carlyle, Bryan worked on Capitol Hill for the US Treasury Department and as a special assistant to President George W. Bush.

If you want to know where the puck is going in the industry, this is the interview. Bryan’s unique experience as a private equity lawyer with Capitol Hill experience puts him in the poll position.

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Maarika Paul, CFO & COO – CDPQ (EP.11) Oct 24, 2023

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Maarika Paul is the Chief Financial & Operations Officer at CDPQ, a global investment firm that manages Quebec’s pension and insurance assets overseeing $424b billion Canadian in AUM. Prior to joining CDPQ in 2011, Maarika worked for Bell Canada Enterprises (BCE) for almost two decades overseeing various functions across investor relations, M&A, and corporate development.

Maarika discusses her career leading up to CDPQ, her current responsibilities and what makes CDPQ unique. We touch on team structure, technology, tax, ESG, and advice for operations professionals.

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Gordon Barnes, EVP Portfolio Strategies – Bain Capital (EP.10) Oct 10, 2023

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Gordon Barnes is the Executive Vice President and the Head of Portfolio Group on the Bain Capital Partnership Strategies team, a group that manages assets primarily for Bain Capital’s partners in strategies that diversify away from the equity-orientation of the firm’s core. Colin Campbell, the group’s co-head, was a previous guest on Capital Allocators, and that conversation is replayed in the feed for context on the group’s approach to investing in esoteric assets.

Prior to Bain Capital, Gordon was a Managing Director and Global Head of Operational Due Diligence at Cambridge Associates where he helped build the firms ODD practices.

Our conversation covers Gordon’s perspective on ODD from his time at Cambridge, becoming knowledgeable in uncommon fund strategies, some case studies from his work with managers, and what makes his role one of a kind.

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[REPLAY] Colin Campbell – The Case for Environmental Markets (Climate Solutions EP.3, Capital Allocators EP.302) Oct 10, 2023

Show notes

Colin Campbell is a Partner at Bain Capital and co-head of the Partnership Strategies team that manages assets primarily for Bain Capital’s partners in strategies that diversify away from the equity-orientation of the firm’s core. In its search for attractive, uncorrelated assets, the Partnership Strategies team became an early mover in environmental markets.

Both Tom Steyer and Bill Orum cited carbon credits and offsets as a necessary and important near-term component to effect climate transition. Colin’s deep engagement in the space provides a wonderful primer for those interested.

Our conversation dives into Colin’s background and investment approach that led to the discovery of the opportunity in environmental markets. We then turn to his investment thesis, sourcing, description and nuance of compliance and voluntary markets, and implementation.

For full show notes, visit the episode webpage here.

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