Mario Therrien
Mario Therrien leads CDPQ’s investment funds activities. The teams he oversees invest in private investment funds and credit in private markets, as well as in venture capital in Québec and internationally. They are also responsible for external management in equity markets, as well as developing and managing strategic and institutional relationships. His mandate consists of adding value by building portfolios with the best external managers, while improving in-house management through the sharing of knowledge and expertise. He sits on the Investment-Risk Committee.
Prior to this role, Mr. Therrien was Senior Vice-President and Head of Strategic Partnerships, Developed Markets. He joined CDPQ in 1993 as an Analyst before taking on the role of Portfolio Manager in the group responsible for absolute return activities. Subsequently, he was mandated to develop external management activities in liquid-asset classes.
He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics and a Master’s degree in Finance from Université de Sherbrooke. He has also completed the Canadian Securities Course given by the Canadian Securities Institute, and is a CFA charter holder.
Leda Braga
Leda Braga is the founder and CEO of Systematica Investments, a global institutional hedge fund manager with approximately $8.2 billion in assets under management. Systematica was formed in January 2015 as a spin-off of BlueCrest Capital, where Ms Braga was President and Head of Systematic Trading for 14 years. Prior to BlueCrest, she was part of Cygnifi Derivatives Services (a J.P. Morgan spin-off). At Cygnifi Ms Braga was part of the management team and head of its Valuation Service. Prior to Cygnifi, she spent nearly seven years at J.P. Morgan as a Quantitative Analyst in the derivatives research team. Her past experience includes modelling of interest rate exotics, FX/interest rate hybrid instruments and equity derivatives.
Ms Braga holds a PhD in Engineering from Imperial College London, where she worked as a lecturer and led research projects for over three years prior to joining J.P. Morgan. In addition, she has served in the advisory board of the pension fund of the CERN in Geneva and currently serves on the advisory board of the London School of Economics’ Systemic Risk Centre.
Jane Buchan
Jane is Chief Executive Officer of Martlet Asset Management responsible for firm strategy, organization and performance. Martlet is based in Newport Beach, CA and was founded in July 2018. The firm’s strategies include alternative risk premia and developing liquid strategies with a focus on fixed income.
Prior to this, Ms. Buchan co-founded and led Pacific Alternative Asset Management Company (PAAMCO), a Fund of Hedge Funds focused on institutional investors for 18 years. Under her leadership first as CEO of PAAMCO and then co-CEO of PAAMCO Prisma, the firm grew to $32 billion AUM placing it third globally in the league tables by the time of her retirement in July 2018 (HFM InvestHedge Billion Dollar Club).
Jane began her career at J.P. Morgan Investment Management in the Capital Markets Group where she was trained in quantitative fixed income portfolio management. She has been an Assistant Professor of Finance at the Amos Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth. She recently served as chairwoman of the board for the Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst Association (CAIA) and is a member of the Advisory Board for the Master of Financial Engineering Program at UCLA Anderson School of Management.
Jane holds both a PhD and an MA in Business Economics (Finance) from Harvard University. She earned a BA in Economics from Yale University. Jane has thirty-three years of experience in investment management and portfolio construction with institutional investors.
John Claisse
John Claisse joined Albourne in July 1996, relocated from London to San Francisco in July 2003 and became Albourne Group CEO in August 2015. John is an equity partner and member of Albourne’s Executive Committee and also chairs the firm’s Corporate Planning Council, which comprises Albourne’s function and region heads. John helped develop the firm’s proprietary risk analytics and was formerly the Senior Analyst for quantitative equity strategies and multi-strategy hedge funds. John remains a Portfolio Analyst working with several public and corporate plans, large endowments and foundations.
John also serves on the Advisory Board of the University of Sussex Business School, on the Board of Trustees of Standards Board of Alternative Investments (SBAI), and on the Governing Board of The Robert Toigo Foundation. John holds a first class Mathematics Degree and a PhD from Sussex University.
Albourne is an independent advisory firm focused on hedge funds, private equity, private credit, real assets, real estate and dynamic beta. Founded in 1994, Albourne has over 330 clients with over $800bn invested directly in alternative investments.
Derek Drummond
Derek Drummond, CAIA, is the Portfolio Manager for the Funds Alpha team at the State of Wisconsin Investment Board (SWIB), overseeing approximately $30B in assets.
Derek and his team are responsible for the sourcing, evaluation and implementation of external investment managers across both traditional and alternative investment strategies.
Derek has over 20 years of experience developing and implementing investment structures for both asset owners and managers, including developing portfolio construction, analytics and risk management frameworks, and establishing manager due diligence and evaluation processes.
Stuart Fiertz
Stuart Fiertz is the Co-Founder, President and Director of Research of Cheyne Capital. From 1991 to June 2000, and prior to establishing Cheyne Capital, Stuart worked for Morgan Stanley where he was responsible for the development and implementation of customised portfolio strategies and for credit research in the convertible bond management practice.
Prior to joining Morgan Stanley, Stuart was an equity research analyst for the Value Line Investment Survey, and a high yield credit analyst in Boston at Merrill Lynch and in New York at Lehman Brothers. Stuart is a CFA® charterholder and a CAIA designee. He is chairman of the Alternative Credit Council (ACC) and a Founder & Trustee of the Standards Board for Alternative Investments (SBAI). From 2014 until 2020, Stuart was also a council director of the Alternative Investment Management Association (AIMA) board. Stuart has been awarded the CFA Certificate in ESG Investing.
Stuart was educated at the International School of Geneva and at Dartmouth College where he was awarded a BA degree in Political Science and Economics.
Chris Gradel
Mr. Chris Gradel is Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of PAG. PAG is an Asia focused alternative investment manager with approximately USD55 billion of assets under management. PAG’s investment funds include public market strategies, private debt, real estate, infrastructure and private equity. He has over 20 years of investment experience and co-founded PAG in 2002. Before PAG, Mr. Gradel was an Engagement Manager at McKinsey & Company in Hong Kong, and worked for The Marmon Group in China.
Mr. Gradel received his master’s degree in Engineering, Economics and Management from Oxford University. He is a member of the Board of Trustees at the Standards Board for Alternative Investments (SBAI), the hedge fund industry’s global standard-setting body, a member of the Investment Committee of Oxford University Endowment Management, and a Wykeham Fellow of New College, Oxford.
Robyn Grew
Robyn Grew is CEO of the LSE-listed active investment management firm Man Group, and an executive director on the Man Group Board. The global firm manages USD 151.7 billion (as at 30 June 2023) across a broad range of alternative and long-only portfolio solutions. As CEO, Robyn leads the firm’s Executive Committee, which is focused on ensuring the firm continues to evolve to meet the needs of its clients and the millions of pensioners and savers they represent.
Robyn was previously President of Man Group, based in the US, and has a strong track record of demonstrating strategic vision and leadership. Since joining Man Group, via GLG, in 2010, Robyn has managed the solutions business, overseen trading and execution as well as acted as Group COO, Head of ESG and General Counsel. She has been integral to the firm’s global strategic expansion and oversaw the reorganisation of Man Group’s corporate structure in 2019 to better align it with the global footprint of the business. She has also spearheaded the firm’s diversity programme, Drive. Before joining the firm in 2009, Robyn held senior positions at investment banks Barclays Capital and Lehman Brothers as well as at LIFFE, the largest futures and options exchange in London – since renamed ICE Futures Europe. These roles saw her based for periods of time in New York, London and Tokyo giving her broad, global experience. Robyn is a qualified barrister and has worked in the investment industry since 1994.
Elena Manola-Bonthond
Elena Manola-Bonthond, PhD, MBA, is Chief Investment Officer of CERN Pension Fund, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, based in Geneva, Switzerland. The Fund manages approximately 5 billion Swiss francs in assets, both internally and externally. Elena has played an instrumental role in defining and implementing an investment governance framework optimised for dynamic risk management. Before joining the CERN Pension Fund, Elena worked in CERN's science sector where she was responsible for the safety and risk management system of CERN's flagship installation, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). Before that, she worked as a research physicist at CERN.
Elena holds a PhD in particle physics from the University of Savoie, France, and CERN, and an MBA in international management from the University of Geneva, Switzerland. Furthermore, she is a CAIA charterholder
Edward J. O'Reilly
Ed O’Reilly is a Senior Managing Director and Global Head of the Client and Partner Group at Citadel. He is responsible for managing the firm’s relationships with all investors globally. Ed is on the Executive Leadership Team and a Portfolio Committee member.
Ed started his career at The O’Connor Partnership, Chicago, where he managed the non-investment aspects of a dynamic, derivatives market making and proprietary trading business within the Fixed Income, Currencies and Commodities (FICC) and Equities businesses in a COO function. Throughout his career with O’Connor / Swiss Bank Corporation / UBS, Ed was based in a variety of financial centers: Chicago, Singapore, Zurich and London. This experience ultimately led him to spend 18 years abroad.
Ed is a member of The Economic Club of New York, The Aspen Institute Society of Fellows, The Investment Committee for the Bruce Museum of Arts and Science, and The Development Committee for the Brunswick School in Greenwich, Connecticut. Ed is on the Investment Committee for the Miami University Endowment and a Director of the Miami University Foundation Board. He is also Chairman of the SBAI's North American Committee.
Ed O’Reilly received his Master of Business Administration from Duke University and a bachelor’s degree from Miami University, Oxford, Ohio.
Jean Rogers, PhD
Dr. Jean Rogers is a Senior Managing Director and Blackstone’s ESG Chairperson. She partners with investment and ICS teams on energy transition and ESG-related initiatives.
Prior to joining Blackstone, Dr. Rogers advised companies and asset managers on long-term ESG integration as an independent board director and C-level advisor. Dr. Rogers founded and led the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB), a non-profit dedicated to optimizing US capital markets by fostering disclosure of material sustainability information that meets investor needs and enhances public trust. Before founding SASB, Dr. Rogers worked to advance sustainable development across the US, Europe, and China for more than a decade at Arup, a global engineering consultancy specializing in low-carbon infrastructure and green buildings, and Deloitte, where she worked on environmental projects in its manufacturing practice.
Dr. Rogers holds a PhD in environmental engineering from Illinois Institute of Technology and earned both her BE and ME in civil and environmental engineering from Manhattan College. She was a Loeb Fellow at Harvard University and currently serves as an advisor to the Social Innovation and Change Initiative at the Harvard Kennedy School and the Hoffman Global Institute at INSEAD. Dr. Rogers serves on the Board of Directors of Xpansiv, a Blackstone portfolio company, as well as on the Investment Committees for certain of Blackstone’s strategies in private equity and private credit focused on energy transition and climate solutions.
Ben Samild
Ben Samild was appointed Chief Investment Officer of the Future Fund in August 2023, having previously served as DCIO, Portfolio Construction.
As CIO, Ben leads the Future Fund’s investment team investing A$250bn across all asset classes and geographies, with a particular focus on stewarding the Fund’s joined-up whole portfolio approach.
He joined the Future Fund in October 2013, as Director, Alternatives, following a 10 year career in the hedge fund industry, and 4 years as Head of Investment Strategy at LUCRF Super.
Ben is also a member of the Board of Trustees of the Standards Board for Alternative Investments.
Ben completed a 6 year undergraduate degree at the University of Melbourne majoring in behavioural finance, psychology and history, and has a Masters of Applied Finance.
Priti Singh
Priti Singh leads CPP Investments' Global Capital Markets and Factor Investing Department, which is comprised of External Portfolio Management, Systematic Strategies Group, Investment Engineering & Analytics and Strategy, Risk & Operations groups. She is the Chair of the Inclusion and Diversity Leadership Council.
Before this appointment, she was Managing Director and Head of External Portfolio Management, responsible for managing a global portfolio of externally managed funds that complement and enhance our internal public market investment programs. Prior to joining CPP Investments in 2008, Priti worked for over eight years in the financial services and telecommunication industries. Priti holds an MBA from the Rotman School of Management of the University of Toronto and an MS in Physics from the University of Waterloo. She currently serves on the Board of Trustees for the Standards Board for Alternative Investments.
Betty Tay
Betty is Managing Director, Head of External Managers Department in GIC. In her current capacity, Betty oversees the day-to-day activities of the External Managers Department, including portfolio management for all of GIC’s public market external managers programs, manager selection and monitoring, operations and administration for the department. In addition, Betty is a member of GIC’s Business Continuity Plan Steering Committee.
Betty joined GIC in July 1999 as a Senior Portfolio Manager. She served as a Portfolio Manager within the Emerging Markets Group from 1999 to 2002. In this capacity, Betty was posted to GIC’s London office, and was instrumental in developing portfolio management expertise in non-Asia emerging markets. In 2002, Betty joined the External Managers Group.
Betty has over 20 years of experience in international financial markets including trading functions across various products in local and international financial institutions. She began her career as a proprietary trader with the Development Bank of Singapore (DBS). Prior to joining GIC, Betty spent 6 years as a Principal at Bankers Trust Company (Singapore). She served as the Head of the Foreign Exchange Forwards Division and managed the firm’s balance sheet in Singapore.
Betty graduated from the National University of Singapore in 1991 with a BSc in Mathematics. She also holds both Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA) designations. She completed the Stanford Executive Program in August 2014. Betty is a member of the Investment Advisory Committee for the Lee Kuan Yew Fund for Bilingualism Limited.
Paula Volent
Paula Volent is Vice President and Chief Investment Officer at The Rockefeller University, the world’s leading biomedical research university. Prior to joining The Rockefeller University in August 2021. Ms. Volent served as Chief Investment Officer and Senior Vice President at Bowdoin College, a private, residential college in Brunswick, Maine. At Bowdoin, where she was responsible for the oversight and management of the College’s endowment. Prior to joining Bowdoin in July 2000, Ms. Volent was a Senior Associate at the Yale Investments Office.
Ms. Volent has a BA from the University of New Hampshire; a Master’s Degree in Art History from the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University; a Certificate in Conservation from the Conservation Center at NYU, with a specialization in the conservation of works of art on paper; and an MBA from the Yale School of Management. Prior to focusing on endowment management, Paula worked as a paper conservator at the New-York Historical Society, the San Francisco Palace of Fine Arts, the LA County Museum of Art, and the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC. She also ran a private paper conservation studio in Los Angeles, California. She serves on the Board of Directors of MSCI, Inc.; the Board of Directors of 1st Dibs; a member of the Investment Committee of the Pritzker Family Foundation, a member of the Advisory Board of Girls Who Invest, a Trustee of the Skowhegan School of Art and Painting, and an Investment Committee Member of the Rockefeller Foundation. She is also Vice Chair of the Yale School of Management Advisory Board, a member of the Milken Institute’s Global Markets Advisory Council, a member of the Advisory Board of the Private Capital Research Institute and a member of the National Gallery of Art Investment Subcommittee. In 2020 Barron’s named Ms. Volent as one of the “100 most influential women in U.S. Finance.