2023 Annual Canadian Institutional Investor Forum

Thomas Deinet

Executive Director, SBAI

Thomas Deinet was appointed Executive Director of the SBAI (previously known as the HFSB) in 2008. In 2007, Thomas joined the working group to project manage the development of practice standards proposed by 14 leading international alternative investment managers that led to the establishment of the SBAI.

Prior to joining the SBAI, he was a senior manager at Oliver Wyman, where he extensively worked with major financial institutions in Europe covering asset management as well as corporate and investment banking. Thomas also worked as an analyst in energy trading for a major commodities trading firm.

Thomas is a graduate of the University of Karlsruhe, Germany, with a major in industrial engineering and holds an MSc from Purdue University, USA. Thomas is a CFA charterholder.

Mario Therrien

SBAI Chair, Head of Investment Funds and External Management, CDPQ

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.

Francois Boutin-Dufresne

Co Founder & Managing Partner, Nordis Capital

François is an entrepreneur which operates at the nexus of financial markets, public policy and sustainable investing. François has more than 20 years of experience as an economist in public policy and financial markets.

He is the co-founder and Managing Partner of Sustainable Market Strategies and Nordis Capital, respectively a research firm and alternative asset manager both built on the premise that investing in sustainability-themed megatrends can improve longer term risk-adjusted returns. François is also a part-time lecturer in economics and finance at HEC Montréal’s MBA program.

His past roles include being a macroeconomic and financial strategist and as an economist at the International Monetary Fund, where he worked on financial sector development developing economies and development finance. Prior to his appointment to the IMF, he worked as a macro economist in the Government of Canada where he notably developed impact-focused private equity funds in Africa.

Damien Dwin

Founder & CEO, Lafayette Square

Damien Dwin is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Lafayette Square. Previously, Damien served as Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Brightwood Capital Advisors from its founding in 2010 to October 2020. 

Damien began his career as a trader with Goldman Sachs, New York & London, there earning the Michael P. Mortara Award for Innovation. At Credit Suisse, he was the Co-Founder and Head of the North American Special Opportunities business until 2010. Damien also served on the Vice President Selection Committee and led the Fixed Income Division Credit Training Program. 

He is an active thought leader on place-based investing, mass incarceration and the use of capitalism for good. He has written for Financial Times, Entrepreneur and Inc.com. 

Damien currently serves as Chair of the Board of Trustees for Vera Institute of Justice. He also serves on the non-profit boards of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Studio Museum in Harlem, National Trust for Historic Preservation, Woodberry Forest School, and Boys’ Club of New York.  He is also a Council Member of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.

Damien received a B.S./B.A. from Georgetown University where he served two terms on the Board of Regents. 

David Gulkowitz

COO, DSC Meridian Capital

David is the founding COO of DSC Meridian where he oversees all non-investment functions. DSC Meridian is a High-Yield Asset Manager with strategies across the liquidity and risk spectrum from Performing HY Credit to Distressed and across long-only, Hedge Fund, and Private Equity products. DSC Meridian provides sustainability solutions as part of its product offering and is at the forefront of thought leadership within sustainable investing. David was recently named Chairman of the UNPRI Hedge Fund Advisory Committee.

Before DSC Meridian, David held a variety of senior roles within institutional hedge fund firms. Most recently he was the Chief Operating Officer of Hutchin Hill Capital, a multi-billion multi-strategy portfolio where he chaired the firm’s Operating Committee.

Dr Jean Rogers

Sr. MD & ESG Chairperson, Blackstone

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.

Courtney Birnbaum

Director of Sustainability, Corbin Capital Partners

Courtney serves as the Director of Sustainability at Corbin Capital Partners, a New York-based woman-led independent alternative asset management firm that specializes in multi-strategy hedge fund and opportunistic credit investing. 

Courtney leads Corbin’s ESG integration and responsible investing programs. Prior to formally joining Corbin in January 2022, Courtney served as a consultant for a year during which time she helped shape Corbin’s proprietary ESG materiality framework within the investment process. She also led the firm’s manager engagement efforts. Courtney is a member of Corbin’s Sustainability Committee, Multi-Strategy Investment Committee, and Credit Investment Committee.

Previously, Courtney was a senior advisor and portfolio manager at several family offices and the Director of Marketable Investments for the Bowdoin College endowment. Before joining Bowdoin, Courtney spent approximately seven years at Goldman Sachs where she was a Vice President in the Alternative Investments and Manager Selection group (AIMS). In this role, she was responsible for manager selection and seeding within hedge funds. Prior to Goldman, she was a director at Sterling Stamos, a multi-family office, for four years. Courtney began her career in Investment Banking at Merrill Lynch and Rothschild. She holds a B.A. in Psychology from Yale University and an MBA from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania.

Courtney lives in Boca Raton, Florida with her husband, David, and their two children. Courtney supports organizations focused on women’s and children’s issues, including the Tina’s Wish foundation to fund research for the early detection of Ovarian Cancer. She is passionate about education and serves on the Alumni Council of the Horace Mann School.

Thomas Deinet

Executive Director, SBAI

Thomas Deinet was appointed Executive Director of the SBAI (previously known as the HFSB) in 2008. In 2007, Thomas joined the working group to project manage the development of practice standards proposed by 14 leading international alternative investment managers that led to the establishment of the SBAI.

Prior to joining the SBAI, he was a senior manager at Oliver Wyman, where he extensively worked with major financial institutions in Europe covering asset management as well as corporate and investment banking. Thomas also worked as an analyst in energy trading for a major commodities trading firm.

Thomas is a graduate of the University of Karlsruhe, Germany, with a major in industrial engineering and holds an MSc from Purdue University, USA. Thomas is a CFA charterholder.

Dr Ashby Monk

Executive & Research Director, Stanford Research Initiative on Long-Term Investing, Stanford University

Dr. Ashby Monk is currently a Senior Research Engineer, School of Engineering at Stanford University, and holds the position of Executive Director of the Stanford Research Initiative on Long-Term Investing.

Ashby has more than 20 years of experience studying and advising investment organizations. He has authored multiple books and published 100s of research papers on institutional investing. His latest book, The Technologized Investor, won the 2021 Silver Medal from the Axiom Business Book Awards in the Business Technology category.

Outside of academia, he has co-founded several companies that help investors make better investment decisions, including Real Capital Innovation (acquired by Addepar), FutureProof, NetPurpose, D.A.T.A., ThirdAct, Growthsphere, SheltonAI and Long Game Savings (acquired by Truist). He is also a member of the CFA Institute’s Future of Finance Advisory Council and was named by CIO Magazine as one of the most influential academics in the institutional investing world.

Ashby received his Doctorate in Economic Geography at the University of Oxford, holds a Master’s in International Economics from the Université de Paris I - Pantheon Sorbonne, and has a Bachelor’s in Economics from Princeton University.

Mario Therrien

SBAI Chair, Head of Investment Funds and External Management, CDPQ

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.

Jonathan Hausman

Chief Strategy Officer , Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan

Jonathan Hausman is the Chief Strategy Officer at Ontario Teachers’. In this role, he oversees strategy development and implementation across Ontario Teachers’, leading a cross-organizational approach to advancing the strategic objectives of the Plan. He oversees Sustainable Investing and the Global Investment Strategy (GIS) department, which develops conviction on strategic responses to emerging global themes and develops and cultivates crucial investment relationships for the Fund worldwide.

Jonathan is a member of the Investments Leadership Team and Global Investment Committee. Previously, he was the head of Alternative Investments and Global Tactical Asset Allocation, where he was responsible for the Fund's global hedge fund portfolio, as well as its internal global macro and systematic trading strategies.

Prior to joining Ontario Teachers', Jonathan was Executive Director at Goldman Sachs, where he managed sovereign risk strategy and advised governments in its New York, Hong Kong and London offices. He is the Chair of the Canadian Council for the Americas and is a Senior Fellow at the Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto, where he was founding Co-Chair and lectured on global political economy for over a decade. He also serves on the board of Capitalize for Kids. Before entering investment banking, Jonathan worked as Special Assistant to the Premier of Ontario.

Jonathan holds a BA (Hons.) from McGill University, an MSc. (Econ.) from the London School of Economics, and an MPA from the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University. He also has the ICD.D certification from the Institute of Corporate Directors.

Jean-François Pépin

CIO, Bimcor

Mr. Pépin joined Bimcor in August of 2021 as Chief Investment Officer. In his role, Mr. Pépin oversees the investment activities of the various pension plans for the Bell Canada group of companies. Prior to joining Bimcor, Mr. Pépin was Treasurer of Hydro-Québec and in charge of overseeing Hydro-Québec’s pension plan.

Jean-François began his career at Addenda Capital, where he held a number of positions including Trader, Senior Trader, Vice-President - Trading and Strategy as well as Team Leader. From 2012 to 2017, Mr. Pépin was Senior Vice-President and Co-Chief Investment Officer. Jean-François was an inaugural member of the Bank of Canada's Canadian Fixed Income Forum (CFIF).

Jean-François has been actively involved in various charities supporting the community such as the Club des petits déjeuners and La Maison Marguerite.

Jean-François holds a bachelor's and master's degree in business administration - finance from the University of Sherbrooke University.

Marlene Puffer

CIO, AIMCO

Dr. Marlene Puffer is AIMCo’s Chief Investment Officer. She joined AIMCo in 2023, and is responsible for Real Estate, Infrastructure, Private Equity and Private Debt and Loan, Fixed Income, Private Mortgages, Investment Strategy, and Public Equities — addressing clients' needs for both liquid and illiquid investments.

Marlene has an excellent investment track record and a wealth of experience in traditional and alternative investments, capital markets, and pension governance. She has held CEO, senior roles and board positions at major Canadian pension funds and investment dealers. Most recently, she was the President and Chief Executive Officer at CN Investment Division, accountable for all aspects of the investment management and organizational oversight of the CN Pension Trust Funds.

She is the former vice-chair of the Board of the Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan (HOOPP) and past president of Women in Capital Markets. Marlene is a CFA charterholder and received her Ph.D. in Finance and Statistics from the Simon Business School, University of Rochester.

Dr Ashby Monk

Executive & Research Director, Stanford Research Initiative on Long-Term Investing, Stanford University

Dr. Ashby Monk is currently a Senior Research Engineer, School of Engineering at Stanford University, and holds the position of Executive Director of the Stanford Research Initiative on Long-Term Investing.

Ashby has more than 20 years of experience studying and advising investment organizations. He has authored multiple books and published 100s of research papers on institutional investing. His latest book, The Technologized Investor, won the 2021 Silver Medal from the Axiom Business Book Awards in the Business Technology category.

Outside of academia, he has co-founded several companies that help investors make better investment decisions, including Real Capital Innovation (acquired by Addepar), FutureProof, NetPurpose, D.A.T.A., ThirdAct, Growthsphere, SheltonAI and Long Game Savings (acquired by Truist). He is also a member of the CFA Institute’s Future of Finance Advisory Council and was named by CIO Magazine as one of the most influential academics in the institutional investing world.

Ashby received his Doctorate in Economic Geography at the University of Oxford, holds a Master’s in International Economics from the Université de Paris I - Pantheon Sorbonne, and has a Bachelor’s in Economics from Princeton University.

Brian Digney

Research and Content Director, SBAI

Brian Digney joined the SBAI in March 2023 in the role of Research and Content Director. He is responsible for content development and co-ordination of the ongoing and future working groups on a wide variety of topics, including valuation of private assets, ESG & carbon footprinting, governance, insurance linked strategies, digital assets, asset management regulation and compliance as well as new topics to be determined in the future.

Prior to joining the SBAI, Brian was the Head of Due Diligence & Governance Oversight at Innocap Global Investment Management (Ireland) Ltd (2018-2023) in Dublin, a subsidiary of Innocap Investment Management Inc., a US$50bn hedge fund platform. He acted as Designated Person for Operational Risk Management, a regulated role by the Central Bank of Ireland. He also sat on Innocap’s Irish Risk Oversight and Valuation Committees. In 2017, Brian joined Albourne Partners in London as a Senior Operational Due Diligence Analyst. From 2015 to 2017 he was employed as an Operational Due Diligence Analyst at Mercer Sentinel in London. From 2010 to 2015 he held various Associate level roles at Decura LLP, Morgan Stanley and Citi.

Brian holds an LLB Hons in Law with Criminology and an M.Sc. in Management and Corporate Governance from University of Ulster. Brian is a Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst.

Jean-François Bérubé

VP, Quantitative Strategies & Data Science, CDPQ

Jean-François has over 16 years of professional experience in digital technology and quantitative investment. He held various leadership roles at Hexavest and Desjardins International Asset Management before joining CDPQ in January 2022.

As Vice-President, Quantitative Strategies and Data Science, Jean-François is responsible for developing and managing systematic and quantitative investment strategies. He is also responsible for pre- and post-investment analytics on liquid and illiquid CDPQ’s portfolios. Lastly, he has the mandate to accelerate and expand the integration of data science into the organization's investment processes.

Jean-François holds a PhD and Master's degree in computer science from University of Montreal (2008 and 2004), as well as a Master's and Bachelor's in Economics from University of Montreal (2000 and 1999). In addition to his experience at Hexavest and Desjardins International Asset Management, Jean-François served as Quantitative Analyst at CDPQ from 2007 to 2009 and was a Research Professional at CIRANO from 2000 to 2003.

Eduard Van Gelderen

Snr VP & CIO, PSP Investments

Eduard van Gelderen is Senior Vice President and Chief Investment Officer at the Public Sector Pension Investment Board (PSP Investments). Since joining PSP Investments in 2018, he has been overseeing the organization’s total portfolio and establishing the long-term investment portfolio strategy. He also heads the responsible investment, public policy, government relations, as well as the public affairs and communications functions.

Prior to joining PSP Investments, Eduard was Senior Managing Director at the Office of the Chief Investment Officer of the University of California. As a member of the executive team, his primary responsibilities included overseeing the University’s retirement plan, heading up equity and real assets activities, and handling strategic partnerships in Europe. He also served as CEO of the Dutch financial service provider APG Asset Management and as Deputy CIO of ING Investment Management.Eduard is a certified Financial Risk Manager and a Chartered Financial Analyst and has served on several investment advisory boards. He holds a master’s degree in Quantitative Finance from Erasmus University Rotterdam and a post-graduate degree in Asset Liability Management from Maastricht University in Limburg.

He is currently a PhD candidate at the International School of Management in Paris. He began his career as an investment banker in London and Amsterdam.

Andrew Lapkin

COO , Innocap Investment Management

Andrew Lapkin is the Chief Operating Officer at Innocap. Innocap specializes in supporting institutional clients in the development and operation of private dedicated managed account (“DMA”) platforms, offering institutional investors solutions to obtain customized terms, meaningful control, increased transparency, and operational alpha over their investment portfolios. Andrew is responsible for overseeing Innocap's investment, risk analytics, data management and technology teams.

Andrew has over 30 years of experience in the financial services industry. Prior to joining Innocap, he was the CEO of HedgeMark. Under Andrew's leadership, HedgeMark grew to become the largest managed account platform provider in the industry. Prior to joining HedgeMark, he was a co-founder and President and Chief Operating Officer of Measurisk, a JP Morgan company that was formerly affiliated with The Bear Stearns Companies. While at Measurisk, a provider of sophisticated risk transparency and risk measurement solutions, Andrew oversaw risk reporting for clients representing over $650 billion in assets. Prior to forming Measurisk, he was a Vice President at Bankers Trust in charge of the development of risk and performance reporting systems and prior to that, a senior technology consultant at Andersen Consulting.

Andrew received an MBA. in finance and management from Columbia University and a BA in Economics from Lafayette College.

Dr Ashby Monk

Executive & Research Director, Stanford Research Initiative on Long-Term Investing, Stanford University

Dr. Ashby Monk is currently a Senior Research Engineer, School of Engineering at Stanford University, and holds the position of Executive Director of the Stanford Research Initiative on Long-Term Investing.

Ashby has more than 20 years of experience studying and advising investment organizations. He has authored multiple books and published 100s of research papers on institutional investing. His latest book, The Technologized Investor, won the 2021 Silver Medal from the Axiom Business Book Awards in the Business Technology category.

Outside of academia, he has co-founded several companies that help investors make better investment decisions, including Real Capital Innovation (acquired by Addepar), FutureProof, NetPurpose, D.A.T.A., ThirdAct, Growthsphere, SheltonAI and Long Game Savings (acquired by Truist). He is also a member of the CFA Institute’s Future of Finance Advisory Council and was named by CIO Magazine as one of the most influential academics in the institutional investing world.

Ashby received his Doctorate in Economic Geography at the University of Oxford, holds a Master’s in International Economics from the Université de Paris I - Pantheon Sorbonne, and has a Bachelor’s in Economics from Princeton University.

Harrison Shaw

CEO, Shelton AI

Harrison is currently CEO of Shelton AI, a software company that provides AI & machine learning to the most prestigious sovereign wealth funds, pensions, & endowments.

Prior to Shelton AI, Harrison created natural language processing software & led a research team of 26 software engineers on three projects for the largest private equity megafund.

Harrison, admitted at 20 years old, is the youngest MBA ever at Berkeley Haas, a time period where he concurrently received his Master of Financial Engineering certification. Recently, he was inducted into Cal Founders' Berkeley's entrepreneurial philanthropic society & has received the Peter E. Haas Award (Berkeley's highest award for public service.)

In his undergraduate studies, he graduated from UC Berkeley in 2 years with the most prestigious honor/scholarship (>.01%), received high honors on his thesis with Assistant Deputy Secretary of the US Treasury, and served as Regent's & Chancellors' protege to the Dean of the Business School, Rich Lyons.

Harrison now serves on several boards, including Stanford Long Term Investing & the Asian Institute of Digital Finance supported by the Monetary Authority of Singapore.

Marco Della Torre

CEO, Venn by Two Sigma

Marco Della Torre is the CEO of Venn by Two Sigma, a portfolio analytics platform used by asset owners, asset managers, wealth managers and other advisors. Venn applies Two Sigma's expertise in research, data science, and technology to modernize the analytics experience for institutional investors, helping them embrace a quantitative approach to multi-asset portfolio risk and investment decision making. The tools available in Venn help investors perform factor-based risk analysis to inform manager due diligence, investment evaluation, and portfolio construction.

Before Venn, Marco served as the Chief Product & Innovation Officer of Forge Global, a private equity trading, data, index and custody platform. Marco oversaw the company’s product strategy and roadmap through a period of immense growth, from early stage startup to IPO. Prior to Forge, Marco was Chief Technology Officer and Board Member of Derive Systems, a global automotive software platform powering 2 million vehicles in 50+ countries. Earlier in his career, he co-founded Basis, a consumer health platform (acquired by Intel), and on the first team at BAM Labs (acquired by Sleep Number).

Marco holds undergraduate and postgraduate Engineering degrees from the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia.

Michael Beaton

Head of Portfolio Construction, Polar Asset Management Partners

Michael works within the Office of the CIO and is responsible for a range of portfolio and strategy-level analysis and initiatives, ranging from the incubation of new strategies and PM development to portfolio efficiency efforts. Prior to his current role, Michael developed a systematic trend-following strategy within Polar and worked on the Fixed Income team.

Prior to joining Polar, Michael was a managing director at the Carlyle Group responsible for liquid systematic strategies. Prior to Carlyle, Michael was a partner at Breton Hill Capital, where he traded for the global macro fund. Mr. Beaton has also worked at Macquarie Bank in their commodity group and as a fund analyst at Diversified Global Asset Management.

Michael graduated from the University of Toronto in 2004 with a master’s in mathematical finance.

Brandon Gill New

Head of External Partnerships, Alberta Investment Management Co. (AIMCo)

Brandon Gill New leads AIMCo’s External Partnerships team, overseeing the Plan’s external Public Equity and Absolute Return investments. At AIMCo, Brandon oversees the strategy, success, and growth of the External Partnerships portfolio, builds and nurtures client and partner relations, and contributes to setting long-term strategic goals.

Prior to joining AIMCo, Brandon spent 5 years at OPTrust, most recently as the Managing Director & Head, Multi-Strategy Investments and Digital Assets. Previously, Brandon was a Director at BMO Capital Partners, a proprietary private debt and equity fund at Bank of Montreal. She also spent a decade at Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, serving as a Portfolio Manager in the Alternative Investments Division, managing a portfolio of global hedge funds and esoteric investment funds.

Brandon holds an MBA from London Business School and a BA in International Economics from Middlebury College in Vermont. She is also a CFA Charter holder. Brandon currently serves the Chair of the Investment Advisory Committee for The Junior League or Toronto’s Legacy Fund, and as a representative on the North American Advisory Committee of the Standards Board of Alternative Investments.

Christophe L'Ahelec

Managing Director, Head of Active Public Markets, University Pension Plan Ontario (UPP)

Christophe L'Ahelec is an investment professional with more than twenty years of global experience in France, Hong Kong, Switzerland, and Canada.

As Managing Director, Head of Active Public Markets, he is responsible for UPP’s global investment strategy with a particular focus on Active Public Market activities.

Prior to that, Christophe was a Senior Principal in the Capital Markets (CM) department, at Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board where he was accountable for the top-down management of the external managers portfolio and was part of the investment committee allocating to hedge fund, private credit and long only equity managers. During his 11 years tenure at OTPP, he originated, conducted due-diligence, and on-boarded systematic alpha managers in the equity and futures space, along with leading the group's work in the alternative risk premia space.

Before coming to Canada, Christophe 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 spent the first two years of his career working for BNP Paribas in Hong Kong where he provided real-time quantitative support to the fixed-income trading desk.

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. He has been invited to speak globally on advanced portfolio and risk management topics and is also known for his work as an academic writer. His papers have been published in the Journal of Asset Management and the Journal of Alternative assets.

Jennifer Ancker Whelen

Chief Client Officer, Member of Executive, Investment & Risk Committees, Graham Capital Management

Jennifer Ancker Whelen is the Chief Client Officer of Graham Capital Management, L.P. ("Graham"), an alternative investment manager with approximately $19B AUM as of October 1, 2023. Mrs. Ancker Whelen is also a member of the firm's Executive, Investment, and Risk committees. She became an Associated Person of Graham effective June 6, 2007 and a Principal January 15, 2021. Mrs. Ancker Whelen is responsible for the development of strategic relationships with Graham's global client base, including consultants and institutional investors.

Prior to joining Graham in April 2007, Mrs. Ancker Whelen was Principal and Director of Marketing & Investor Relations at Stadia Capital, LLC, a long/short equity hedge fund.

Mrs. Ancker Whelen graduated cum laude from Colby College in 1995 with a B.A. in Economics and a minor in Sociology.