Board Members
| Chairman Andrew W. Lo Andrew W. Lo Andrew W. Lo is the Charles E. and Susan T. Harris Professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management, the director of MIT’s Laboratory for Financial Engineering, a principal investigator at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab, a core faculty member of MIT’s Institute for Data, Science, and Systems, and an affiliated faculty member of the MIT Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. He received a B.A. in economics from Yale University in 1980, and an A.M. and Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University in 1984. Prior to joining MIT’s faculty in 1988, he taught at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School.
His most recent research focuses on systemic risk in the financial system, evolutionary models of investor behavior, and applying financial engineering to develop new funding models for biomedical innovation. He has published extensively in academic journals (see http://alo.mit.edu), and has authored several books including The Econometrics of Financial Markets and, most recently, Adaptive Markets: Financial Evolution at the Speed of Thought. His awards include Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and Guggenheim Fellowships, the Paul A. Samuelson Award, the Harry M. Markowitz Award, the CFA Institute’s James R. Vertin Award, and election to Academia Sinica, the Econometric Society, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and Time Magazine’s 2012 list of the “100 most influential people in the world,” He has also received teaching awards from the University of Pennsylvania and MIT. He is chairman and chief investment strategist of AlphaSimplex Group, a member of the Board of Overseers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, a board member of Roivant Sciences and the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, an advisor to BridgeBio, and an advisory board member for the CFTC, New York Fed, and SEC. Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
Academic Advisor Sanjiv R. Das Sanjiv R. Das Sanjiv Das is the William and Janice Terry Professor of Finance at Santa Clara University's Leavey School of Business. He previously held faculty appointments as Associate Professor at Harvard Business School and UC Berkeley. He holds post-graduate degrees in Finance (M.Phil and Ph.D. from New York University), Computer Science (M.S. from UC Berkeley), an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, B.Com in Accounting and Economics (University of Bombay, Sydenham College), and is also a qualified Cost and Works Accountant. He is a senior editor of The Journal of Investment Management, co-editor of The Journal of Derivatives and The Journal of Financial Services Research, and Associate Editor of other academic journals. Prior to being an academic, he worked in the derivatives business in the Asia-Pacific region as a Vice-President at Citibank. His current research interests include: the modeling of default risk, machine learning, social networks, derivatives pricing models, portfolio theory, and venture capital. He has published over ninety articles in academic journals, and has won numerous awards for research and teaching. His recent book "Derivatives: Principles and Practice" was published in May 2010. He currently also serves as a Senior Fellow at the FDIC Center for Financial Research. Santa Clara University |
Advisory Board
| John Ameriks John Ameriks John Ameriks, Ph.D., is a principal and global head of Quantitative Equity Group in Vanguard's Investment Management Group. His team manages or co-manages Vanguard active equity, alternative, multi-asset-class, and factor-based investment mandates using quantitative methods. Mr. Ameriks' research has appeared in The Journal of Finance, The American Economic Review, The Quarterly Journal of Economics, The Review of Economics and Statistics, and the Journal of Financial Planning. His current research interests include quantitative equity investment strategies, behavioral economics, retirement finance, and solutions-oriented single-fund investments. Before joining Vanguard in 2003, Mr. Ameriks was a senior research fellow at the TIAA-CREF Institute. He earned an A.B. from Stanford University and an M.A., M.Phil., and Ph.D. in economics from Columbia University. The Vanguard Group |
Jeremy Baskin Jeremy Baskin Jeremy is currently an Advisor to Random Forest a financial technology firm that applies advanced data science to investment management. Previously, he was Global CEO and Global CIO of Rosenberg Equities responsible for overseeing and implementing Rosenberg’s global strategy. He is also a member of the AXA Rosenberg Group Board and the AXA Investment Managers Management Board and Executive Committee. He joined the company in 2010. Prior to joining Rosenberg Equities, Jeremy was senior vice president and head of active equity management for The Northern Trust Company. During his 22-year tenure at Northern Trust, he was responsible for the global passive business, as well as building the research and investment infrastructure for risk-taking value-added quantitative equity strategies. Jeremy left Northern Trust for a brief period to help develop the Equity Derivatives Group at First Union Securities, rejoining Northern Trust in 2000 as director of structured equity, quantitative management. Jeremy obtained an MBA in finance and marketing from the J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University and a BA degree from Wesleyan University. He is a CFA charterholder and a member of the Investment Analysts Society of San Francisco, Chicago Analyst Society, Chicago Quantitative Alliance and the CFA Institute. MSCI |
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| Gary Bergstrom Gary Bergstrom Gary L. Bergstrom, Ph.D.
Gary founded Acadian Asset Management in 1986, to offer advanced global investment strategies to institutional investors around the world. He has been investing globally for over 40 years and was one of the first institutional managers to advocate the benefits of disciplined global equity investment for U.S. based investors. He spent nine years at the Putnam Companies and later founded Acadian Financial Research (predecessor of Acadian Asset Management). That firm worked extensively with a number of major investment organizations, including the State Street Bank and Trust Company where it developed and helped manage the first international index matching strategies. When the formal relationship with State Street ended, Acadian Asset Management began managing institutional assets directly. Since then, the firm has grown to over $80 billion of assets under management and has continued to be a pioneer in developing a variety of active strategies for global investing. Gary has been a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Portfolio Management. His award-winning article, “A New Route to High Returns and Lower Risks,” published in the journal in 1975, was one of the first to advocate significant allocations of the assets of U.S. –based funds to global equities. His other publications include articles in the Financial Analysts Journal, Columbia Journal of World Business, Management Science, The Wall Street Journal, and The Sloan Management Review, as well as chapters in many books. Gary currently serves on the boards of several major non-profit institutions. He has a particular interest in development economics and emerging markets, gained in part from his extensive research experience in India. He earned a doctorate from MIT’s Sloan School of Management, where he also served on the faculty. Gary L. Bergstrom, Ph.D. – Consultant Over 40 years of continuous institutional investment experience Ph.D. from Massachusetts Institute of Technology BFO Investments LLC |
H. Gifford Fong H. Gifford Fong H. Gifford Fong is President of Gifford Fong Associates, a firm specializing in fixed income, derivative product and asset allocation analysis. Independent valuation, model validation and portfolio strategy analysis are areas of emphasis. He is a graduate of the University of California where he earned his B.S., M.B.A. and J.D. (law).
Mr. Fong is the editor of the Journal Of Investment Management (JOIM); founder of the JOIM Conference Series; member of the Corporation Visiting Committee for the MIT Sloan School of Management; member of the North American Executive Board of the MIT Sloan School; member of the Advisory Board of the Finance Faculty of the MIT Sloan School; founding sponsor, member of the Steering Committee of the Masters in Financial Engineering Program at the University of California at Berkeley; member, Haas Hall of Fame, Haas School of Business, University of California at Berkeley; member of the of the Academic Advisory Board of the Consortium for System Risk Analytics; former member of Advisory Board of the MIT Center for Finance and Policy; former member of the Board of Advisory Trustees, University of California, Berkeley Foundation; former editor of the Financial Analysts Journal; former member of the Board of Directors and Program Chairman of the Institute for Quantitative Research in Finance; former member of the Advisory Group of the University of California Regents Committee on Investments; former Vice Chair and member of the Research Committee of the Research Foundation of the CFA Institute and a contributor to a number of professional books and journals. In addition, Mr. Fong is co-author of "Fixed-Income Portfolio Management," a book published by Dow Jones-Irwin, co-author of "Advanced Fixed Income Portfolio Management, The State of the Art," a book published by Probus Publishing, editor of “The Credit Market Handbook: Advanced Modeling Issues,” a book published by Wiley Finance, editor of “The World of Hedge Funds: Characteristics and Analysis” and “The World of Risk Management,” books published by World Scientific. He is also the author of numerous professional journal publications. Mr. Fong has received a number of honors, including the Institute for Quantitative Research in Finance Award and the Financial Analysts Journal Graham and Dodd Award of Excellence. He also is on a number of boards of directors of non-related companies and non-profit institutions. Gifford Fong Associates |
Jason Hsu Jason Hsu Jason Hsu, a co-founder of Research Affiliates, is CEO and Chairman of Rayliant Global Advisors, based in Hong Kong. Rayliant Global Advisors is an Asia-focused investment firm focused on smart beta strategies tailored to the Asian markets as well as Chinese equity strategies targeted at foreign institutional investors. Jason continues to serve in a non-executive capacity at Research Affiliates as Vice Chairman. He is a strong advocate for investor education and products that add value by systematically exploiting known sources of excess returns and delivering them in low-cost and transparent index chassis. Jason is at the forefront of the smart beta revolution and is a recognized thought leader in the space. Building on his pioneering work on the RAFI™ Fundamental Index™ approach to investing with Rob Arnott in 2005, he has published numerous articles on the topic, notably including “A Survey of Alternative Equity Index Strategies,” which won a 2011 Graham and Dodd Scroll and the Readers’ Choice Award from CFA Institute and "The Surprising Alpha from Malkiel's Monkey and Upside-Down Strategies," which won the 2013 Bernstein Fabozzi/Jacobs Levy Award for Outstanding Paper in the Journal of Portfolio Management. In 2005 and 2013, he received the William F. Sharpe Award for Best New Index Research, which is awarded by Institutional Investor Journals, for his research on smart beta. Jason is a member of the board of directors at the Anderson School of Management at UCLA, as well as an adjunct professor in finance. For his service to UCLA’s Anderson School, Jason received the 2009 Outstanding Service Award. Jason is also a visiting professor in international finance at the Taiwan National University of Political Science. Jason has authored more than 40 peer-reviewed articles. He is an associate editor of the Journal of Investment Management and serves on the editorial board of the Financial Analysts Journal, the Journal of Index Investing, the Journal of Investment Consulting, and the Journal of Investment Management. Jason graduated with a BS (summa cum laude) in physics from the California Institute of Technology, was awarded an MS in finance from Stanford University, and earned his Ph.D. in finance from UCLA, where he conducted research on the equity premium, business cycles, and portfolio allocations Rayliant Global Advisors |
| Will Kinlaw Will Kinlaw Will Kinlaw, CFA
Senior Managing Director and Head of State Street Associates Will is senior managing director and head of State Street’s academic affiliate, State Street Associates, a unique partnership that bridges the worlds of financial theory and practice. Part of State Street’s Global Exchange division, State Street Associates develops risk, investor behavior, and economic indicators as well as investable indices for investment managers and institutional investors around the world. Its products leverage State Street’s proprietary information assets as well as data sourced through strategic partnerships with big data start-up companies in the Boston area. Will and his co-authors were awarded the 2013 Peter L. Bernstein Award as well as the 2013, 2014, and 2015 Bernstein Fabozzi/Jacobs Levy “Outstanding Article” Awards for their articles on liquidity, risk management, and performance measurement. His article on the role of sector exposures in describing the private equity premium won “Honorable Mention” for the 2016 Peter L. Bernstein Award. His book, “A Practitioner’s Guide to Asset Allocation,” co-authored with Mark Kritzman and David Turkington, was published by Wiley in 2017. Will serves on the Editorial Advisory Board of the Journal of Portfolio Management and the Advisory Board for the Journal of Investment Management conference series. He holds an M.S. in finance from the Carroll School of Management at Boston College and a B.A. in Economics from Tufts University, as well as a CFA designation. He joined State Street in 2002. State Street Global Exchange |
Mark Kritzman Mark Kritzman MARK KRITZMAN, CFA is a Founding Partner and CEO of Windham Capital Management, LLC and the Chairman of Windham’s investment committee. He is responsible for managing research activities and investment advisory services. He is also a Founding Partner of State Street Associates, and he teaches a graduate finance course at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Mark served as a Founding Director of the International Securities Exchange and has served on several boards, including the Institute for Quantitative Research in Finance, The Investment Fund for Foundations, and State Street Associates. He is also a member of several advisory and editorial boards, including the Advisory Board of GIC, the Advisory Board of the MIT Sloan Finance Group, the Advisory Board of the Tobin School of Business, the Emerging Markets Review, the Financial Analysts Journal, the Journal of Alternative Investments, the Journal of Derivatives, the Journal of Investment Management, where he is Book Review Editor, and The Journal of Portfolio Management. He has written numerous articles for academic and professional journals and is the author or co-author of seven books including A Practitioner’s Guide to Asset Allocation, Puzzles of Finance, and The Portable Financial Analyst. Mark won Graham and Dodd scrolls in 1993 and 2002, the Research Prize from the Institute for Quantitative Investment Research in 1997, the Bernstein Fabozzi/Jacobs Levy Award nine times, the Roger F. Murray Prize from the Q-Group in 2012, and the Peter L. Bernstein Award in 2013 for Best Paper in an Institutional Investor Journal. In 2004, Mark was elected a Batten Fellow at the Darden Graduate School of Business Administration, University of Virginia. Mark has a BS in economics from St. John’s University, an MBA with distinction from New York University, and a CFA designation. Windham Capital Management, LLC |
Martin L. Leibowitz Martin L. Leibowitz Martin L. Leibowitz is a Vice Chairman in Morgan Stanley’s Research Department. In addition to chairing the Global Research Quantitative Council, Dr. Leibowitz and his group produce studies on such topics as asset allocation, equity valuation, asset/liability management, and duration targeting. Prior to joining Morgan Stanley in 2004, Dr. Leibowitz was vice chairman and chief investment officer of TIAA-CREF from 1995 to 2004, with responsibility for the management of over $300 billion in equity, fixed income, and real estate assets. Previously, he had a 26-year association with Salomon Brothers, where he became director of global research, covering both fixed income and equities.
Dr. Leibowitz received both A.B. and M.S. degrees from The University of Chicago and a Ph.D. in mathematics from the Courant Institute of New York University. He has written over 250 articles on various financial and investment topics and has been the most frequent author published in both the Financial Analysts Journal (FAJ) and the Journal of Portfolio Management (JPM). Ten of his FAJ articles have received the Graham and Dodd Award for excellence in financial writing, and in 2008, a JPM publication was voted the year’s best paper by the Journal’s readers. Leibowitz has written several books with various coauthors. In 1972, his first book, “Inside the Yield Book”, coauthored with Sidney Homer, a distinguished scholar of financial history, became an early standard in the bond field and has gone through 21 re-printings. A 2nd edition was published in 2004 with a foreword by the noted economist Henry Kaufman. In 2013, his recent work on duration targeting and return convergence led to Bloomberg Press publishing a 3rd edition. Leibowitz’s other books include “Investing”, a volume of his collected writings, published in 1992 with a foreword by William F. Sharpe. In 1996, his book “Return Targets and Shortfall Risks” was issued by Irwin Co. In 2004, John Wiley & Co. published “Franchise Value”, a series of studies describing a new approach to equity valuation. In 2008, Mr. Leibowitz co-authored a book “Modern Portfolio Management”, published by John Wiley & Co., which focused on active equity strategies. Another volume, “The Endowment Model of Investing”, co-authored with Anthony Bova and Brett Hammond of TIAA-CREF, was published in 2010 by John Wiley & Co., with Peking University Press then issuing a Mandarin edition in 2012. In January 2015, Leibowitz was named “Financial Engineer of the Year” by the International Association for Quantitative Finance, joining a distinguished list of previous awardees such as Fischer Black, Myron Scholes, Robert Merton, and Jim Simons. Leibowitz is also one of the very few recipients of three of the CFA Institute’s highest awards: the Nicholas Molodovsky Award in 1995, the James R. Vertin Award in 1998, and the Award for Professional Excellence in 2005. In November 1995, he became the first inductee into The Fixed Income Analyst Society’s Hall of Fame. He has received special Alumni Achievement Awards from The University of Chicago and New York University, and in 2003, he was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Dr. Leibowitz serves on the Board of The Rockefeller Foundation and on the investment advisory committees of Singapore’s GIC, the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, NJ, the Carnegie Corporation, and the IMF pension system. Morgan Stanley |
| Richard O. Michaud Richard O. Michaud Richard O. Michaud is President and Chief Investment Officer of New Frontier Advisors LLC. Dr. Michaud's research and consulting has focused on portfolio optimization, asset allocation, investment strategies, global equity management, stock valuation technology, statistical methods in finance, financial planning theory, behavioral finance, portfolio analysis and trading costs. He has a Ph.D. in mathematics from Boston University and has taught investment management at Columbia University.
Dr. Michaud is co-inventor (with Robert O. Michaud) (U.S. patent, December 1999, October 2005 and Israeli patent, November 2005) of an optimization and portfolio rebalancing method for improving the investment value of equity portfolios and asset allocations in practice. Worldwide patents pending. New Frontier Advisors has exclusive worldwide rights. Prior professional positions include: Director, Research and Development, Acadian Asset Management; Director, Research and New Product Development, State Street Bank and Trust Co.; Head, Equity Analytics, Merrill Lynch; Director, Quantitative Investment Services, Prudential Securities. He is a Graham and Dodd Scroll winner for his work on optimization, a former Director of the "Q" Group and an Editorial Board member of the Financial Analysts Journal and Journal of Investment Management (JOIM). He has published a number of papers in academic and professional journals and two books: Efficient Asset Management: A Practical Guide to Stock Portfolio Optimization and Asset Allocation, Oxford University Press 1998; Investment Styles, Market Anomalies, and Global Stock Selection, Association for Investment Management Research (AIMR) 1999. New Frontier Advisor, LLC |
Tom Stringfellow Tom Stringfellow Tom L. Stringfellow, CFA®, CPA®, CFP®, CIC
President, Managing Director, Chief Investment Officer and Fund Co-Manager Oversees all mutual fund and institutional portfolio management activities, research, and trading for the Adviser. Tom joined Frost Bank, the parent company of Frost Investment Advisors, LLC, in 1980. He has been active in the local and national investment community. He speaks regularly at regional investment conferences and in the past has lectured at St. Mary’s University in San Antonio and the University of Texas at San Antonio. The co-author of a nationally published article about asset allocation, Tom is also a regular contributor to Frost Investment Advisors’ quarterly client newsletter. His service to a number of professional organizations has included an assignment as chairman of the Investments Committee and an appointment to the National Council, both for the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. Also, a volunteer for the CFA Institute, Tom has served on the organization’s Financial Accounting Policies Committee and as President of its San Antonio affiliate CFA society. He is also a past President of the San Antonio Business and Economics Society, a local chapter of the National Association for Business Economics, a professional association for business economists and those who use economics in the workplace. Tom earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Business Administration from Texas State University (formerly Southwest Texas State University), a Master of Arts degree in economics from St. Mary’s University and a Master of Business degree from Texas A&M University – Corpus Christi (formerly Texas A&I University). Augmenting his professional experience, Tom has earned the CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ certification and the Certified Public Accountant certification, the Chartered Investment Counselor designation. He is a holder of the right to use the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA®) designation and is a member of the CFA Institute. Frost Investment Advisors, LLC |
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Program Committee
| Kenneth Blay Kenneth Blay Kenneth Blay serves as Head of Thought Leadership for Invesco Global Investment Solutions. In this role, he leads the development of original research, the authorship of whitepapers and articles for publication in top-tier practitioner journals, and the creation of innovative investment content to elevate and strengthen Invesco’s profile as a global thought leader in asset allocation, risk management, and portfolio implementation. Prior to joining Invesco, Mr. Blay was a Vice President and Advisory Research Manager in the Portfolio and Risk Research group at State Street Associates where he collaborated with academic partners to develop and implement new research on asset allocation, risk management, and investment strategy and lead research efforts for advisory engagements with institutional clients. Previously, he served as Director of Research for 1st Global, where he lead asset allocation research and investment policy for the firm’s $7.5+ billion investment management platform and managed over $2 billion in discretionary assets.
Invesco |
Vineer Bhansali Vineer Bhansali Dr. Vineer Bhansali is a managing director and portfolio manager in the Newport Beach office. He currently oversees PIMCO's quantitative investment portfolios. From 2000, he also headed PIMCO's firmwide analytics department. Prior to joining PIMCO in 2000, he was a proprietary trader in the fixed income trading group at Credit Suisse First Boston and in the fixed income arbitrage group at Salomon Brothers in New York. Previously, he was head of the exotic and hybrid options trading desk at Citibank in New York. He is the author of numerous scientific and financial papers and of the books "Bond Portfolio Investing and Risk Management," "Pricing and Managing Exotic and Hybrid Options," "Fixed Income Finance: A Quantitative Approach" and the most recent book, "Tail Risk Hedging". He has 23 years of investment experience and holds a Ph.D. in theoretical particle physics from Harvard University. He has a master's degree in physics and an undergraduate degree from the California Institute of Technology. LongTail Alpha, LLC |
Jeffrey Bohn Jeffrey Bohn Dr. Jeffrey Bohn is the Chief Research & Innovation Officer and Head of the Swiss Re Institute's (SRI) Research & Engagement team. He set up SRI for Swiss Re in early 2017. Most recently, he served as Chief Science Officer and Head of GX Labs at State Street Global Exchange in San Francisco. Before moving back to California, he established the Portfolio Analytics and Valuation Department within State Street Global Markets Japan in Tokyo. (He is fluent in Japanese.) He previously ran the Risk and Regulatory Financial Services consulting practice at PWC Japan.
Past appointments for Dr. Bohn include Head, Portfolio Analytics and Economic Capital at Standard Chartered Bank in Singapore and General Manager, Financial Strategies group at Shinsei Bank in Tokyo where he supervised implementation of best-practice risk and capital analytics. Before moving to Asia, he led Moody’s KMV’s (MKMV’s) Global Research group and MKMV’s Credit Strategies group. Dr. Bohn often conducts seminars on topics ranging from credit instrument valuation to portfolio management. He has published widely in the area of credit risk. He co-authored with Roger Stein Active Credit Portfolio Management in Practice (Wiley, 2009). His recent research focuses on factor modeling and large-scale risk simulations. Dr. Bohn is an affiliated researcher at U.C. Berkeley’s Center for Risk Management Research and serves as a board member for the Consortium for Data Analytics in Risk (CDAR) spanning U.C. Berkeley, Stanford and several industry partners. He is also on the advisory board for the Asia Society Switzerland and the Engineering Industry Advisory Council for NYU Abu Dhabi. On occasion, he teaches financial engineering at U.C. Berkeley, National University of Singapore’s Risk Management Institute, and Tokyo University Swisse Re Institute |
| Sharon Hill Sharon Hill Sharon Hill, Ph.D. is a senior portfolio manager and Head of Alpha Equity – Global & Income within Vanguard’s Quantitative Equity Group. Her team manages active equity global and income-oriented mandates using quantitative methods. Prior to joining Vanguard in 2019, she was Head of Equity Quantitative Research & Analytics at Macquarie Investment Management. Earlier roles include working as a fixed income software developer at Bloomberg L.P. and teaching mathematics at Rowan University. She earned a B.S. in Mathematics from City University of New York at Brooklyn College and an M.S. and Ph.D. in Mathematics from University of Connecticut. Vanguard |
Ronald N. Kahn Ronald N. Kahn Ronald N. Kahn, PhD, Managing Director, is Global Head of Scientific Equity Research at BlackRock. He is responsible for upholding and enhancing BlackRock's scientific equity research standards and products.
Ron's service with the firm dates back to 1998, including his years with Barclays Global Investors (BGI), which merged with BlackRock in 2009. At BGI, his roles included Global Head of Equity Research, Global Head of Advanced Equity Strategies, and Head of Active Equities in the US. Prior to joining BGI, Ron worked as Director of Research at BARRA, where his research covered equity and fixed income markets. With Richard Grinold, Ron authored Active Portfolio Management: Quantitative Theory and Applications. The two of them are the 2013 winners of James R. Vertin award, presented periodically by the CFA Institute to recognize individuals who have produced a body of research notable for its relevance and enduring value to investment professionals. He is a 2007 winner of the Bernstein Fabozzi/Jacobs Levy award for best article in the Journal of Portfolio Management. He serves on the editorial advisory boards of the Financial Analysts Journal, the Journal of Portfolio Management and the Journal of Investment Consulting. The 2007 book How I Became a Quant includes his essay describing his transition from physics to finance. Ron teaches the equities half of the course, "International Equity and Currency Markets" in UC Berkeley's Master of Financial Engineering Program. Ron earned an AB degree in physics, summa cum laude, from Princeton University, and a PhD in physics from Harvard University. He was a post-doctoral fellow in physics at University of California, Berkeley. BlackRock |
Alok Mahajan Alok Mahajan Alok Mahajan is a Principal with KPMG and serves as Silicon Valley Leader for Valuation Services practice. He has over 17 years of experience as a valuation professional and is considered one of the national leaders for valuations in the Technology and Venture Capital backed companies sectors. Currently he is also leading KPMG’s National Complex Security (Derivatives and Fin Instruments) Valuations Practice. His clients include some of the best known and most innovative technology companies and many VC backed private companies. He currently serves as observer (and is past Chair of) KPMG’s Valuation Services Technical Committee (VSTC). He served on the Appraisal Practices Board (APB) of The Appraisal Foundation (TAF) from 2010-2015. He is a frequent speaker on valuation topics. Alok is a CFA charter holder, received his MBA from University of Michigan, Ann Arbor and a B. tech from Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, India. KPMG |
| Yu (Ben) Meng Yu (Ben) Meng Dr. Yu(Ben) Meng serves as the deputy chief investment officer at the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) in Beijing, China. Before joining SAFE, Dr. Meng was the Investment Director of Asset Allocation at CalPERS, the largest U.S. pension fund. He served on the Portfolio Allocation Sub-committee, as well as a voting member on Private Equity Investment Committee and Real Assets Investment Committee. He was the only person to simultaneously serve on all three investment committees. Prior to CalPERS, Dr. Meng was Senior Portfolio Manager at former Barclays Global Investors (BGI) in San Francisco, risk officer at Lehman Brothers in New York, and bond trader at Morgan Stanley in New York. In his spare time, he teaches at the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley (2014 recipient of Cheit Award of Excellence in Teaching) and the Graduate School of Management at the UC Davis. He is on the editorial board of the Journal of Investment Management. Dr. Meng holds a Master of Financial Engineering degree from Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley and a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from UC Davis. CalPERS |
James Peterson James Peterson Jim Peterson is a Senior Vice President at Charles Schwab Investment Advisory and Chief Investment Officer of Schwab Intelligent Portfolios™ and Schwab Managed Portfolios™. In this role, he also oversees the evaluation and selection of investment managers for a variety of Schwab products and services. Prior to joining Schwab in 1998, Jim was an assistant professor of finance at the University of Notre Dame. Peterson receives his Ph.D. in finance from Louisiana State University and has been published in several leading academic and professional journals. Charles Schwab Investment Advisory |
Roger M. Stein Roger M. Stein Roger M. Stein is a Senior Lecturer in Finance at MIT and holds the position of Research Affiliate at the Laboratory for Financial Engineering at MIT.
He has written two full-length textbooks on finance and analytics and his has written over fifty academic and industry research papers on a variety of areas relating to risk, statistical methods and decision theory. His current research interests are in the areas of systemic risk, model risk and validation, biomedical funding, and the interface between data mining and financial theory. Dr. Stein serves on the editorial boards of several finance journals (including JOIM). He the founder and president of the Consortium for Systemic Risk Analytics; a member of the Advisory Council of the Museum of Mathematics; and on the board of PlaNet Finance USA. In addition to his academic work, Dr. Stein has also held a number of senior positions in industry. He is the former Chief Analytics Officer at State Street Global Exchange. Prior to this, he was managing director of Research and Academic Relations globally for Moody's Corporation, president of Moody's Research Labs (MRL), co-head of research at Moody's KMV, and head of the managed funds group at MIS. Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| Margaret S. Stumpp Margaret S. Stumpp Margaret S. Stumpp is Senior Advisor to Quantitative Investment Management Associates (QMA), where she was co-founder in and Chief Investment Officer until 2014. Margaret holds a BA with distinction in Economics from Boston University as well as MA and PhD degrees in Economics from Brown University. She is a frequent presenter on quantitative investment management in both domestic and international conferences, and she has numerous publications in a variety of popular publications as well as peer-reviewed finance journals. Current areas of research include ESG investing; investor skewness preferences, and the performance of short-selling. Quantitative Management Associates |
Paul Zhang Paul Zhang Dr. Pu (Paul) Zhang is an Investment Manager at the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS), the largest U.S. pension funds. At CalPERS, Paul is responsible for performing investment analysis and management and making total fund level asset allocation recommendations to the CalPERS Board. He is also a voting member of the Real Assets Investment Committee. Prior to CalPERS, he worked in the hedge fund industry and specialized in building high frequency trading strategies covering equities, fixed income, currencies and commodities. Paul holds a Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics from University of Exeter, UK, M.Sc. in Planetary Physics from Purple Mountain Observatory, China, and B.Sc. in Space Physics from University of Science and Technology of China. Paul is a CFA® charterholder. CalPERS |