Presenter’s Bios
John Clifton Bogle, Vanguard
John C. Bogle, is Founder of The Vanguard Group, Inc., and President of the Bogle Financial Markets Research Center. He created Vanguard in 1974 and served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer until 1996 and Senior Chairman until 2000. He had been associated with a predecessor company since 1951, immediately following his graduation from Princeton University, magna cum laude in Economics. He is a graduate of Blair Academy, Class of 1947.
In 2004, TIME magazine named Mr. Bogle as one of the world’s 100 most powerful and influential people, and Institutional Investor presented him with its Lifetime Achievement Award. In 1999, Fortune designated him as one of the investment industry’s four “Giants of the 20th Century.” In the same year, he received the Woodrow Wilson Award from Princeton University for “distinguished achievement in the Nation’s service.” In 1997, he was named one of the “Financial Leaders of the 20th Century” in Leadership in Financial Services (Macmillan Press Ltd., 1997). In 1998, Mr. Bogle was presented the Award for Professional Excellence from the Association for Investment Management and Research (now the CFA Institute), and in 1999 he was inducted into the Hall of Fame of the Fixed Income Analysts Society, Inc.
Mr. Bogle is a best-selling author, beginning with Bogle on Mutual Funds: New Perspectives for the Intelligent Investor (1993); Common Sense on Mutual Funds: New Imperatives for the Intelligent Investor (1999); John Bogle on Investing: The First 50 Years (2000); Character Counts: The Creation and Building of The Vanguard Group (2002); Battle for the Soul of Capitalism (2005); The Little Book of Common Sense Investing (2007); Enough: True Measures of Money, Business, and Life (2008); Common Sense on Mutual Funds, Fully Updated 10th Anniversary Edition (2009); and Don’t Count On It! Reflections on Investment Illusions, Capitalism, “Mutual” Funds, Indexing, Entrepreneurship, Idealism, and Heroes (2010). His tenth book, Clash of the Cultures, was released in August of 2012.
Mr. Bogle served as Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Investment Company Institute in 1969-1970, and as a member of the Board in 1969-1974. In 1997, he was appointed by then-U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Arthur Levitt to serve on the Independence Standards Board. In 2000, he was named by the Commonwealth’s Chamber of Commerce as Pennsylvania’s Business Leader of the Year. November 19, 2015, he received Gold Medal of the National Institute of Social Sciences for Distinguished Service to Humanity. On November 16, he was honored into the Philadelphia Inquirer Hall of Fame. On December 10, 2016, he received the Gold Medal of the Pennsylvania Society for Distinguished Achievement.
He served as Chairman of the Board of the National Constitution Center from September 1999 through January 2007 and was a member of The Conference Board’s Commission on Public Trust and Private Enterprise, and is a Fellow of the American Philosophical Society, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. A Trustee of Blair Academy, he served as Chairman in 1986-2001. He has received honorary doctorate degrees from the University of Delaware, University of Rochester, New School University, Susquehanna University, Eastern University, Widener University, Albright College, Pennsylvania State University, Drexel University, Immaculata University, Princeton University, Georgetown University, Trinity College, and Villanova University.
Sanjiv Das, Santa Clara University
Sanjiv Das is the William and Janice Terry Professor of Finance and Data Science 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 (AICWA). 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: machine learning, social networks, derivatives pricing models, portfolio theory, the modeling of default risk, systemic risk, 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 (second edition 2016). He currently also serves as a Senior Fellow at the FDIC Center for Financial Research.
After loafing and working in many parts of Asia, but never really growing up, Sanjiv moved to New York to change the world, hopefully through research. He graduated in 1994 with a Ph.D. from NYU, and since then spent five years in Boston, and now lives in San Jose, California. Sanjiv loves animals, places in the world where the mountains meet the sea, riding sport motorbikes, reading, gadgets, science fiction movies, and writing cool software code. When there is time available from the excitement of daily life, Sanjiv writes academic papers, which helps him relax. Always the contrarian, Sanjiv thinks that New York City is the most calming place in the world, after California of course.
Sanjiv is now a Professor of Finance at Santa Clara University. He came to SCU from Harvard Business School and spent a year at UC Berkeley. In his past life in the unreal world, Sanjiv worked at Citibank, N.A. in the Asia-Pacific region. He takes great pleasure in merging his many previous lives into his current existence, which is incredibly confused and diverse.
Sanjiv’s research style is instilled with a distinct “New York state of mind” – it is chaotic, diverse, with minimal method to the madness. He has published articles on derivatives, term-structure models, mutual funds, the internet, portfolio choice, banking models, credit risk, and has unpublished articles in many other areas. Some years ago, he took time off to get another degree in computer science at Berkeley, confirming that an unchecked hobby can quickly become an obsession. There he learnt about the fascinating field of Randomized Algorithms, skills he now applies earnestly to his editorial work, and other pursuits, many of which stem from being in the epicenter of Silicon Valley.
Alexander D. Healy, AlphaSimplex
As Deputy Chief Investment Officer of AlphaSimplex, Dr. Healy is responsible for applied research and product engineering, including asset allocation, portfolio construction, and adaptive risk management strategies. Dr. Healy is a member of the Investment and Risk Committees and the Board of Directors. He also serves as a co-portfolio manager of certain funds advised by AlphaSimplex. Dr. Healy joined AlphaSimplex in 2007 and has held the roles of Senior Research Scientist and Director of Strategic Research. He has developed various key elements of AlphaSimplex’s investment platform, including non-parametric investment models, volatility management overlays, and dynamic approaches to portfolio construction. Dr. Healy earned an A.B. in Mathematics and Computer Science from Harvard University, where he also received a Ph.D. in Theoretical Computer Science. His doctoral research focused on the uses of randomness in algorithms and cryptography, and introduced novel approaches to generating pseudo-random numbers together with new applications of these methods.
Roy D. Henriksson, QMA
Roy D. Henriksson, PhD, is the Chief Investment Officer of QMA. He has over twenty years of experience combining quantitative research with its practical applications in investment portfolios. Prior to joining QMA, Roy was CIO of Advanced Portfolio Management, where he designed and managed customized, risk-targeted investment portfolios for institutional clients globally. He is also currently the co-chairman of the Liquidity Risk Committee and Member of the Advisory Board of the International Association for Quantitative Finance (the IAQF). Previously, Roy held a variety of senior positions in research, trading and product development at a number of large investment banks. His broad product experience spans equity, fixed income, hedge funds, currency, and commodity derivatives. Roy has published numerous articles on market-timing skill, portfolio optimization and asset allocation in leading journals. A recipient of the Graham and Dodd Award from The Financial Analysts Journal, he has held the position of professor of finance at the University of California, Berkeley, where he also served as Senior Consultant to Wells Fargo Investment Advisors and as an advisor to the University of California Endowment. Roy holds a BS in Economics, a MS in Management, and a PhD in Finance, all from Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Seoyoung Kim, Santa Clara University
Professor Seoyoung Kim’s research interests include structured financial instruments, risk networks, and the optimal restructuring of distressed debt. Her scholarship has been published in leading academic journals, including the Journal of Financial Economics and Financial Management, and she has provided consulting expertise and litigation support as to the structuring, management, and liquidation of various special purpose vehicles issuing collateralized debt obligations and asset-backed securities. Prior to joining Santa Clara University’s Leavey School of Business, Professor Kim held a faculty appointment at Purdue University. She holds a B.A. in Mathematics from Rice University and Ph.D. in Finance from Emory University.
William Kinlaw, 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.
Andrew W. Lo, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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, and a principal investigator at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab. 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.
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 his most recent book is Adaptive Markets: Financial Evolution at the Speed of Thought. His awards include Sloan 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 American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Econometric Society, 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, LLC, a member of the Board of Overseers for Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, a board member of Roivant Sciences and the MIT Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, and an advisory board member for the CFTC, New York Fed, and SEC.
Alfred Spector, Two Sigma
Alfred Spector is Chief Technology Officer and Head of Engineering at Two Sigma, a firm dedicated to using information to optimize diverse economic challenges. Prior to joining Two Sigma, Dr. Spector spent nearly eight years as Vice President of Research and Special Initiatives, at Google, where his teams delivered a range of successful technologies including machine learning, speech recognition, and translation. Prior to Google, Dr. Spector held various senior-level positions at IBM, including Vice President of Strategy and Technology (or CTO) for IBM Software and Vice President of Services and Software research across the company. He previously founded and served as CEO of Transarc Corporation, a pioneer in distributed transaction processing and wide-area file systems, and he was a professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University. Dr. Spector received a bachelor’s degree in Applied Mathematics from Harvard University and a Ph.D. in computer science from Stanford University. He is a Fellow of both the Association for Computing Machinery and the IEEE. He is an active member of the National Academy of Engineering and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, where he serves on the Council. Dr. Spector won the 2001 IEEE Kanai Award for Distributed Computing and the 2016 ACM Software Systems Award, the latter for his work on the Andrew File System (AFS).
Jessica Stauth, Quantopian
Dr. Jessica Stauth is Quantopian’s Managing Director, Head of Research. Quantopian, a crowd-sourced quantitative investment firm, inspires talented people to write investment algorithms. Jess and her team are in charge of selecting the algorithms from the Quantopian community, for our portfolio. Quantopian offers license agreements for algorithms that fit our investment strategy, and the licensing authors are paid based on their strategy’s individual performance.
Previously she has worked as an equity quant analyst at the StarMineCorporation and as a Director of Quant Product Strategy for Thomson Reuters prior to joining Quantopian in August of 2013. Jess holds a PhD from UC Berkeley in Biophysics.
Dan Trepanier, Xambala
Dan is CEO of Xangrila, a wholly owned subsidiary of Final, a large Israel-based electronic trading firm. Prior to Xangrila, Dan was CEO of Xambala, an electronic trading firm based in Sunnyvale, CA. Dan led Xambala through a pivot away from selling communications technology to becoming an electronic trading firm operating as a market maker in US equities. Xambala was sold to Final Israel in 2017. Previously, Dan was CEO and Founder of Quake Technologies, the market leader in 10 Gb/s Ethernet physical layer silicon. Before Quake, Dan worked at a number of technology firms. Dan holds an MBA from NYU and a BScE (Electrical) from Queen’s University. Outside of work, Dan enjoys many athletic endeavors and spending time with his wife and three children.
Nancy Wallace, University of California Berkeley
Nancy Wallace is a Professor of Finance and Real Estate and holds the Lisle and Roslyn Payne Chair in Real Estate and Capital Markets at the Haas School of Business, the University of California, Berkeley. She is Chair of the Real Estate Group, Co-Chair of the Fisher Center for Real Estate and Urban Economics, and directs the Real Estate and Financial Markets Laboratory. She teaches asset-backed securitization, real estate investment analysis, real estate strategy, and real estate finance at Haas. Her research focus includes residential house price dynamics, mortgage contract design and pricing, securitization and asset backed security pricing and hedging, lease contract design and pricing, methods to underwrite energy efficiency in commercial mortgages, and valuation models for executive stock options. She has served as a visiting scholar at the New York Federal Reserve Bank, the San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank, the Université de Cergy Pointoise, Centre de Recherche THEMA (Théorie Economique, Modélisation, et Applications), and the Stockholm School of Economics. Professor Wallace is a past President of the American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association and a past member of the AREUEA Board of Directors. She is on the editorial board of the Journal of Computational Finance.
Professor Wallace is a member of the Financial Research Advisory Committee, Office of Financial Research, U.S. Treasury Department and is currently serving as the Chair of the Model Validation Council for the Federal Reserve System.
Paul White, PNC Asset Management Group
Dr. White serves as Director of Portfolio Strategy for PNC Wealth Management, Institutional Investments, and Hawthorn. He is a member of the Portfolio Construction Committee (PCC). He is responsible for financial modeling including asset allocation, factor modeling, risk analysis, and quantitative research. In addition, Dr. White and the Portfolio Strategy team are responsible for research and monitoring of quantitative models used by PCC and the Investment Policy Committee. Along with other members of the Investment and Portfolio Strategy team, Dr. White is responsible for the co-creation of white papers aimed at exploring the topics of portfolio management and composition. Prior to joining PNC in 2009, Dr. White was a Vice President with Morgan Stanley Investment Management (MSIM). His first role there was with an internal Commodity Trading Advisor (CTA) where he originated, developed, coded, and implemented trading strategies covering currencies, commodity complexes, and portable alpha strategies for commodity indices. His second role there covered structured products designed to provide portfolio protection during extreme market moves. Dr. White was also with Morgan Stanley Private Wealth (his internal group was called Graystone Research) where he designed asset allocation strategies for customized funds of hedge funds aimed at the ultra high net worth channel. In addition, he designed risk monitoring tools for underlying managers as well as tools for quantitative due diligence. His first role subsequent to business school was with a CTA where he worked on quantitatively driven strategies and general research. Dr. White graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a BS in physics. Following that, he graduated from Stanford University with a PhD in applied physics; his thesis topic covered angle resolved photoelectron spectroscopy from impurity doped high temperature superconductors, the results of which were published in the prestigious periodical, Science. He also has an MBA from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. White holds the Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst designation. He is a member of the Wharton Alumni Club of Philadelphia and of the MIT Club of the Delaware Valley.
Jing Zhang, Moody’s
Jing Zhang is a Managing Director and the Global Head of Moody’s Analytics Research and Modeling Group. Rooted in the pioneering efforts of B&H and Moody’s KMV, the group is responsible for the quantitative modeling behind the EDF and LGD models for both public and private firms, commercial real estate, and portfolio and balance sheet analytics for banks and insurance firms. Jing joined the research team at the former KMV in 1998, eventually becoming a Director in the Research Group. In that role, besides managing day-to-day research operations, he made major contributions to a number of KMV’s EDF and Portfolio models. Since then, Jing has held a number of additional senior roles at Moody’s KMV in Product Management and the Client Solutions Group, and he has many years of experience advising clients on risk management issues. Jing obtained his PhD from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and his MA from Tulane University. He was a lecturer for the Master of Financial Engineering program at the University of California, Berkeley from 2010 to 2012. He is also the editor of Risk books CCAR and Beyond (2014) and The New Impairment Model Under IFRS 9 and CECL (forthcoming 2017).