I have over 30 years of institutional investing experience working with foundations, endowments, pension funds, family offices, investment managers and funds. My experience gives me the perspective from both an asset owner and an asset manager. I was the Director of Investment Research at the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and the Director of Liquid Assets at New Island Capital and I worked closely with clients when I was at Strategic Investment Solutions, Imprint Capital and William F. Sharpe Associates.
Spending basically the first five years of my investment career at William F. Sharpe Associates, my background is heavily grounded in efficient markets theory. While that is always a starting point for me, my view on investments has expanded to include a multifaceted approach. Over the years I have performed many asset allocation studies, manager and alternative asset structures, and due diligence on public and private market investments. I have also provided insight on various investment organizational structures including outsourcing options and building internal capabilities. Over the last ten years I have incorporated the added dimension of impact and sustainable investing into these areas.
My expertise has been working with companies at an early stage of their development and helping them reach the next phase. I've learned nothing is "one size fits all" in investing. Both as a Foundation representative, and working with my clients, I have created many custom solutions and new products. Sometimes there is a tweak to an existing product that can make a big difference, other times the process entails looking at the approach from a different angle. As the field of impact and sustainable investing expands, there is an increasing need for new and/or customized products that are grounded in investment theory.
My most recent article "Hedge Funds and Impact Investing: Considerations for Institutional Investors" is published in 2018 Summer edition of The Journal of Investing. The article discusses the possible reasons why the hedge fund community has been slower than other asset managers to create impact investing options. I identify hedge fund strategies that could be amenable to impact investing without having any deterioration of returns and provide suggestions for ways institutional investors can engage with their managers and incorporate these strategies into their hedge fund allocations.