Amie Patel, CEO, Elevar Equity, "No Trade-Offs: Aligning Impact with Financial Returns"
Release Date: 12/07/2022
Jonathan Grabel, CIO, Los Angeles County Employees Retirement Association (LACERA), “Authenticity, Character, and Humility: CIO Superpowers”
AAAIM High ELI
Our guest for today’s podcast is Jon Grabel, CIO of the Los Angeles County Employees Retirement Association, also known as LACERA. In his role, Jon has the responsibility for managing over $70 billion in AUM on behalf of LACERA’s active and retired members. Prior to LACERA, Jon was the CIO for New Mexico PERA and the Montgomery County Public Schools. In total, Jon has served the important role of CIO for over 12 years in the second act of his highly accomplished career. Previously, Jon was a general partner at a private equity firm focused on growth-stage...
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Ellen Hung, Deputy CIO, State Universities Retirement System, “Meet the $22 billion pension with over 40% of the portfolio managed by diverse firms”
AAAIM High ELI
Our guest for today’s podcast is Ellen Hung, Deputy CIO at the State Universities Retirement System (also knowns as SURS), which is based in Champaign, Illinois. As Deputy CIO, Ellen oversees over $22bn in fund assets and works closely with the CIO on asset allocation and implementing new initiatives across the fund. More recently, Ellen helped to develop SURS’ Crisis Risk sleeve which includes allocations to systematic trend following managers, long duration managers, as well as alternative risk premia managers. I thoroughly enjoyed my conversation with Ellen given we...
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Anthony Chiu, Deputy CIO, Kentucky Public Pensions Authority, “My Path to becoming Deputy CIO of Kentucky Public Pensions Authority $22bn Pension Fund”
AAAIM High ELI
Our guest for today’s podcast is Anthony Chiu, Deputy CIO at the Kentucky Public Pensions Authority based in Louisville, Kentucky. As Deputy CIO, Anthony is part of a team of 4 that oversees approximately $22 bn in fund assets. Anthony’s specific focus is on the fund’s private equity and alternatives program. Anthony is as talented as they come, having graduated as valedictorian of his high school, attending Stanford, and qualifying as a contestant on the game show, Jeopardy! In 2016, after spending his formative years learning the craft of private equity at GE,...
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Gretchen Tai, VP, Investments, CSAA Insurance Group, a AAA Insurer, “Meet the woman who has done it all in finance…. Banker, Consultant, Corporate Development, CIO, Portfolio Manager, and Asset Allocator”
AAAIM High ELI
Our guest for today’s podcast is Gretchen Tai, VP of Investments at CSAA Insurance Group, a AAA Insurer. In her role, Gretchen effectively serves as the CIO and has a team of 7 investment professionals that oversees $10 billion in assets. Gretchen joined CSAA in 2019 after serving as a portfolio manager at SECOR Asset Management, a boutique global asset management firm known for providing comprehensive and customized solutions to a wide array of institutional clients. Prior to that, Gretchen spent 13 years at HP, including the last 6 years as the CIO of HP’s pension and...
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Scott Chan, Deputy Chief Investment Officer, California State Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS)
AAAIM High ELI
Our guest for today’s podcast is Scott Chan, Deputy Chief Investment Officer of the California State Teachers’ Retirement System (better known as CalSTRS). CalSTRS is the largest teachers’ retirement system and second largest public pension fund in the United States. A world-class financial services institution and state agency, CalSTRS is known for its unique organizational culture which emphasizes customer service, leadership and respect for its members and colleagues. What a pleasure it was for me and fellow AAAIM Board member, Susan Soh, to hear Scott’s...
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Amie Patel, CEO, Elevar Equity, "No Trade-Offs: Aligning Impact with Financial Returns"
AAAIM High ELI
Our guest for today’s podcast is Amie Patel, CEO of Elevar Equity, a venture capital impact firm with headquarters in India. Elevar Equity fuels the economic resilience and vibrancy of underserved customers and low income communities by investing early growth capital in entrepreneurs building at the intersection of inclusivity, affordability and massive scale. Led by an entrepreneurial emerging markets team passionate about addressing issues of access and inequity, Elevar invests in businesses that demonstrate a direct correlation between high impact and returns. So far in its...
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Brian O’Neil, CIO, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, "What a privilege it's been to serve the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation"
AAAIM High ELI
Our guest for today’s podcast is Brian O’Neil, Chief Investment Officer of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Brian is a legend in the business and has been at the helm of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation for the past 20 years helping to grow its foundation to well over $14 billion in AUM. Effective January 1st, 2023, Brian will be retiring from his role as CIO. What a pleasure it was for me and AAAIM Executive Committee Board Co-Chair Brenda Chia to interview Brian, a long time supporter of AAAIM since its founding in 2006. In addition to being known as a great...
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Jane Ma, Managing Director, Moelis & Company, “What it takes to become a Successful M&A Banker”
AAAIM High ELI
Our guest for today’s podcast is Jane Ma who is a Managing Director at Moelis & Company where she specializes in advising clients in the Asset Management and Wealth Management sector. She has over 15 years of investment banking experience. Prior to joining Moelis & Company, Jane worked at both Greenhill and Deutsche Bank focusing on M&A. Jane holds a B.S. in Applied Economics & Management from Cornell University and an M.B.A. from Columbia Business School. I met Jane at AAAIM’s National Conference in September and I found her to be pleasant, confident and knowledgeable –...
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Eugene Zhang, Founder & Partner, TSVC “The Art Behind VC Seed Investing and Finding 9 Unicorns”
AAAIM High ELI
Our guest for today’s podcast is Eugene Zhang, Founder & Partner of TSVC, a venture capital firm he started in 2010 to focus on seed stage investing. An engineer by training, Eugene spent his formative years working for a number of the top tech companies in our time including Sun Microsystems, Cisco and Juniper Networks. After successfully selling his own side hustle tech startup, Eugene took an interest in angel investing, subsequently catapulting his second career as a venture capitalist. TSVC is now on its 5th fund in 12 years. It’s first fund is known for...
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Grace Chen, CEO, Upmarket, “Unlocking Private Markets for Accredited Investors”
AAAIM High ELI
Our guest for today’s podcast is Grace Chen, Founder and CEO of Upmarket. Upmarket opens up alternative investment opportunities to qualified individual investors. Qualified investors now have direct access to selected private equity, hedge funds and other alternative private fund offerings with lower investment minimums, simplified online subscription and post reporting process. UpMarket aims to serve those who want to achieve a truly diversified portfolio by giving them exceptional alternative investment opportunities. Some of upmarket’s past deals include pre-IPO shares in...
info_outlineOur guest for today’s podcast is Amie Patel, CEO of Elevar Equity, a venture capital impact firm with headquarters in India.
Elevar Equity fuels the economic resilience and vibrancy of underserved customers and low income communities by investing early growth capital in entrepreneurs building at the intersection of inclusivity, affordability and massive scale. Led by an entrepreneurial emerging markets team passionate about addressing issues of access and inequity, Elevar invests in businesses that demonstrate a direct correlation between high impact and returns. So far in its 15-year journey, the Elevar Method of investing has democratized essential products and services for over 40 million households and catalyzed billions of dollars of capital into 40+ companies across India and Latin America.
What a treat it was for me to interview Amie who is one of the kindest, most authentic do gooders” that I have come across in the business.
Without further ado, here is our conversation with Amie Patel.