Scott Chan, Deputy Chief Investment Officer, California State Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS)
Release Date: 12/22/2022
Jonathan Grabel, CIO, Los Angeles County Employees Retirement Association (LACERA), “Authenticity, Character, and Humility: CIO Superpowers”
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AAAIM High ELI
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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”
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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"
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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"
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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”
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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”
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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 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 background and his path to becoming one of the most powerful people in finance. As Deputy CIO, Scott oversees CalSTRS’ investment division and is responsible for leading a diverse and growing team of over 200 investment professionals. He manages eight critical investment functions including investment strategy and risk, global equities, fixed income, real estate, private equity, risk mitigating strategies, inflation sensitive and sustainable investment and stewardship strategies. What a mouthful… And, he reports directly into the great Chris Ailman who is highly regarded to be one of the best CIOs in the business.
Direct investing; getting to net zero; embracing diversity, equity and inclusion – you want it, Scott delivers it… Without further ado, here is our conversation with Scott Chan.