Investment Management Operations – Details, episodes & analysis

David Brenner is the COO of TIFF Investment Management, an OCIO for nonprofit organizations. Stepping into the COO role of an established manager takes a unique set of skills so I turned to David for his insight. We discuss the common challenges of assessing culture, talent, and legacy; and the importance of timing of when to listen and when to take action. We then turn to David’s perspective on his four pillars framework as TIFF shifts from what he calls going from TIFF 1.0 to TIFF 2.0. We talk about the role of AI and automation and why data transformation plays a critical role in everything that they do. Learn MoreFollow Capital Allocators at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@tseides⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ or ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe to the ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠mailing list⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Access transcript with ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Premium Membership⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant (https://thepodcastconsultant.com)

Heather Kennedy Miner is the COO at Advent International, one of the largest private equity firms in the US.    I enjoyed sitting down with Heather to talk about her career path beginning with investment banking and then her 20 years at Goldman Sachs evolving into a variety of positions giving her a unique combination of technical and soft skills well suited for the COO role.   We discuss Advent’s 40-year evolution and why its doubling down on its commitment to being a pure play private equity firm when many others are diversifying asset classes.    Heather shares how the firm is thinking about strategy, growth, where they are with AI adoption and why developing top investors to also be great leaders is a priority to the organization. Learn More  Follow Capital Allocators at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@tseides⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ or ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe to the ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠mailing list⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Access transcript with ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Premium Membership⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Emi Larson is the COO of UCLA‘s endowment.   Emi shares what it’s like going from an ops role at an emerging market manager to a hedge fund of funds and how it led to a COO role of a well-known university.   We cover how to make that leap from Director of Operations to the COO seat and the key skills needed for that position. We tackle how non-profits keep up with growing business complexity, the challenges with West Coast hiring and how overbuilding select parts of your tech stack can help you scale.   I would like to note that we recorded this not long before the fires engulfed Los Angeles. With UCLA being is in the heart of LA, our hearts are with the folks out there. Here is a link to donate to the LAFD Foundation. Learn More Follow Capital Allocators at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access transcript with Premium Membership

Eric Wortman is the COO and CCO of Stable, a GP stakes firm with over $4.5B in assets. If you are an emerging manager or thinking about spinning out, this is the episode for you. As people will tell you, building your own firm and team is vastly different than managing a portfolio. We cover the fuzzy topic of what it means to be “institutional”, how to select the right service providers, critical tech, talent acquisition and other foundational areas of launching a firm. We then tackle best practices on designing a repeatable sales process, the importance of branding and common areas that slow down early-stage managers. Take Capital Allocator’s Audience Engagement Survey Learn More Follow Capital Allocators at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access transcript with Premium Membership

Mike Peltier is the COO of VCU Investment Management Company, supporting Virginia Commonwealth University and its related entities in Richmond, Virginia. Virginia Commonwealth University is pioneering what it means to be a public research university while remaining focused on innovation, diversity, and access in the Commonwealth and beyond. Mike shares lessons learned from his audit and tax background helped him lead the operations of the investment office. We discuss the key pillars of the tech stack and some unique ways to leverage common technology to create efficiency. Mike discusses AI use cases you can use today that reduces the friction with investment and operations teams of all sizes. We then turn to outsourcing service providers and the importance of building personal networks to stay on top of an ever-changing industry. Take Capital Allocator’s Audience Engagement Survey Learn More Follow Capital Allocators at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access transcript with Premium Membership

Ron Lanen is a Partner, Chief Administrative Officer, and General Counsel at HighVista Strategies, an alternative asset manager with approximately $11 billion in assets.    Given the uptick in M&A activity, I was interested in getting Ron’s input following their acquisition of abrdn’s US private markets business.       Ron’s background makes him uniquely positioned to share best practices with acquiring another investment firm. He shares how the organization effectively doubled in headcount and assets and the implications on legal, IR and operations.      We also talk about the importance of culture, integration, hiring for range and the “knock on” effects of managing new service providers.  Take Capital Allocator’s Audience Engagement Survey   Learn More Follow Capital Allocators at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access transcript with Premium Membership

This Sponsored Insight features Troy Pospisil, CEO of Ontra, a legaltech firm created for the private markets industry.    It was great sitting down with Troy to talk about the evolution of how legal and compliance workflows are going digital.   We cover his career from management consulting to the investment team at H.I.G. Capital where he saw a glaring need for better solutions with doing deals and raising funds.   We discuss product development opportunities and challenges, multi-stakeholder engagements and how digital-native leaders are embracing software to speed up fund closings at a lower cost and compliance risk. Take Capital Allocator’s Audience Engagement Survey   Learn More Follow Capital Allocators at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access transcript with Premium Membership

Richey Reneberg is the Global Co-Head of Investor Relations and Marketing at Taconic Capital, a global event driven alternatives manager founded in 1999 by former Goldman Sachs Partners, Frank Brosens and Ken Brody.      Richey’s career path into the industry is atypical so I was excited to share his story.     Prior to joining Taconic in 2000, Richey spent thirteen years competing on the professional tennis circuit reaching a career high of #20 in the world in singles and #1 in the world in doubles. He was a five-time member of the US Davis Cup Team and represented the United States in the 1996 Olympics.   Richey shares how personal connections created an opportunity into the investment industry and how skills learned on the court transferred to the business world.   We then uncover some best practices through the lens of an IR person. Whether you are engaging with a GP on ODD or monitoring a manager in your portfolio, Richey provides some insights from his 20 years in the business on how to create strong GP and LP relationships. Take Capital Allocator’s Audience Engagement Survey Learn More Follow Capital Allocators at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access transcript with Premium Membership

This Sponsored Insight features Neal Pawar, the COO of Enfusion, a SaaS platform that combines front, middle and back office in a unified trading system.     We cover Neal’s time at some of the world’s top hedge funds and how it informed his decision to build technology for the industry.   We talk about the tradeoffs of working for both big and small firms and how decisions on your tech stack changes as your firm grows.      We then discuss the evolution of trade order management systems and how the golden copy of data is crucial for building end to end collaboration platforms bringing together portfolio management, operations and client service      Learn More Follow Capital Allocators at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access transcript with Premium Membership

Kevin Moran is the COO of AlTi Tiedemann Global, a publicly traded multi-family office and alternatives firm with over $72B in assets.   Kevin shares his insights on how AlTi has grown over time creating a UHNW service offering to meet the growing and evolving needs of its clients.   He shares his thoughts on M&A as a function of organic growth, unique investment strategies, and strategic succession planning.   We also cover the sales process for the UHNW space and how to apply client service on a global basis with a local touch. Learn More Follow Capital Allocators at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access transcript with Premium Membership