ALTSDC
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ALTSDC is an education-focused alternative investment event designed to bring the investor community together for a full day of dialogue and discussion on the most relevant topics facing investors and managers today. The forum’s content is developed through hundreds of meetings and is intended for the local community of investment leaders across Delaware, Washington, D.C., Maryland, Northern Virginia & Eastern Pennsylvania.
ALTSDC is developed and led by the CAIA Association and CFA Society Washington, DC. It is a hot spot for those seeking the very latest in alternative investment news and developments. ALTSDC is specifically designed to provide relevant, education-focused content for individuals who manage, advise, allocate to, or oversee alternative investments. With leading allocating and management firms, the agenda will include topics such as global asset allocation, risk management, private markets, real assets, alternative beta strategies, private equity, hedge funds, ESG, crypto, and more.


OUR SPEAKERS
Past Speakers

Christopher Gill
Georgetown University Investment Office
Managing Director, Public Investments
As Managing Director, Chris is responsible for the endowment’s allocations to public equity, fixed
income, credit, real estate and infrastructure. Prior to joining the team at Georgetown, Chris was an
analyst at Emerging Markets Management, an emerging market equity dedicated asset manager,
where he covered both the Latin American and EMEA equity markets as well as the global energy
sector. He also serves on the Finance Committee for the Rock Creek Conservancy.

Ivan Zelenko
The World Bank
Director and Chief Investment Officer
Ivan Zelenko is Director and Chief Investment Officer of the Pension and Endowments Department at the World Bank. The Department manages about $31 billion of pension and other retirement benefit portfolios invested across a range of asset classes, including fixed income, public and private equity, real assets, private credit, and absolute return strategies. Prior to assuming these responsibilities, he was Director of Quantitative Solutions, Strategic Asset Allocation and Analytics at the World Bank Treasury, where he was responsible for providing quantitative support to Treasury activities.
Ivan has had a long-standing career at the World Bank, having been Director of Market and Counterparty Risk in the CRO VP, and Head of Derivatives and Structured Finance in Treasury. Ivan joined World Bank in 2000, following an early career in capital markets and financial management at the French Financial Institution Caisse des Dépôts, and at the Strategy Department of BNP.
Ivan graduated from Sciences-Po and Ponts et Chaussées and holds a Ph. D. in Economics from the University of Paris Sorbonne.

Jeanne Shen
GAVI Alliance
Chief Investment Officer
Ms. Shen is Chief Investment Officer of Gavi Alliance (“Gavi”), a Geneva-based international organization and public-private partnership that improves access to new and under-used vaccines for millions of the most vulnerable children. Since its inception in 2000, Gavi immunized more than 800 million children in the world’s poorest countries. Jeanne is based in Gavi’s satellite office in Washington, DC, and is responsible for the strategic and operational planning of Gavi’s $2 billion investment portfolio.

John Feketekuty
Montgomery County Employees’ Retirement System
Co-Chief Investment Officer
John C. Feketekuty is the Co-CIO at Montgomery County Employee Retirement Plans (MCERP) and is a key decision maker within the Investment Committee regarding strategic asset allocation, investment strategy, and security selection. MCERP was listed in the CIO Power 100 List in 2018 & 2019. John currently oversees the private real asset and public fixed income portfolios.

Katherine Molnar
Fairfax County Police Officers’ Retirement System
Chief Investment Officer
Ms. Molnar joined Fairfax County Retirement Systems in 2013 and currently serves as Chief Investment Officer of the Fairfax County Police Officers Retirement System, a $1.8 billion plan. Her responsibilities include all aspects of portfolio management and oversight, including strategic and tactical asset and risk allocation, selection and supervision of external investment managers and risk management. From 2001 until 2012, Ms. Molnar was Vice President, Senior Research Analyst at AIG Investments’ Hedge Fund Solutions Group – both in London and New York. At AIG Investments, Ms. Molnar was responsible for due diligence procedures and research including: sourcing new managers, monitoring current hedge funds, analyzing portfolio risk and performance, making new investment recommendations to an investment committee as well as hedge fund asset allocation recommendations for portfolio construction. She was additionally responsible for portfolio reviews and overall asset allocation recommendations for external client portfolios. Previously, she was Vice President, Market Research Analyst at Citigroup Investments’ Alternative Investment Strategies group. Prior investment management experience includes positions at Paribas Asset Management as well as Trevor Stewart Burton & Jacobsen. Additionally, Ms. Molnar spent one year in Warsaw, Poland launching the first retail mutual funds available to the Polish market as well as two years in Frankfurt, Germany as an intern with J.P. Morgan. Ms. Molnar received a B.S. in Business Administration/Finance from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is a CFA charterholder.

Kevin Killeavy
Montgomery County Employees' Retirement System
Chief Investment Officer
Kevin Killeavy is the Chief Investment Officer at Montgomery County Employee Retirement Plans (MCERP), a retirement system responsible for overseeing roughly $7.5 billion in defined benefit and defined contribution assets. His responsibilities include asset allocation, investment execution, risk budgeting, manager selection, and portfolio management across public and private market asset classes. Prior to joining MCERP in 2015, Kevin held an investment research position with a large multi-family office. Kevin earned a BS in Finance from Georgetown University and holds the CFA and CAIA charters.

Kristina Koutrakos
Virginia Retirement System
Director of Portfolio Strategy
Kristina Koutrakos is the Director of Portfolio Strategies for the Virginia Retirement System. The VRS invests over $100 billion for public sector employees in the Commonwealth. Kristina is responsible for identifying and implementing cross-asset class investment ideas within the Plan’s portfolio. She manages global asset allocation and thematic strategies and is a member of the VRS Management Committee. Through her work, she interacts with asset managers, research firms, and investment companies around the world. Kristina has been an investor in the asset management industry for over twenty years. Prior to joining the VRS, she founded Kyria Capital Management to develop research and deploy capital to women-run alternative investment firms. Previously, she was a Managing Director and Investment Strategist for a multi-family office. Kristina began her career in fixed income portfolio management and was a portfolio manager at Western Asset and BlackRock.

Michael Sinoway
Penn State Office of Investment Management
Director of Investments
Mr. Sinoway joined the Office of Investment Management in 2021. Prior to joining the Penn State team, Michael spent 9 years as a senior member of the manager research team at Glenmede Trust, responsible for research and due diligence of external investments. Earlier experience includes a role as a hedge fund allocator and as an equity derivatives trader. Michael earned his BA in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania and his MBA in Finance from the University of Chicago Botth School of Business.

Pascal Farahmand
International Monetary Fund
Senior Investment Officer
Pascal Farahmand is a Senior Investment Officer in the Investment Unit of the IMF. He works on a broad set of investment issues related to asset allocation, strategy, implementation and manager selection and oversight. He has been leading the efforts to introduce private investments in the Fund’s portfolios. Prior to joining the IMF in 2011, he was the Head of Foreign Reserve Management at the Bank of Canada for over a decade. In that capacity, he was responsible for all funding, investment and ALM activities. Prior to that role, he worked in financial sector research, market operations, monetary policy implementation, as well as treasury and debt management at the Bank of Canada.

Robert Mileff
Pitcairn
Managing Director, Alternative Investments
Rob is responsible for leading and managing Pitcairn’s research team for alternative investment solutions, which includes overseeing manager selection to build a robust network for liquid and illiquid alternative investments. A driven finance professional with a deep understanding of alternative investment research, Rob is also responsible for educating clients about alternative investment strategies. Rob works in partnership with our relationship management team to enhance our clients’ investment experience and to build wider recognition of the firm’s investment capabilities. He serves on Pitcairn’s Investment Strategy and Due Diligence Committees.

Timothy Calkins
Nottingham Advisors
Co-Chief Investment Officer
Tim serves as Co-Chief Investment Officer and as a member of the Nottingham Advisors Investment Policy Committee, with over 20 years of investment experience. He is responsible for informing the firm’s global-macro economic outlook, interest rate expectations, and portfolio positioning. He serves as portfolio manager of the Nottingham Global ESG investment strategies. He also leads corporate and municipal credit research & trading, and custom fixed income mandate portfolio construction. Tim manages individual and institutional investment accounts and relationships.
Tim is a CFA Charterholder and has served on the boards of the CFA Society of Rochester and the CFA Society of Buffalo. A graduate of Canisius College with a B.S. degree in Finance, he serves as a member of the Canisius College Finance Council, the Wehle School of Business; Dean’s Business Advisory Council, and as an adjunct professor. He has also served as a board member for multiple WNY not-for-profits. Nottingham Advisors Asset Management is a firm member of The Western New York Sustainable Business Roundtable, and Tim serves on the membership committee.

Zach Ruchman
WMS Partners
Director of Private Investments
In his role as Director of Private Investments, Zach leads the research and due diligence of new private market investment opportunities for the firm and is a member of the Private Debt & Equity Committee. Zach has a strong track record of working with a range of endowments, pensions, and family offices to build innovative private equity and venture capital portfolios.
Before joining WMS, Zach was a Senior Vice President at RockCreek and a Vice President at BlackRock, where he led direct co-investment transactions as well as manager research for both primary and secondary commitments in the Americas, Europe, and Asia. He began his career as a consultant with Alvarez & Marsal.
Zach earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Princeton University and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Virginia Darden School of Business, where he was a Jefferson Fellow. Zach lived in Amman, Jordan, for a year where he was a Fulbright Fellow at Jordan Applied University.



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Our Sponsors
Co Hosts

CAIA
The CAIA Association, a global professional body, pioneers a new era in investment management. At the forefront of the shifting of alternative investment asset classes from 'alternative' to mainstream, CAIA embraces diverse expertise and interdisciplinary knowledge essential for responsible capital allocation and client stewardship. A Member-driven organization representing professionals in more than 100 countries, the organization seeks to prepare investors for a dynamic future, disrupting traditions, creating opportunities, and fostering long-term sustainability. To learn more about the CAIA Association and how to become part of a professional network that is shaping the future of investing, please visit https://caia.org/.

CFA Society Washington, DC
CFA Society Washington, DC (CFAW) is the leading association for investment professionals in the Washington, DC region. Founded in 1953 as the Washington Society of Investment Analysts, today’s society consists of over 2,100 financial professionals in a variety of positions including portfolio managers, analysts, trust officers, wealth advisors, and consultants, as well as pension, endowment and foundation fund executives.
Reflecting the diverse nature of the investment professions in the Washington, DC area, members are employed by major corporations, associations, unions, national, state and local government agencies, financial regulators, academic institutions, investment managers, insurance companies, broker/dealers and consultants, among others.
CFAW links its members with each other, those interested in joining the profession, and the community through many activities including professional development and networking events. In the diverse and growing Washington investment community, the society plays a vital role – from advocating the highest ethical practices to promoting career opportunities for members.
Gold Sponsors

CF Private Equity
CF Private Equity is a global private capital solutions provider. CF Private Equity invests with value-creating partners into primarily small and midsized companies. Since CF Private Equity’s founding in 1988, its mission has remained the same: seek to provide quality investment solutions in private equity, venture capital, real assets and sustainability. Through commingled investment partnerships and customized separate accounts, CF Private Equity offers investors intentionally-designed private capital portfolios constructed with primary investments, secondaries and co-investments and builds investment programs by partnering with underlying managers.

CIBC Asset Management
CIBC AM is a wholly owned subsidiary of Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (“CIBC”), a publicly traded Canadian chartered bank. Formed in 1972, CIBC AM is one of Canada’s largest asset management firms, managing for its U.S. and non-U.S. clients over 170 billion USD of client assets as of June 30, 2024. CIBC AM provides a range of industry leading investment management services and solutions to institutional and individual investors . The organization combines the flexibility and focus of a boutique firm with the robustness and resources of a large financial institution. While managing for institutional investors in multiple continents including North America, Asia, and Australia, in the US, institutional clients include a top 3 public pension plan and a top 10 corporate defined benefit plan.

Cohen & Co
Cohen
& Company (“Cohen”) (COHN: NYSE American) was founded in 1999 as a private
investment firm focused on small- cap financial institutions and has grown into
a financial services company with an asset management division and a
broker-dealer. Cohen manages approximately $2.3 billion in assets through a
variety of investment vehicles. Cohen & Company Asset Management’s primary
strategies involve originating and managing private debt instruments issued by
insurance companies, originating and managing middle market multifamily
commercial real estate loans and managing insur[1]ance linked instruments
originated by reinsurance companies. The firm’s Capital Mar[1]kets division
raises private equity and private debt and provides capital markets, buy side
and sell side advisory services.

EJF Capital
EJF Capital
LLC (“EJF”) is a global alternative asset management firm focused primarily on
regulatory event-driven investing within the financial sector. EJF was founded
by Manny Friedman and Neal Wilson in 2005 and is headquartered just outside of
Washington, D.C., with an additional office in London. EJF manages
approximately $5.4 billion* of private equity assets, hedge fund assets, and
separately managed accounts, which includes $2.9 billion of CDO assets through
its affiliates. EJF’s approach combines investment expertise across the capital
structure with a corporate finance focus to unearth creative solutions for
investing in complex, mispriced securities and other assets.
*Firm AUM as
of September 30, 2024 includes $86.5 million of uncalled capital.

Forvis Mazars
Forvis Mazars, LLP is an independent member of Forvis Mazars Global, a leading global professional services network. Ranked among the largest public accounting firms in the United States, the firm’s 7,000 dedicated team members provide an Unmatched Client Experience® through the delivery of assurance, tax, and consulting services for clients in all 50 states and internationally through the global network. Our asset management team has 50+ years of experience providing services to various types of funds, including private equity, venture capital, hedge, real estate, digital asset, and other funds.
Forvis Mazars Capital Advisors can help your organization understand the unique strategic options available to your business and help you position the company to achieve a satisfactory transaction outcome for shareholders. Specializing in mergers and acquisitions, capital formation, and succession planning services, we focus on serving family-owned, entrepreneur-led, and closely held businesses—with an unbiased perspective.

Lexington Partners
Lexington Partners is one of the world’s largest and most successful managers of secondary private equity and co-investment funds. Lexington helped pioneer the development of the institutional secondary market over 30 years ago and created one of the first independent, discretionary co-investment programs 26 years ago. Lexington has total capital in excess of $76 billion and has acquired over 5,000 interests through more than 1,000 transactions. Lexington’s global team is strategically located in major centers for private equity and alternative asset investing across North America, Europe, Asia and Latin America. Lexington is the global secondary private equity and co-investments specialist investment manager of Franklin Templeton. Additional information can be found at www.lexingtonpartners.com.

Northleaf Capital Partners
Northleaf Capital Partners is a global private markets investment firm with US$25 billion in private equity, private credit and infrastructure commitments raised to date from public, corporate and multi-employer pension plans, endowments, foundations, financial institutions and family offices. Northleaf’s 250-person team is located in Toronto, Chicago, London, Los Angeles, Melbourne, Menlo Park, Montreal, New York and Tokyo. Northleaf sources, evaluates and manages private markets investments globally, with a focus on mid-market companies and assets.
Silver Sponsors

Balerion Space Ventures
Balerion Space Ventures is a venture capital investment firm that invests in early- to mid-stage private companies shaping the New Space Economy and cross-over defense technologies. The firm is currently investing out of its third fund.

Lone Pine Capital
Lone Pine is a research-driven, fundamental equity investor founded in 1997. Since inception, we have focused on developing a leading investment platform that distills global, cross-sector idiosyncratic and thematic research into concentrated portfolios of our best ideas in public or private markets. Our integrated investment team works collaboratively to invest across both public equity and private growth equity to generate attractive risk-adjusted returns for our partners.

Nuveen
Nuveen, the investment manager of TIAA, offers a comprehensive range of
outcome-focused investment solutions designed to secure the long-term
financial goals of institutional and individual investors. Nuveen has $1.3
trillion in assets under management as of 30 Sept 2024 and operations in
27 countries. Its investment specialists offer deep expertise across a
comprehensive range of traditional and alternative investments through a
wide array of vehicles and customized strategies. For more information,
please visit www.nuveen.com.
Business Sponsors

Adams Street Partners
Adams Street Partners is a global private markets investment manager with investments in more than 30 countries across five continents. The firm is 100% employee-owned and has $62 billion in assets under management across primary, secondary, growth equity, credit, and co-investment strategies. Adams Street strives to generate actionable investment insights across market cycles by drawing on over 50 years of private markets experience, proprietary intelligence, and trusted relationships. Adams Street has offices in Austin, Beijing, Boston, Chicago, London, Menlo Park, Munich, New York, Seoul, Singapore, Sydney, Tokyo, and Toronto. adamsstreetpartners.com

Akram & Associates
Akram & Associates is a trusted adviser to alternative fund managers – the cornerstone of our business. Our laser focus on this industry allows us to provide highly specialized accounting and tax services that are accurate and affordable.
Our team of professionals is well versed in the nuances of hedge fund, private equity fund, venture capital fund, CTA and family office entity structures and strategies, positioning Akram & Associates as an expert resource to both emerging managers and sophisticated managers overseeing multiple funds.
Always one step ahead of the evolving needs of our clients, we stay informed of the latest accounting and regulatory reporting developments and are constantly re-evaluating our service offerings.
As the demand for strong governance, compliance, infrastructure and operations continues to increase, our team of experienced accounting professionals and broad service offering for the alternative investments industry helps our clients build a solid foundation to achieve peak performance.
Our specialized services include, but are not limited to:
• Audit & Assurance for alternative investments firms
• Consulting Services for Family Offices and businesses
• Tax Services for Hedge Funds, other investment fund types, and the ultra-wealthy
• Tax Planning

Inspira Financial
Inspira Financial provides health, wealth, retirement, and benefits solutions that strengthen and simplify the health and wealth journey. As a custodian, our decades of experience in alternative assets positions investment sponsors, advisers, and investors to capitalize on emerging market trends and unique opportunities. From alternative assets such as private equity and real estate to traditional assets, we collaborate with you to find the right solution for your custody needs.

National Real Estate Advisors
National Real Estate Advisors, LLC (“National”) is an
investment manager developing, operating, and managing commercial real estate
projects across the United States. National’s mission is to create
lasting value through projects that produce solid, long-term returns for our
clients while improving the communities in which we invest and develop.
Key Discussion Topics
NEXT BEST MOVE IN ALTERNATIVES As the controversy around alternatives carries on, investors voice the opportunity in cash and fixed income investment strategies.
INSTITUTIONAL PORTFOLIO CONSTRUCTION Discussing hedge fund manager selection, addressing over-diversification mistakes and understanding both the art and science of developing a successful portfolio for pensions, endowments and foundations.
MACROECONOMICS & GLOBAL TRENDS Comparing and contrasting global macro conditions and investment performance.
GROWING OPPORTUNITIES IN PRIVATE DEBT Asset ownder aim to get in on the opportunities in privare debt and credit and are increasingly looking at impact investing as an alternative
HEDGE FUND INVESTMENT STRATEGIES Creating a dialogue around the opportunities in this volatile market through credit investing, long/short equity, market neutral, global macro, convertible arbitrage and liquid alternatives.
PRIVATE WEALTH & HEDGE FUNDS As hedge funds continue to be important to family offices, wealth managers and private banks, investors will discuss the rise in their allocation.
Registration
INVESTORS: Complimentary Registration for all qualified investors. Email IR@marketsgroup.org for more information on obtaining a complimentary ticket.
MANAGERS & SERVICE PROVIDERS: Rates below reflect the current price for all asset managers and service providers.
Please ensure to select the number of tickets you'd like to register for before proceeding
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