ALTSTX

Anca Ion, CIO, joined the Trust Company in 2005. She is responsible for overseeing over $140 billion in assets, with over $10 billion across Private Equity, Hedge Funds, Public Equities, Fixed Income, Private Credit, and Real Assets. Ion has served at all levels of investments at the Trust Company, including investment analyst, portfolio manager, head of Internal Investments, and deputy CIO on the investment committee. She is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) charter holder.

Ben is a Managing Director on the Portfolio Advisory team and has over 19 years of experience in alternative investments. He is responsible for alternative investment programs in the Americas and focuses on portfolio construction and manager selection, providing customized investment recommendations and regular portfolio updates across alternative investment programs.

Prior to joining Aksia in 2022, Ben was a Director of Liquid Strategies at Fire and Police Pension Association of Colorado (“FPPA”), where he led the organization’s investments across public equity, fixed income, and hedge fund asset classes. In addition to investing, Ben worked closely with FPPA’s governance structures on a number of strategic topics including plan design, asset allocation, capital market assumption setting, asset/liability studies, macroeconomic research, as well as a range of asset class-related educational subjects.  Before joining FPPA, Ben was a Senior Research Analyst at Charles Schwab Investment Advisory and prior to that he was an Investment Officer at Highlander Wealth Services LLC. Ben started his career as an Analyst at Tactical Allocation Services LLC.

Ben graduated from the University of Colorado, Boulder with a BA in Psychology. He is a CFA charterholder and holds the CAIA designation.

In 2021, Ben was recognized as a Rising Star by Institutional Investor and was named in the Class of 2021 NextGens by Chief Investment Officer.

In his current position for the Dallas Fort Worth International Airport Retirement Trust, Bryan is responsible for all facets of a diversified, $1 billion defined benefit pension plan, $50 million OPEB plan, and $180 million defined contribution plan.  Prior to the Airport, he spent over eight years as part of the investment team at the $2.4 billion Fort Worth Employees Retirement Fund.  Prior to Fort Worth, he spent six years as an investment analyst and private wealth manager with several bulge-bracket investment firms, including Morgan Stanley, TD Waterhouse, and JP Morgan Chase.

Bryan received his Bachelor’s Degree in Finance from Oklahoma State University, his MBA with honors from Texas Christian University, and his Masters of Science in Accounting (MSA) with honors from Texas A&M University-Commerce.  He is a CFA Charterholder and CAIA Charterholder.  He is a member of the CFA Institute, the CFA Society of Dallas/Fort Worth, the CAIA Association, and the National Society of Institutional Investment Professionals.  He has also been an Adjunct Professor of Finance at the TCU Neeley School of Business where he has taught core and elective courses for 13 years.

In his spare time, he enjoys CrossFit, reading, woodworking, travel, and spending time with his family.  Bryan and his wife Sunny have two daughters, Chloe (15) and Holly (13), and live in Keller, TX.

Dave Morehead joined the Baylor University Office of Investments in 2011 and currently serves as the Chief Investment Officer. Previously, he was a senior portfolio manager at Lotsoff Capital Management, where he managed securities across the corporate capital structure, and a partner at Highview Capital Management, where he focused on public and private energy investments. Prior to this, he was a portfolio manager at Ritchie Capital Management, responsible for a generalist corporate relative value and distressed portfolio and spent time performing equity research on the transportation/logistics and specialty retail sectors at William Blair & Company. Mr. Morehead also held roles at Bank of America, where he was responsible for the risk management of the bank's interest rate derivatives desk, and First Trust Advisors, where he advised community banks on their investment portfolios. Dave graduated summa cum laude from Wheaton College and earned his MBA in finance and entrepreneurship with honors from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. He also holds the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation.

David Veal is Chief Investment Officer of the Employees Retirement System of Texas, a state agency that administers more than $48 billion of investments on behalf of its members.  Prior to ERS, he served for five years as Chief Investment Officer of the City of Austin Employees’ Retirement System.  He has also held senior positions at Teacher Retirement System of Texas, worked for Morgan Stanley as an equity research analyst, and served with distinction as a US Navy officer.  He holds an MBA from the University of Michigan and an undergraduate degree in engineering from Auburn University.  David has earned the Chartered Financial Analyst, Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst, and Financial Risk Manager designations.  

Derrick Dagnan joined the Fort Worth Employees’ Retirement Fund as Chief Investment Officer in 2020. He provides oversight for the management and strategic growth of the Fund’s $3.0 billion in assets, working closely with the Fund’s Executive Director, the Board and its Investment Committee as well as Fund staff. Immediately prior to joining the Fund, Derrick served as Deputy Chief Investment Officer of the Tennessee Treasury Department, where he helped design, oversee, and execute the investment and operational aspects of the Tennessee Consolidated Retirement System (TCRS) defined benefit plan, 401K, 457, and 403(b) defined contribution plans, higher education employee retirement plans, the TN Promise College Savings Program, the TN STARS 529 Plan, and other investment and endowment programs for State, University, and Local Governments. Earlier, as a Senior Portfolio Manager, he managed internal equity portfolios, an alternative fixed income portfolio, and various domestic and international multi-asset portfolios. In his early financial career, Derrick worked at investment banks as a sell-side equity research analyst focused on the healthcare industry. Dagnan received his BS in Agricultural Engineering from Purdue University and his MBA in Finance, and Strategy from Vanderbilt University. He is a CFA Charterholder.

J. Kyle Bass is a Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Conservation Equity Management, an environmental sustainability private equity firm founded in 2021. Bass is an avid landowner and conservationist in the state of Texas since 2003. He is also the Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Hayman Capital Management, an investment manager of private funds focused on global event-driven opportunities.

Mr. Bass is a Life Member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the recipient of the 2019 Foreign Policy Association Medal for his responsible internationalism. Mr. Bass has testified as an expert witness before the U.S. House of Representatives, U.S. Senate, and the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission.

Mr. Bass has spoken on global economics, national security, geopolitics, and the architecture of the Chinese financial system at various universities, including Columbia, Yale, Harvard, Stanford, UC Berkeley, University of Chicago, University of Texas, and the University of Virginia. Mr. Bass is the former Chair of the Risk Committee of the Board of Directors of the University of Texas Investment Management Company (UTIMCO), which manages approximately $75 billion. 

Bass is an Advisory Board member of the Hudson Institute's China Center, an Executive Advisory Board member of the George W. Bush Presidential Center, and an Investment Advisory Board member to RIA NewEdge Wealth. He also serves on the boards of the Texas Wildlife Association Foundation, Texas Department of Public Safety Foundation, and Melinda’s Foods.

Jason R. Safran was appointed the second chief investment officer (CIO) of Texas Christian University in December 2021 and is responsible for managing the university’s Endowment assets and short-term investment portfolios. Mr. Safran served in an interim CIO capacity for five months. Previously, he was the senior asset manager for TCU’s Endowment and had the responsibility for researching and evaluating investment opportunities across asset classes. He joined TCU’s endowment team in August 2012. Mr. Safran began his career as a research associate with John McStay Investment Counsel, an equity investment boutique. After business school, he joined Cimarron Asset Management, an institutional advisory firm specializing in the management of relative-value portfolios. Following a merger, he served as portfolio manager for Smith Asset Management, L.P. responsible for relative-value equity strategies. Prior to joining TCU, he was a senior investment analyst for Texas Capital Bank. Mr. Safran earned his MBA from the University of Texas at Austin in 2006 and his BBA in finance and minor in economics from TCU in 2001. Mr. Safran is a chartered financial analyst and serves on the strategic advisory board for the CFA Society of Dallas-Ft. Worth. He currently serves on the investment committee of Texas Health Resources. 

Since 2016, Ken Hersh has served as President and CEO of the George W. Bush Presidential Center which houses the George W. Bush Library and Museum and the George W. Bush Institute.

In 1988, he co-founded NGP Energy Capital Management, one of the nation’s largest natural resources private equity firms. Until 2016, he served as CEO of the firm, investing over $12 billion, earning a 27- year 30% annualized rate of return, making it one of the nation’s leading private investors.

Additionally, Ken manages his family investment office that invests across numerous industries. He sits on numerous corporate and not for-profit boards, including the Texas Rangers Baseball Club. He sits on the Board of Overseers of the Hoover Institution, the Deans Council of the Harvard Kennedy School and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

He is an active philanthropist through the efforts of The Hersh Foundation both in his community and around the country. In 2023, his book, The Fastest Tortoise: Winning in Industries I Knew Nothing About, was released which chronicles lessons evolving from his business and personal experiences.

Mr. Stewart is the Investment Director at Children’s Health System of Texas, a 2.5-billion-dollar Dallas based foundation. At Children’s, Mr. Stewart oversees the Foundation’s Hedge Fund, Private Credit and Liquid Real Asset allocations and serves on the internal investment committee. Prior to joining Children’s, Mr. Stewart was a Sr. Investment Analyst at Irvington Capital as well as a Research Associate at Taylor Investment Advisors. Mr. Stewart holds a B.B.A. from Texas Tech University and a M.S. in Finance from Southern Methodist University.

Olivia Cogan Newell is an Investment Principal at Partners Capital Investment Group, a global outsourced investment office that constructs customized investment portfolios for a range of institutional and private clients. At Partners Capital, Olivia works with a small group of clients, serving as Client CIO managing portfolio construction and implementation. Prior to joining Partners Capital in early 2019, Olivia worked for Goldman Sachs Asset Management, where she was primarily focused on fixed income, municipal bond, and credit products. Olivia received a Bachelor of Business Administration from Notre Dame

Ryan Harms serves as the CIO for MEMCO.  In his role, Ryan is responsible for leading MEMCO’s investment affairs, including manager selection, portfolio construction, and risk management for all MEMCO client portfolios.  Previously, Ryan served as the Director of Public Strategies, where he was responsible for sourcing, evaluating, and monitoring investments for client portfolios, with a primary focus on public strategies, including hedge funds.  He also worked closely with the CIO on portfolio construction and risk management for MEMCO client portfolios.  Ryan joined the Oklahoma State University Foundation Investment Office in 2012, as an Investment and Risk Analyst, and subsequently held the positions of Investment Officer and Investment Officer – Public Strategies, before joining MEMCO at its inception.  Ryan began his career in the defense industry, at Lockheed Martin and Raytheon, where he specialized in data analysis and algorithm development for proprietary radar systems.  Ryan received a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering and Master of Business Administration from Oklahoma Christian University.

Ryan Wagner joined the Dallas Police & Fire Pension System (DPFP) in 2012 as an Investment Analyst and was named Chief Investment Officer in March 2022. During his time at DPFP, Ryan has worked across multiple asset classes. The 4-person investment team oversees and manages the $2B investment portfolio. Ryan is a CAIA charterholder.  Prior to coming to the System, Ryan received his Masters of Business Administration from Texas Christian University, where he also received a BBA. Previous work experience includes roles at Universal Forest Products, Alcon Laboratories and NLM Capital Partners.

Steve M. Wyett, CFA is responsible for the communication of our investment management message. He serves on a variety of investment-related committees including the Asset Allocation committee, which sets the basis of the company's investment views. Wyett joined Bank of Oklahoma in 2005 as a senior portfolio manager and has served in various roles since, most recently as the private wealth managing director-investments before being named the chief investment strategist in May 2020. Wyett earned a bachelor's degree in finance from Oklahoma State University and began his investment career in the early ‘80s as an institutional bond salesman for First National Bank of Oklahoma City. He remained in institutional bond sales until the late '90s when he joined Tom Johnston Investment Management Inc. as their head equity trader and fixed income SMA manager. While there, he attained his CFA Charter and was an analyst, investment committee member and portfolio manager. After 40 years across multiple asset classes and different positions, Wyett appreciates that the changing markets always provide opportunities to learn. He is past president of the board for Family and Children's Services in Tulsa, an active participant in the Tulsa Area United Way, is the immediate past President of the Oklahoma Chapter of the CFA Society, and is a member of multiple societies of financial analysts as well as the CFA institute. As a former collegiate tennis player, Wyett enjoys visiting New York for the U.S. Open tennis tournament and dining in the fabulous restaurants found in the city. In his free time, he can be found ruining a good walk by playing a game of golf and traveling with his wife.

Mr. Ross, Jr. has served as President, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of Ross Acquisition. Corp. II since inception in January 2021. Prior to Ross Acquisition Corp. II, Wilbur Ross was sworn in by Vice President Mike Pence as the 39th Secretary of Commerce on February 28, 2017. Secretary Ross was the principal voice of business in the Trump Administration, ensuring that U.S. entrepreneurs and businesses have the tools they need to create jobs and economic opportunity. Secretary Ross is the former Chairman and Chief Strategy Officer of WL Ross & Co. LLC and has over 55 years of investment banking and private equity experience. He has restructured over $400 billion of assets in the airline, apparel, auto parts, banking, beverage, chemical, credit card, electric utility, food service, furniture, gypsum, homebuilding, insurance, marine transport, mortgage origination and servicing, oil and gas, railcar manufacturing and leasing, real estate, restaurant, shipyard, steel, textile and trucking industries. Secretary Ross has been chairman or lead director of more than 100 companies operating in more than 20 different countries.

Yung-Yu Ma is the Chief Investment Officer for BMO Wealth Management in the U.S. and joined the organization in 2016. As Chief Investment Strategist, he is responsible for guiding strategic and tactical asset allocations for client portfolios and leads a team that conducts macroeconomic and market analysis, and also modeling across asset classes.

Yung-Yu is frequently cited in print media including the Wall Street Journal, NY Times, Barron’s, the Financial Times, etc., and has regular television appearances on CNBC, CNBC Asia, and Yahoo Finance TV.

Prior to joining BMO, Yung-Yu was a finance professor at Lehigh University, where he taught courses in equities, fixed income, and derivatives. His academic studies have been cited in leading finance journals (including the Journal of Finance), top law journals, the Wall Street Journal, the Handbook of High Frequency Trading, and in the Oxford Handbook of Corporate Governance.