2025 The Next Elite Part 4

Dan Bienvenue serves as Deputy Chief Investment Officer for Capital Markets at the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, where he oversees public markets investments, including global public equity, global fixed income, and the affiliate investment program. Since joining CalPERS in 2004, Bienvenue has played a critical role in shaping the fund’s investment strategy and operations, holding multiple leadership positions, including Managing Investment Director of Global Equity and Senior Portfolio Manager for Internal Equity. During his tenure at CalPERS, Bienvenue has been instrumental in managing the pension fund’s extensive public equity portfolio, helping to direct capital allocation, portfolio management, and corporate governance initiatives. He has also been responsible for overseeing strategic planning, financial reporting, expense management, and talent development within the investment office. Prior to joining CalPERS, Bienvenue was a Principal and Senior Portfolio Manager at Barclays Global Investors (now BlackRock), where he led an international equity portfolio management team overseeing $55 billion in assets across developed and emerging markets. Early in his career, he worked at J.P. Morgan Securities, where he refined his expertise in market dynamics and investment strategy through the firm’s analyst program in New York. Bienvenue graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a bachelor’s degree in economics, cum laude, from the University of California, Davis. He holds both the Chartered Financial Analyst and Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst designations.

Karl Cheng serves as Senior Investment Officer of Portfolio Risk and Research at the Oregon State Treasury, where he is responsible for overseeing risk management and research initiatives across the investment portfolio. Since joining the Treasury in 2011, he has held numerous key roles, including as Investment Officer for Public Equity, contributing to asset allocation and manager selection. Between 2008 to 2011, Cheng was Manager, Research Consultant at R.V. Kuhns, evaluating investment strategies and managers. Prior to that, he spent four years as a portfolio manager at BlackRock (formerly Barclays Global Investors), focusing on equities. Earlier in his career, he worked as a Director at UBS Investment Bank, specializing in equity index derivatives trading. Cheng holds a bachelor’s degree in materials science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), a master’s in materials science and engineering from UCLA, and an MBA from the University of Southern California. Jenny Koelle

Jennifer Koelle is the Senior Investment Officer for Public Markets at the Illinois State Board of Investment (ISBI), where she plays a key role in overseeing the board’s public market investments and assessing risk across its investment program. She contributes to the development and execution of ISBI’s overall investment policy and helps provide centralized oversight for the State’s Deferred Compensation Plan. Before joining ISBI in 2020, Koelle spent 15 years at Mercer in the Manager Research Group, specializing in global and emerging markets equity strategies. In this role, she coordinated research efforts, evaluated investment managers, and served as a voting member of the U.S. equity ratings review committee. Koelle earned a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania, with minors in Mathematics and International Relations.

Rosa Perez is an Investment Officer at the Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund (IMRF), where she leads initiatives focused on expanding diversity within the Fund’s investment program. She manages partnerships with investment managers and broker/dealers that are minority-, women-, and persons with a disability-owned and which contribute to the Fund’s broader investment strategy, including asset allocation and portfolio rebalancing. With more than a decade of experience at IMRF, Perez has played an integral role in shaping the Fund’s Emerging Manager Program, which she began overseeing in 2010. Her expertise in due diligence, manager selection, and total portfolio management has helped position IMRF as a leader in fostering inclusive investment practices. Prior to her current role, Perez led the Emerging Manager Program at the New York State Common Retirement Fund, where she managed a multi-billion-dollar portfolio dedicated to supporting diverse investment firms. She also held analytical roles at Lotsoff Capital Management, gaining early experience in portfolio research and financial analysis. Perez earned a Bachelor of Science in Finance from the University of Illinois Chicago and an MBA in financial analysis and investments from Saint Xavier University. She is an active member of the National Association of Security Professionals (NASP) and Accelerate Investors.

Sougata Sarkar is Vice-President of Investments at FM which has more than $32 billion in assets. In this role, Sarkar works closely with the Chief Investment Officer and senior leadership to guide asset allocation, portfolio construction, and oversight of externally managed strategies across public and private markets. Before joining the organization, Sarkar was a portfolio manager at PAAMCO West70 Capital, an absolute-return fund specializing in derivatives, which he co-managed following its spinoff from Harvard Management Co. (HMC). Prior to that, he was a portfolio manager at HMC, contributing to the investment strategies of the university’s endowment fund. He began his career in Deutsche Bank’s global markets division, gaining experience in trading and investment management. Sarkar holds a master’s degree in Finance from the MIT Sloan School of Management and a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur.