CAIA Los Angeles Hedge Fund Symposium  

CAIA Los Angeles and CFA Society Los Angeles will be hosting a
Hedge Fund Symposium on July 14^th, at the Omni Hotel in Los Angeles. 

Register Now! 

Panel 1
State of the Hedge Fund Industry Panel Discussion

• Moderator: Stephen Algert, J. Paul Getty Trust 
• Stephen L. Nesbitt, Cliffwater LLC
• Edgar Smith, USC Investment Office 

 

Panel 2
Allocators and Investment Managers:
Investment Landscape Update Panel Discussion 

• Moderator: Pasy Wang, Caltech Investment Office
• Brad Vizi, Legion Partners
• Jay Krieger, Fundamental Capital
• Jeff Saye, Saye Capital

 

Agenda

4:00 pm - 4:30 pm: Registration
4:30 pm - 5:15 pm: State of the Hedge Fund Industry Panel Discussion
5:15 pm - 6:00 pm: Allocators and Investment Managers: Investment Landscape Update Panel Discussion
6:00 pm - 7:00 pm: Networking/Cocktails

Event Fees
CAIA Members $20.00
Non-Member Students $25.00
Non-Members $35.00

 

Speaker Bios

Steve Algert | Steve Algert founded is Managing Director responsible for the hedge fund and credit-related programs for The J Paul Getty Trust, the $6 billion foundation that operates the Getty Museum in Los Angeles. Previously, Steve was at The Regents of the University of California, where he made the first hedge fund investments and helped oversee public equities. Before that Steve was in the fund of hedge funds group at Citigroup Alternative Investments and in the fixed income risk management and consulting groups at BARRA RogersCasey.

Steve holds a Masters in Public and Private Management from the Yale School of Management and a B.S. from the University of California at Berkeley. He is a CFA and CAIA charter holder.

Christopher Kiper | Christopher Kiper founded Legion Partners, but previously worked for Shamrock Capital Advisors, the alternative investment vehicle of the Disney family where he served as Portfolio Manager of the Shamrock Activist Value Fund, a concentrated, long-only, activist fund with $800 million of assets under management. While at Shamrock, Mr. Kiper led proxy contests that resulted in the election of multiple directors and the passing of a variety of governance related shareholder proposals. Prior to Shamrock, Mr. Kiper founded and operated the Ridgestone Small Cap Value Fund, a small-cap targeted activist fund in association with Ridgestone Corporation. Mr. Kiper began his career as an auditor with Ernst & Young, where he primarily focused on the financial services industry. Mr. Kiper is a former director of Reddy Ice Holdings. He graduated magna cum laude from the University of Nebraska with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and is a Certified Public Accountant (inactive).

 

Stephen L. Nesbitt  | Steve Nesbitt is Chief Executive Officer of Cliffwater LLC and oversees all investment research as the firm’s Chief Investment Officer. Cliffwater LLC is an investment advisory firm specializing in alternative investments (including hedge funds, private equity, and real estate) and asset allocation.  Prior to forming Cliffwater in 2004, Steve was a Senior Managing Director at Wilshire Associates where he led its consulting division and built its asset management business using a 'manager of manager' investment approach.  Steve started his career at Wells Fargo Investment Advisors, an early pioneer in index funds, where he developed and managed index funds and asset allocation.

Steve is recognized for his investment research.  His articles have appeared in the Financial Analysts Journal, The Journal of Portfolio Management, and The Journal of Applied Corporate Finance on issues covering performance fees, currency hedging, gauging private equity performance, and corporate governance.  Steve’s research includes creating one of the first “smart” index funds (1979); measuring the benefits of corporate governance and coining the term “CalPERS Effect” (1994); designing one of the first institutional performance fee structures (1987); measuring adverse returns from market (1995); conducting the first survey on state pension underfunding (1991) and performance (2012); measuring the private-to-liquid alternatives performance discount (2013); and creating Cliffwater indices measuring the performance of private U.S. direct lending and public BDCs (2015).

Steve graduated summa cum laude, with a BA in Mathematics and Economics from Eisenhower College (Rochester Institute of Technology), and an MBA, with Distinction, from The Wharton School at The University of Pennsylvania.

 

Edgar Smith, CFA | Edgar Smith is a Managing Director at the University of Southern California Endowment focusing on hedge fund and US equity investments. Mr. Smith is involved in all aspects of the manager evaluation process for existing and prospective investments. Prior to joining USC in 2012, he was a Senior Analyst at the Archstone Partnerships where he evaluated hedge fund investments across strategies. Previously, he was also a Partner and Investment Officer at Lasair Capital and an Associate Director at Pacific Alternative Asset Management. He holds a B.A in economics and history from Yale University and an MBA from Columbia University. Mr. Smith is a CFA charterholder.

 

Bradley Vizi | Bradley Vizi, Managing Director.  Prior to founding Legion Partners, Mr. Vizi was an investment professional at Shamrock Capital Advisors, the alternative investment vehicle of the Disney Family, as part of the Shamrock Activist Value Fund.  Previous to Shamrock, Mr. Vizi was an investment professional in the private equity group at Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors.  Mr. Vizi joined the Board of Directors for RCM Technologies, Inc. (NasdaqGM:RCMT) in late 2013 and currently serves as its Chairman.  He also serves as a Board Director at LP Foster Co. (NasdaqGS:FSTR) since his appointment in February 2016.  Mr. Vizi is a member of the National Association of Corporate Directors.  He graduated from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania with a Bachelor of Science degree and is a CFA Charterholder.

Pasy Wang, CFA | Pasy Wang is the Senior Director of Investments for California Institute of Technology's Investment Office, which oversees the $2.6 billion university endowment. Prior to Caltech, Pasy co-managed a portfolio of opportunistic hedge funds for Pacific Alternative Asset Management Company (PAAMCO), a leading independent fund of hedge funds investment firm for institutional investors. Pasy is a graduate of the University of California, Los Angeles with a B.S. in Electrical Engineering. She also holds a M.B.A. in Finance from Columbia Business School.