100 Women in Hedge Funds Celebrates 200th Educational Event Event Marks Major Milestone for 100WHF’s Educational Pillar
100 Women in Hedge Funds ("100WHF"), a leading non-profit organization for professionals in the alternatives industry, will today celebrate its 200th Educational Session. This milestone will be celebrated with a panel-led discussion on the most pressing issues in today’s environment, including lessons learned from the financial crisis and how the past has impacted current practices in the investment and allocation processes. The session will be moderated by 100WHF Board Member Sandra Urie, President of Cambridge Associates, and the panel will be comprised of:
o Jane Buchan, CEO, Pacific Alternative Asset Management Company
o Raudline Etienne, CIO, New York State Common Retirement Fund
o Hilda Ochoa-Brillembourg, CFA, President, CEO, & CIO, Strategic Investment Group
o Dorothy Collins Weaver, Chairman, CEO & Co-Founder, Collins Capital Investments, Inc.
100WHF’s efforts and programs are aimed at supporting its three pillars: Education, Professional Leverage, and Philanthropy. For nine years it has been the organization’s mission to provide free educational events that give its members access to the alternative investment management industry’s leading players. Past panel discussions have included in-depth talks by industry icons on a wide variety of topics, for example, the impact of heightened regulation on the hedge fund industry and challenges and constraints in constructing a modern portfolio.
Commenting on the announcement, Anne Popkin, Chair of the Board of 100WHF, said: "It is very rewarding to be able to announce our 200th educational session. Industry education is one of our organization’s three pillars and has been fundamental to the growth of the organization globally. With over 6,500 individuals attending our education events last year, 100WHF now prides itself on being one of the largest educators to the alternative investment industry. As we move forward, the organization remains committed to further expanding its educational efforts in support of its mission to advance the industry and serve its members."
100WHF, which last month announced its expansion into Toronto, has over 10,000 members spread across 14 locations worldwide including New York, Boston, Chicago, N. California, S. California, Washington DC, Fairfield County, CT, Minneapolis, London, Geneva, Zurich, Paris and Hong Kong. Each new location under the 100WHF umbrella has been started by a group of industry practitioners who were interested in providing unique educational events to local members.
o Jane Buchan, CEO, Pacific Alternative Asset Management Company
o Raudline Etienne, CIO, New York State Common Retirement Fund
o Hilda Ochoa-Brillembourg, CFA, President, CEO, & CIO, Strategic Investment Group
o Dorothy Collins Weaver, Chairman, CEO & Co-Founder, Collins Capital Investments, Inc.
100WHF’s efforts and programs are aimed at supporting its three pillars: Education, Professional Leverage, and Philanthropy. For nine years it has been the organization’s mission to provide free educational events that give its members access to the alternative investment management industry’s leading players. Past panel discussions have included in-depth talks by industry icons on a wide variety of topics, for example, the impact of heightened regulation on the hedge fund industry and challenges and constraints in constructing a modern portfolio.
Commenting on the announcement, Anne Popkin, Chair of the Board of 100WHF, said: "It is very rewarding to be able to announce our 200th educational session. Industry education is one of our organization’s three pillars and has been fundamental to the growth of the organization globally. With over 6,500 individuals attending our education events last year, 100WHF now prides itself on being one of the largest educators to the alternative investment industry. As we move forward, the organization remains committed to further expanding its educational efforts in support of its mission to advance the industry and serve its members."
100WHF, which last month announced its expansion into Toronto, has over 10,000 members spread across 14 locations worldwide including New York, Boston, Chicago, N. California, S. California, Washington DC, Fairfield County, CT, Minneapolis, London, Geneva, Zurich, Paris and Hong Kong. Each new location under the 100WHF umbrella has been started by a group of industry practitioners who were interested in providing unique educational events to local members.
About 100 Women in Hedge Funds (www.100womeninhedgefunds.org)
100 Women in Hedge Funds is a global, practitioner-driven non-profit organization serving over 10,000 alternative investment management investors and professionals through educational, professional leverage and philanthropic initiatives. Formed in 2001, 100 Women in Hedge Funds has hosted 200 events globally, connected more than 150 senior women through Peer Advisory Groups and raised in excess of $17 million for philanthropic causes in the areas of women's health, education and mentoring.
Panelists’ biographies
Jane Buchan, CEO, Pacific Alternative Asset Management Company
Jane Buchan is a Managing Director and the Chief Executive Officer of Pacific Alternative Asset Management Company, LLC ("PAAMCO"). As CEO, Jane is responsible for overall business strategy and firm direction. In addition, she is the Sector Specialist responsible for the evaluation and management of fixed income relative value in the various PAAMCO portfolios. In addition to her work in fixed income, she has also focused on strategic investment issues for pension plans with a particular focus on structuring alternative investment programs using core fiduciary principles, and has numerous professional publications in the field of alternative investment strategies. Jane is also a member of the Investment Management, Risk Management, and Account Management Committees. Jane has twenty-two years of experience in investment management and portfolio construction with institutional investors.
Prior to forming PAAMCO in 2000, Jane held positions at J.P. Morgan Investment Management (Capital Markets Group) and Collins Associates, an institutional fund of funds and consulting firm. She has also served as an Assistant Professor of Finance at the Amos Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth. She is a Director of the Torchmark Corporation and a Director of the Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst Association (CAIA). She is also a member of Advisory Councils at the University of California, Irvine School of Business, the MIT Sloan School of Management (Masters of Finance), and the Guanghua School of Management, Peking University. Jane graduated from Yale University with a B.A. in Economics, and received both her M.A. and Ph.D. in Business Economics (Finance) from Harvard University.
Raudline Etienne, CIO, New York State Common Retirement Fund
In March of 2008, Raudline Etienne was selected by the New York State Comptroller, the Honorable Thomas DiNapoli, to become his Deputy Comptroller and Chief Investment Officer(CIO) for the Division of Pension Investment and Cash Management. As CIO, Raudline manages the assets of the Common Retirement Fund (CRF) the nation’s third largest pension fund. In her capacity as CIO, Ms. Etienne has decision-making responsibilities in all aspects of the CRF’s investment strategy and operations. These responsibilities include asset allocation, investment policy and governance, partner selection, and risk management. Her management responsibilities include the oversight of 61 professionals who are responsible for the daily management of a portfolio invested across the globe, and inclusive of equity, fixed income, hedge funds, real estate, and private equity.
She also has oversight responsibility for CRF investment operations, including internal portfolio management, custodial services, and securities lending, as well as management of external investment managers, and investment consultants. Her team is also responsible for the College Savings Program with assets of $8 billion, and the State’s short-term investment pool of $9 billion that consists largely of tax-revenue collections and federal aid.
In her previous employment, Etienne was Managing Director at Rogerscasey in Darien, Connecticut, responsible for investment consulting for a series of both large and small public retirement systems. During her 11½ year tenure with Rogerscasey, she developed broad experience in a wide variety of asset classes and investment strategies. Raudline has a Bachelors of Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and also holds an MBA in finance from the University of California at Berkeley where she was a Robert A. Toigo Foundation Fellow, and President of the Black Business Student Association.
Ms. Etienne was instrumental in the creation of the Connecticut Hedge Fund Association where she formerly served as a board member, as well as the Robert A. Toigo Alumni Endowment Board where she was elected the first president and is a former board member. Ms. Etienne was also appointed to the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) and the US Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB)'s "Financial Crisis Advisory Group (FCAG) which was created to consider how improvements in financial reporting could help enhance investor confidence in financial markets.
Dorothy Collins Weaver, Chairman, CEO & Co-Founder, Collins Capital Investments, Inc.
Dorothy Collins Weaver is the Chairman, CEO & Co-Founder of Collins Capital Investments, Inc. Collins Capital is an investment management company that has managed Funds of Hedge Funds since its inception in 1995.
Mrs. Weaver is the former Chairman of the Board of the Federal Reserve Bank in Miami. She served as Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors for the State of Florida. Mrs. Weaver was instrumental in rewriting the banking laws for the State of Florida, which resulted in transforming Miami into an international finance and banking center. She was a founding Director of Enterprise Florida, an innovative public-private partnership that replaced Florida’s Department of Commerce. She served as Chairman of the Business Leadership Council and Chairman of the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce. She also served as Chairman of the Governor’s Commission on Education Workforce Committee.
Mrs. Weaver graduated with honors (Phi Beta Kappa) from Wellesley College where she served on the Board of Trustees for 17 years and chaired the finance committee. She also served on the Investment Committee of the American Red Cross in Washington D.C. Mrs. Weaver has received the "Business Leader Hall of Fame Award", "Leader of the Year Award", "Women Who Make A Difference Award" and "The Community Headliner Award".
Hilda Ochoa-Brillembourg, CFA, President, CEO and CIO
Ms. Ochoa leads Strategic’s investment management efforts and is ultimately responsible for its annual and long-term investment, business and financial results. She has been in the investment management field for over 30 years and founded Strategic in 1987. Ms. Ochoa is Founding Chairman of the Youth Orchestra of the Americas, a member of the Board of Trustees of Washington National Opera, a member of the advisory committee of the Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies at Harvard University, and Vice Chairman of the Group of Fifty (G-50) at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. She is also a member of the Boards of Directors of General Mills, Inc., the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., and the Harvard Management Company.
Ms. Ochoa has published articles in Financial Analyst Journal and Pensions & Investments. She has also recently been featured in Fortune, SmartMoney, Money Magazine, Investment News, and the AIMR Exchange, and has appeared on CNN Español, MSNBC and Wall Street Week.
Ms. Ochoa served in various capacities within the Pension Investment Division of the World Bank, including as Chief Investment Officer, and continued as advisor to the World Bank pension assets as CEO of Strategic. She also served as asset and liability advisor to the World Bank, the Venezuelan government, Grupo Electricidad de Caracas, and others. A native of Venezuela, Ms. Ochoa has served as an independent consultant in the field of economics and finance, a lecturer at the Universidad Catolica Andres Bello and IESA in Venezuela, and as treasurer of the C.A. Luz Electrica de Venezuela in Caracas. A Fulbright Fellow and Fulbright Lifetime Achievement awardee, Ms. Ochoa has completed doctoral studies (except dissertation) in Finance at the Graduate School of Business Administration at Harvard University, holds an M.P.A. from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, and a B.S. in Economics from the Universidad Catolica Andres Bello in Caracas, Venezuela.
Sandra A. Urie, President, Cambridge Associates
Sandra A. Urie is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Cambridge Associates LLC, a leading global provider of independent investment advice and research to institutional investors and private clients.
Ms. Urie has held various positions at Cambridge Associates since 1985 and, before assuming the role as CEO, she served as the Chief Operating Officer and was responsible for directing the firm's consulting practice. She is a member and vice-chair of the Investors' Committee of the President's Working Group on Financial Markets, which has worked to develop detailed guidelines that would define "best practices" for investors in private pools of capital in order to enhance investor protection and systemic risk safeguards. She currently serves on the Board of Advisors for the Yale School of Management, the Board of Overseers of the DeCordova Museum, and the Board of Visitors of the New England Baptist Hospital. In addition, she sits on the boards of The Plymouth Rock Company and Homesite Group Incorporated. She formerly served on the boards of Phillips Academy, Belmont Day School and Buckingham, Browne & Nichols School.
Before joining Cambridge Associates, Ms. Urie worked as a member of the faculty at Phillips Academy (Andover), where she taught Russian and served on the Admissions Office staff. She also served in the Phillips Academy development office where she was responsible for capital fund raising, and eventually she assumed the position of Associate Secretary of the Academy with responsibility for the school's annual giving and alumni programs.
100 Women in Hedge Funds is a global, practitioner-driven non-profit organization serving over 10,000 alternative investment management investors and professionals through educational, professional leverage and philanthropic initiatives. Formed in 2001, 100 Women in Hedge Funds has hosted 200 events globally, connected more than 150 senior women through Peer Advisory Groups and raised in excess of $17 million for philanthropic causes in the areas of women's health, education and mentoring.
Panelists’ biographies
Jane Buchan, CEO, Pacific Alternative Asset Management Company
Jane Buchan is a Managing Director and the Chief Executive Officer of Pacific Alternative Asset Management Company, LLC ("PAAMCO"). As CEO, Jane is responsible for overall business strategy and firm direction. In addition, she is the Sector Specialist responsible for the evaluation and management of fixed income relative value in the various PAAMCO portfolios. In addition to her work in fixed income, she has also focused on strategic investment issues for pension plans with a particular focus on structuring alternative investment programs using core fiduciary principles, and has numerous professional publications in the field of alternative investment strategies. Jane is also a member of the Investment Management, Risk Management, and Account Management Committees. Jane has twenty-two years of experience in investment management and portfolio construction with institutional investors.
Prior to forming PAAMCO in 2000, Jane held positions at J.P. Morgan Investment Management (Capital Markets Group) and Collins Associates, an institutional fund of funds and consulting firm. She has also served as an Assistant Professor of Finance at the Amos Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth. She is a Director of the Torchmark Corporation and a Director of the Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst Association (CAIA). She is also a member of Advisory Councils at the University of California, Irvine School of Business, the MIT Sloan School of Management (Masters of Finance), and the Guanghua School of Management, Peking University. Jane graduated from Yale University with a B.A. in Economics, and received both her M.A. and Ph.D. in Business Economics (Finance) from Harvard University.
Raudline Etienne, CIO, New York State Common Retirement Fund
In March of 2008, Raudline Etienne was selected by the New York State Comptroller, the Honorable Thomas DiNapoli, to become his Deputy Comptroller and Chief Investment Officer(CIO) for the Division of Pension Investment and Cash Management. As CIO, Raudline manages the assets of the Common Retirement Fund (CRF) the nation’s third largest pension fund. In her capacity as CIO, Ms. Etienne has decision-making responsibilities in all aspects of the CRF’s investment strategy and operations. These responsibilities include asset allocation, investment policy and governance, partner selection, and risk management. Her management responsibilities include the oversight of 61 professionals who are responsible for the daily management of a portfolio invested across the globe, and inclusive of equity, fixed income, hedge funds, real estate, and private equity.
She also has oversight responsibility for CRF investment operations, including internal portfolio management, custodial services, and securities lending, as well as management of external investment managers, and investment consultants. Her team is also responsible for the College Savings Program with assets of $8 billion, and the State’s short-term investment pool of $9 billion that consists largely of tax-revenue collections and federal aid.
In her previous employment, Etienne was Managing Director at Rogerscasey in Darien, Connecticut, responsible for investment consulting for a series of both large and small public retirement systems. During her 11½ year tenure with Rogerscasey, she developed broad experience in a wide variety of asset classes and investment strategies. Raudline has a Bachelors of Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and also holds an MBA in finance from the University of California at Berkeley where she was a Robert A. Toigo Foundation Fellow, and President of the Black Business Student Association.
Ms. Etienne was instrumental in the creation of the Connecticut Hedge Fund Association where she formerly served as a board member, as well as the Robert A. Toigo Alumni Endowment Board where she was elected the first president and is a former board member. Ms. Etienne was also appointed to the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) and the US Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB)'s "Financial Crisis Advisory Group (FCAG) which was created to consider how improvements in financial reporting could help enhance investor confidence in financial markets.
Dorothy Collins Weaver, Chairman, CEO & Co-Founder, Collins Capital Investments, Inc.
Dorothy Collins Weaver is the Chairman, CEO & Co-Founder of Collins Capital Investments, Inc. Collins Capital is an investment management company that has managed Funds of Hedge Funds since its inception in 1995.
Mrs. Weaver is the former Chairman of the Board of the Federal Reserve Bank in Miami. She served as Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors for the State of Florida. Mrs. Weaver was instrumental in rewriting the banking laws for the State of Florida, which resulted in transforming Miami into an international finance and banking center. She was a founding Director of Enterprise Florida, an innovative public-private partnership that replaced Florida’s Department of Commerce. She served as Chairman of the Business Leadership Council and Chairman of the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce. She also served as Chairman of the Governor’s Commission on Education Workforce Committee.
Mrs. Weaver graduated with honors (Phi Beta Kappa) from Wellesley College where she served on the Board of Trustees for 17 years and chaired the finance committee. She also served on the Investment Committee of the American Red Cross in Washington D.C. Mrs. Weaver has received the "Business Leader Hall of Fame Award", "Leader of the Year Award", "Women Who Make A Difference Award" and "The Community Headliner Award".
Hilda Ochoa-Brillembourg, CFA, President, CEO and CIO
Ms. Ochoa leads Strategic’s investment management efforts and is ultimately responsible for its annual and long-term investment, business and financial results. She has been in the investment management field for over 30 years and founded Strategic in 1987. Ms. Ochoa is Founding Chairman of the Youth Orchestra of the Americas, a member of the Board of Trustees of Washington National Opera, a member of the advisory committee of the Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies at Harvard University, and Vice Chairman of the Group of Fifty (G-50) at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. She is also a member of the Boards of Directors of General Mills, Inc., the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., and the Harvard Management Company.
Ms. Ochoa has published articles in Financial Analyst Journal and Pensions & Investments. She has also recently been featured in Fortune, SmartMoney, Money Magazine, Investment News, and the AIMR Exchange, and has appeared on CNN Español, MSNBC and Wall Street Week.
Ms. Ochoa served in various capacities within the Pension Investment Division of the World Bank, including as Chief Investment Officer, and continued as advisor to the World Bank pension assets as CEO of Strategic. She also served as asset and liability advisor to the World Bank, the Venezuelan government, Grupo Electricidad de Caracas, and others. A native of Venezuela, Ms. Ochoa has served as an independent consultant in the field of economics and finance, a lecturer at the Universidad Catolica Andres Bello and IESA in Venezuela, and as treasurer of the C.A. Luz Electrica de Venezuela in Caracas. A Fulbright Fellow and Fulbright Lifetime Achievement awardee, Ms. Ochoa has completed doctoral studies (except dissertation) in Finance at the Graduate School of Business Administration at Harvard University, holds an M.P.A. from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, and a B.S. in Economics from the Universidad Catolica Andres Bello in Caracas, Venezuela.
Sandra A. Urie, President, Cambridge Associates
Sandra A. Urie is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Cambridge Associates LLC, a leading global provider of independent investment advice and research to institutional investors and private clients.
Ms. Urie has held various positions at Cambridge Associates since 1985 and, before assuming the role as CEO, she served as the Chief Operating Officer and was responsible for directing the firm's consulting practice. She is a member and vice-chair of the Investors' Committee of the President's Working Group on Financial Markets, which has worked to develop detailed guidelines that would define "best practices" for investors in private pools of capital in order to enhance investor protection and systemic risk safeguards. She currently serves on the Board of Advisors for the Yale School of Management, the Board of Overseers of the DeCordova Museum, and the Board of Visitors of the New England Baptist Hospital. In addition, she sits on the boards of The Plymouth Rock Company and Homesite Group Incorporated. She formerly served on the boards of Phillips Academy, Belmont Day School and Buckingham, Browne & Nichols School.
Before joining Cambridge Associates, Ms. Urie worked as a member of the faculty at Phillips Academy (Andover), where she taught Russian and served on the Admissions Office staff. She also served in the Phillips Academy development office where she was responsible for capital fund raising, and eventually she assumed the position of Associate Secretary of the Academy with responsibility for the school's annual giving and alumni programs.
