AAAIM High ELI

My guest for today’s podcast is Puneet Kohli, Head of the Alternative Investments team at the Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan, also known as HOOPP, a $100bn+ Canadian pension fund well known for being one of the top performing investors globally over the past 20 years.  Puneet is one of those rare breeds in asset management where he has literally done it all: trader, portfolio manager, proprietary trader, hedge fund manager, equities, fixed income, derivatives, and alternatives.  I’ve known Puneet almost 20 years and it was a pleasure to interview him and hear his background from how he grew up in the business to his current task at hand, building out Alternative Investments at HOOPP.  Puneet generously shares his stories from “his difficult teenage years” being one of the only visible minority kids growing up in Mississauga and Ottawa to his days as a proprietary trader eventually leading to his current role at HOOPP which includes hiring external managers, a new program HOOPP initiated only recently in 2018.  Without further a due, here is my conversation with Puneet Kohli.

My guest for today’s podcast is Kirk Sims who is the Head of the Emerging Manager Program at the Teachers Retirement System of Texas (TRS), one of the leading public retirement systems in the US with over $160 billion in assets under management.  Since being established in 2005, TRS has committed $3.7 billion to one of the largest programs of its kind.  An additional $2 billion has been invested directly with EM Program graduates.  Each graduate was selected as a result of consistent outperformance among a group of more than 160 EM managers. Recognizing the Program’s success, in early 2019, TRS rolled out a plan to invest another $3 billion over the next three to five years.  Kirk joined TRS in March 2019 after building out the Emerging Manager Program at the Teachers’ Retirement System of the State of Illinois, where he oversaw a $750 million evergreen pool of capital designed to identify and invest in emerging investment managers across all asset classes.  Kirk is as smart as they come, having earned his CFA, MBA from Columbia Business School and BA from Howard University.  I had a blast interviewing Kirk and his insights would be valuable to any emerging manager looking to raise assets.  Without further a due, here is my conversation with Kirk Sims.

My guest for today’s podcast is Monica Hsiao, Founder and CIO of Triada Capital, an Asian Credit Long/Short Fund.  Monica is as amazing as they come, having launched Triada after a successful career as a corporate lawyer, proprietary trader, and portfolio manager.  We talk about Monica’s grandmother’s early influence on her life, the initiative she took to see the world outside of Guam, and learn about her path from lawyer to proprietary trading to starting her own fund, globetrotting from Guam to California to New York to London to Hong Kong.  Along the way, Monica shares some great insights about avoiding “the mommy track”, “leveraging her legal background to differentiate herself as an investor”, “starting a new business line within CQS”, and “overcoming the odds and starting her fund with just $7 mn” Post this podcast recording, Triada Capital was recently named the “Best Asian Credit Long-Short Fund” from Eurekahedge, I am sure a very proud moment for Monica and a validation of the bet she made on herself.  Joining me on this podcast as guest host is Sasha Kus, a Partner with Albourne Partners.  In addition to her day job advising investors on portfolio construction and manager selection, Sasha also leads Albourne Partners’ diversity initiatives to identify and uncover diverse and emerging managers.  Please enjoy my conversation with Monica and Sasha.