The AIF Institute provides institutional investors with customized educational programs and promotes their collaboration through its Centers of Excellence.
The Centers are led by AIF President and former North Carolina Deputy State Treasurer Melissa Waller and AIF Executive Director and former Oklahoma Deputy State Treasurer and former Chairperson of the Oklahoma Public Employees Retirement System Andrew Messer
The AIF Institute and Centers of Excellence create customized educational programs and presentations, in collaboration with AIF Institute Faculty Members comprised of industry leaders—global investors and leading investment firms—and complemented by the AIF Academic Board. The AIF Institute’s ability to customize the programming to the ever-changing needs of the investor community provides a unique interaction among investors, AIF Institute faculty, and all AIF stakeholders.
The AIF Institute identified the need for the Centers of Excellence as a resource for institutional investors’ investment programs and portfolios facing unique and evolving challenges in the markets and macro environment.
The AIF Institute has launched the following four key Centers of Excellence:
- Center for Private Capital Investing
- Center for Insurance Investing
- Center for Sustainable Investing
- Center for Financial Innovation
Center for Private Capital Investing
The PCI Center is the perfect complement to AIF’s traditional, roundtable asset class discussions. It enables AIF to follow the themes discussed at the roundtables to their natural conclusions. It also informs the agendas of AIF’s roundtable discussions. It serves as a continuous, free resource to institutional asset owners who wish to share ideas with their peers or otherwise seek to access the subject matter expertise of the AIF community.
The PCI Center will be holding its inaugural Symposium on November 9, 2023, with Academic Advisors, asset owners and Faculty Member Firms discussing important themes in the areas of Private Equity, Real Assets and Private Credit.
Center for Private Capital Investing Faculty and Fellows
Center for Private Capital Investing Fellows
Ash Williams
Former Executive Director and CIO, Florida State Board of Administration (SBA) and Vice Chair, J.P. Morgan Asset Management
Paul Murray
Former Interim Head of Alternatives and Director, Portfolio Strategy, Future Fund and Former Head of Portfolio Management, Victorian Funds Management Corporation (VFMC)
Andrew Sawyer
Former CIO, Maine Public Employees’ Retirement System
Larry Schloss
Former CIO, New York City Retirement System
Tom Tull
Former CIO, Employees’ Retirement System of Texas
Ford Scudder
Former New Jersey State Treasurer
John Chiang
Former State Treasurer and two term State Controller, State of California
Center for Private Capital Investing Academic Advisors
Josh Lerner
Professor of Investment Banking, Harvard Business School and Academic Board Chair, AIF Global
Andrew Lo
Professor of Finance, MIT Sloan School of Management
Tim Jenkinson
Professor of Finance, Said Business School, University of Oxford
Gregory Brown
Executive Director, Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise and Professor of Finance, UNC-Kenan Flagler Business School
David Robinson
Professor of Finance, The Fuqua School of Business, Duke University
Randolph Cohen
Senior Lecturer, Harvard Business School
Mila Getmansky Sherman
Professor of Finance, Co-Director, CISDM Isenberg School of Management, University of Massachusetts Amherst
Center for Insurance Investing
The CII works with the major stakeholders in the insurance investor community to review best practices domestically and globally, particularly in the areas of insurance regulation, asset allocation, risk management, and the use of alternative asset classes to enhance diversification and risk adjusted returns. It collaborates with the major life, property and casualty, healthcare, and other insurance companies throughout the world.
The CII has an Insurance Investment Regulatory Working Group that serves as a medium through which the range of stakeholders in the insurance investment regulatory process — particularly insurance companies, asset managers and regulators — can exchange best ideas and information about insurance investment regulation.
The CII’s goal is to help regulators adopt policies that will enable insurance companies to remain competitive while protecting policyholders.
Center for Insurance Investing Faculty and Fellows
Center for Insurance Investing Fellows
Edward Toy
Investment Specialist, Practice Lead-Investments, Risk & Regulatory Consulting
Ferdinand Seibert
Former Managing Director and Head of Private Equity, Zurich Insurance Group
Sheryl Schwartz
Chief Investment Officer, ALTI Financial and former Managing Director, Alternative Investments, TIAA-CREF
Amnon Levy
Chief Executive Officer, Bridgeway Analytics
Center for Insurance Investing Academic Advisors
Andrew Lo
Professor of Finance, MIT Sloan School of Management
Robert Jarrow
Professor of Investment Management, Johnson Graduate School of Management, Cornell University
Center for Sustainable Investing
Aligned with the AIF Institute’s mission, the Center for Sustainable Investing cultivates leading academic research, along with thought leadership, in the investment industry across both the public and private sectors. Specifically, the Centers place a primary focus on practical application and outcomes to support institutional investors globally in navigating, shaping, and integrating ESG and sustainability policies.
One key deliverable is the launch of the AIF Institute Library with a searchable database of Sustainable Investing research and publications.
Center for Sustainable Investing Faculty and Fellows
Center for Sustainable Investing Fellows
Marianne Dwight
Former General Counsel and Investment Committee Member, Texas Treasury Safekeeping Trust Company
Sharmila Kassam
Former Deputy CIO, Employees’ Retirement System of Texas
Center for Sustainable Investing Academic Advisors
Laura Starks
Professor of Finance, McCombs School of Business, University of Texas at Austin
Alex Edmans
Professor of Finance, London Business School
Center for Financial Innovation
The CFI is devoted to the study of new and evolving investment tools, ideas and structures. It has three core areas of study:
(i) decentralized finance, including digital assets, tokenization and the use of other blockchain-based technologies;
(ii) data analytics and the use of big data, machine learning and artificial intelligence to improve investment performance and processes; and
(iii) other financially innovative ideas and structures arising out of finance academia, institutional investing, asset management, or any other source.
Center for Financial Innovation Faculty and Fellows
Center for Financial Innovation Fellow
John D’Agostino
Senior Advisor to Coinbase and Adjunct Lecturer, INSEAD, MIT, and Columbia University
Center for Financial Innovation Academic Advisors
Randolph Cohen
Senior Lecturer, Harvard Business School
Andrew Lo
Professor of Finance, MIT Sloan School of Management
Among the World’s Most-Respected Thought Leaders in Finance Academia
AIF is proud to be affiliated with the world’s leading finance academics. AIF’s Academic Board is chaired by Harvard Business School Professor of Investment Banking Josh Lerner.
The AIF Institute will provide a forum for these academics to foster the work of each Center by showcasing both their research and research from leading investment firms and investors.
