Tag: Governance

Feature image ep jim bethea
Improving Alpha: Jim Bethea on Resetting the Learning Process of Endowment Performance

Improving Alpha: Jim Bethea on Resetting the Learning Process of Endowment Performance

By |

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Subscribe: RSS | More

​Many talented endowment CIOs evolve from engineering backgrounds, consultancies, and other disciplines. These past experiences allow CIOs to transform investment office teams, broadening the search for alpha through improved portfolio construction, balancing liquidity concerns, outpacing endowment peers, and creating an environment where investment staff are valued for their continued contributions.

On the latest Improving Alpha podcast, Michael Oliver Weinberg is joined by Jim Bethea, CFA, CAIA, Chief Investment Officer, West Virginia University Foundation.

By the time this episode airs, Jim will have been in the WVU Foundation role for only a few months, but the insights that he provides from his time at RVK Consulting, the University of Iowa Center for Advancement, and now the WVU Foundation are priceless for institutional asset owners.  

Key takeaways from Jim Bethea’s discussion with Michael include:

  • What were the lightbulb moments that made Jim decide to make a switch to endowment portfolio management?
  • When sitting in the CIO seat at a major endowment, why should you look less at inflation and more towards fee spending and risk tolerance? Risk in PR, liquidity, etc.
  • What is Jim’s mindset when the campus needs capital, and how to navigate that when considering future fiscal year projections?
  • Staff buy-in and how that helps to accelerate an investment edge or interest level across the team on the search for alpha across various asset classes. More importantly, if there isn’t an edge in a given asset class, can beta be leveraged to generate median returns?
  • Why having an ESG policy might be hurting your approach to managing total portfolio returns.
  • How AI and future innovations in technology will be shaping his portfolio allocations.
  • Red flags in VC fund managers and why you should be worried as an endowment CIO if these managers start touting 3X gains.
  • Reshoring efforts, incremental capital destination with GPs, retaining staff, and more!

Resources:

Connect with Michael Oliver Weinberg: 

Connect with Jim Bethea:

About Our Guest:

Jim Bethea is the Chief Investment Officer of the West Virginia University Foundation. He oversees the management of the Foundation’s investment portfolio, bringing decades of experience in institutional investing, manager research, and portfolio construction. Prior to joining WVU, he served as the Senior Vice President and Chief Investment Officer at the University of Iowa Center for Advancement, where he led investment strategy and expanded the endowment’s portfolio diversification.

The information covered and posted represents the views and opinions of the guest and does not necessarily represent the views or opinions of Vidrio Financial, and/or our host, Michael Oliver Weinberg. The Content has been made available for informational and educational purposes only. The Content is not intended to be a substitute for professional investing advice. Always seek the advice of your financial advisor or other qualified financial service provider with any questions you may have regarding your investment planning.

The release date may not correspond to the recording date.

Feature Image Ep 24
Improving Alpha: Catherine Ulozas on Innovating a Billion Dollar Endowment

Improving Alpha: Catherine Ulozas on Innovating a Billion Dollar Endowment

By |

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Subscribe: RSS | More

Information overload can occur in even the most skilled institutional investor when considering the amount of managers and intelligence competing for their time and attention. How can a leading endowment CIO or portfolio manager navigate the volume of financial statements, capital calls, risk/reward ratios, and more? How can they mentor junior analysts to find the diamonds in the rough to help generate alpha?

In our latest Improving Alpha podcast, host Michael Oliver Weinberg sits down with Catherine Ulozas, Chief Investment Officer, Senior Vice President, Investment, Drexel University. Catherine shares her extensive background from the early years at ING Direct prioritizing safety in fixed-income investments and how that brought her to the CIO role at Drexel University.

 Additional highlights from Catherine’s podcast interview include: 

  • how is Catherine looking at the endowment risk today, especially in light of increased inflation, increasing spending rates by the university, and more.
  • why was it a critical mission of the endowment to save St. Christopher’s Children’s Hospital in Philadelphia, and how did the $40 million line of credit get paid back in record time.
  • the innovations that her team is making both on an operational level and through advanced analytics.
  • how Drexel’s endowment considers ESG and why Catherine believes the “G” tends to drive a lot of progress across the environment and social aspects of this acronym.
  • positive aspects in real asset investing and the appeal of emerging markets for future asset allocation.
  • how was Drexel able to overcome the deployment challenges of assets in private markets and what are the red flags that her endowment team uncovers when considering investment opportunities.
  • and more

Resources:

Connect with Michael Oliver Weinberg: 

Connect with Catherine Ulozas:

About Catherine Ulozas:

With over 30 years of investment experience, Catherine Ulozas is a senior executive who has managed pools of capital for endowments, insurance companies, the largest US thrift, and a state pension fund. Catherine is the Chief Investment Officer at Drexel University and has continued to improve the Drexel Endowment’s quality and returns, scoring in the top 10% in the Wilshire Consulting Foundations and Endowment Universe for the last 5 years. 

The information covered and posted represents the views and opinions of the guest and does not necessarily represent the views or opinions of Vidrio Financial, and/or our host, Michael Oliver Weinberg. The Content has been made available for informational and educational purposes only. The Content is not intended to be a substitute for professional investing advice. Always seek the advice of your financial advisor or other qualified financial service provider with any questions you may have regarding your investment planning.

The release date may not correspond to the recording date.

Feature image ep 15
Improving Alpha: Russ Carson on the ‘lucky accident’ of a career in Venture Capital, Private Equity, and Philanthropy

Improving Alpha: Russ Carson on the ‘lucky accident’ of a career in Venture Capital, Private Equity, and Philanthropy

By |

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Subscribe: RSS | More

Be careful what you wish for, is a critical statement for those entering the field of private equity, and venture capital today. As the industry accelerates, increased government scrutiny, regulation, and a greater need to prove that your business is providing a productive service to society will come into play.

In our latest episode of the Improving Alpha podcast, our host, Michael Oliver Weinberg, sits down with Russell L. Carson, Founder & General Partner of Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe, and Chairman of The Carson Family Charitable Trust. 

Russ explores his own journey in both venture capital and private equity, what led him to create the Carson Family Charitable Trust, succession planning for his business, and why he’s become a student of improving the human condition.

Further highlights include: 

 

  • how his career evolved from managing $5 million in Citibank’s Venture Capital arm to leading his own firm managing over $31 billion in AUM through investments in healthcare and information technology sectors.

  • the objectives and structure of the Carson Family Charitable Trust, and how Russ balances the investments that he’s making today and the returns he can expect to get to zero out the trust by the end of 2050.

  • his involvement in the unique institution, Rockefeller University, and how he’s helping the university with funding solutions to mankind’s largest healthcare mysteries.

  • how he helped to create the New York Genome Center and how the cost to sequence a human genome has declined from $10,000 to $500 in the course of 10 years due to things like Nvidia GPUs, cloud computing, and machine learning.

  • his strategic view of making smaller acquisitions that create a much larger business out of a series of smaller parts and how it has been successfully applied to both healthcare and the information technology space.

  • differences between a public market investor and being a venture capital or private equity investor, and how Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe combine the two disciplines at times.

  • the creative tension between LPs and GPs across the Private Equity industry.

  • the “red flag” of a manager being unfocused in his approach to investing, and how having focus gave Russ a competitive advantage in the sectors that he serves.

  • thoughts on whether we’re getting too far when it comes to AI venture capital investments. Is it overvalued and overhyped?

  • his thoughts on Elon Musk and the impact on our world.

  • And more!

Connect with Michael Oliver Weinberg: 

Connect with Russ Carson:

About Russ Carson:

Russell L. Carson is Chairman of The Carson Family Charitable Trust, a private foundation that he started, along with his immediate family members, in 1991. The foundation is focused on New York City and supports non-profit organizations in the fields of education, poverty, healthcare, medical science, and culture. Mr. Carson is currently Chairman of The Rockefeller University, Chairman of the Partnership for Inner-City Education, co-Chairman of the New York Genome Center, Vice Chairman of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, a Trustee of New York-Presbyterian Hospital, a Director of the National 9/11 Memorial and Museum and a Director of the Coalition for Opportunity in Education. He is also Chairman Emeritus of Columbia Business School and a Trustee Emeritus of Dartmouth College.

Since 1978 Mr. Carson has been a Founding Partner of Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe (WCAS), one of the country’s largest private equity firms. Over the past 38 years, WCAS has raised sixteen institutionally funded limited partnerships with a total capital of approximately $20 billion and has invested in over 250 companies. He led the firm’s healthcare investment practice for many years and is currently the Lead Director of Select Medical Corporation, a NYSE listed owner of long-term acute care hospitals, physical rehabilitation hospitals, and outpatient rehabilitation clinics which was founded by WCAS and the company’s management in 1987.

Mr. Carson attended public high school in Toledo, Ohio prior to receiving a BA degree in Economics from Dartmouth College in 1965 and an MBA from Columbia Business School in 1967. He received an honorary degree from Dartmouth College in 2015. He resides in New York City with his wife Judy and their two children, Cecily and Edward; all family members are Trustees of the foundation and active in its affairs.

The information covered and posted represents the views and opinions of the guest and does not necessarily represent the views or opinions of Vidrio Financial, and/or our host, Michael Oliver Weinberg. The Content has been made available for informational and educational purposes only. The Content is not intended to be a substitute for professional investing advice. Always seek the advice of your financial advisor or other qualified financial service provider with any questions you may have regarding your investment planning.

The release date may not correspond to the recording date.