Private Markets – Improving Alpha:

Improving Alpha: Kristin Varela on the Human Impact of Pension Stewardship

By Improving-Alpha | January 6, 2026

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When running a pension plan for 150,000 active and retired members across the state of Hawaii, there are several factors that help achieve a 7% return. Governance, portfolio risk awareness, and culture all weigh on the minds of the investment team at the Employees’ Retirement System of the State of Hawaii.

In our last official recording of the 2025 Improving Alpha podcast season, we welcome Kristin Varela, Chief Investment Officer, Employees’ Retirement System of the State of Hawaii. Kristin and her team oversee the $25 billion plan, which has a mission of ensuring the financial dignity and multi-generational wealth for plan employees in this generation and for those in the future.

In this discussion with our host, Michael Oliver Weinberg, Kristin details her ‘fingerprint’ of principles and practices to prioritize steady and reliable results for the plan. Highlights include:

What initially excited Kristin about the CIO position at ERS of the State of Hawaii, and how her operational and cultural background moved her to the top of the candidate pool.
Why diversification is at the core of their investment beliefs, and how it enables her team to innovate alternative investment structures while adopting a proactive approach to asset management.
Looking at the value of complexity over time and understanding the opportunity costs involved in making capital decisions.
What were the steps in doubling down on fund managers that represented our core values and understood our mission versus those that were less innovative and aligned to the ERS mission?
How her past experience working with Jonathan Grabel (a past guest of the Improving Alpha Podcast) shaped her view of ESG and how she puts ESG to work, given the culture of Hawaii.
Why is food security such an interesting advancement for the pension plan, and what are some of the plays that Kristin and her team are navigating today in this space?
How AI is featuring in capital plans, whether it’s on the manager side and implementing systemic strategies or through investment plays like data centers or larger energy transition themes.
Disruption across private market investments and how Kristin keeps her plays in things like private credit and real assets at a high level of quality.
And more

Connect with Kristin Varela:

LinkedIn: Kristin Varela

Connect with Michael Oliver Weinberg:

About Our Guest:

Kristin Varela is the Chief Investment Officer for the Employees Retirement System of the State of Hawaii, a $23b pension plan, serving nearly 150,000 active and retired members across the state of Hawaii. She is responsible for the design and implementation of the Fund’s overall strategic goals, policies, and programs.

Kristin holds over 15 years of experience in the institutional investment industry and has served in both public and private sectors throughout her career. Prior to her time in Hawaii, Kristin served as the Deputy Chief Investment Officer and Interim Chief Investment Officer for the Public Employees Retirement Association of New Mexico. In these roles Kristin oversaw the delegated implementation of a $17b pension portfolio, ensuring the long-term solvency of the Plan, and serving over 90,000 active and retired members.

Kristin holds broad expertise in modeling, market analysis and manager-specific due diligence across various asset classes of public, private, and alternative markets. She specializes in risk-based asset allocation and portfolio management, real asset investment opportunities, innovative investment solutions, and prudent portfolio implementation through focused operational management.

Kristin holds a BBA in Finance from New Mexico Highlands University, and is a recognized industry leader, featured in Market Group’s “2024 Elite 100 CIOs” (2024), as well as a Chief Investment Officer “Industry Innovation Awards” finalist (2021), and a top “Forty-Under-Forty” next generation leader (2017). She is from a multi-generational family of local New Mexicans and is a proud mother to her 15-year-old son.

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.

Improving Alpha: Geeta Kapadia on Endowment Innovation, Secondaries, and Defining the Future of Alternatives

By Improving-Alpha | December 15, 2025

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Evaluating all the investment pieces in a modern-day endowment portfolio requires a keen eye. You might have capital demands pouring in from the university to improve campus buildings, student education opportunities and equipment, professor salaries, and more. Today, these demands are then multiplied by concerns over inflation, regulation, and, in the case of our next guest, adhering to Jesuit principles, that have been mandated by the Vatican and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

In our latest episode of the Improving Alpha podcast, we welcome Geeta Kapadia, CFA, Vice President and CIO, Fordham University. Geeta brings +13 years of experience heading up the investment office at Yale New Haven Medical Center before landing at Fordham University. Across its multiple locations, Fordham is home to over 17,000 students and $1BN in AUM. In this discussion with host Michael Oliver Weinberg, Geeta highlights the following key ideas that she’s paying attention to in managing Fordham’s portfolio and ways that she is separating the noise and hype from actionable investment ideas:

How are inflation pressures managed today by the endowment, and what is the impact on future university spending?
Given the breakneck speed of innovation in endowments, how is Fordham providing opportunities for students, the community surrounding their campuses, and their overall legacy?
In contrast to our last episode entry with Aswath Damodaran, what does Geeta think of ESG in the endowment setting, and why is she proud of the Bronx Green Jobs Center?
In terms of technology and AI, how is Fordham’s endowment leveraging technology and interacting with others in the endowment space to develop best practices not only in their investing process but also in running their jobs more efficiently?
What are the ramifications of not having a sounding board to bounce investment ideas and other thoughts off in the endowment space?
What is the likelihood of major endowments moving into the position of being sellers in private market assets, and what does Geeta really think of the democratization of alternatives?
And more.

Connect with Michael Oliver Weinberg:

Connect with Geeta Kapadia:

About Our Guest:

Geeta M. Kapadia, CFA, is a global institutional investment leader and strategist with success advising on, developing, and implementing sophisticated investment portfolios. She is the Vice President and Chief Investment Officer at Fordham University, where she is responsible for all aspects of managing the endowment of $1 billion in assets. For over thirteen years prior to joining Fordham in August 2022, she was the Associate Treasurer of Investments at Yale New Haven Health System, where she led the team responsible for assets of approximately $5.5 billion.

Prior to joining Yale New Haven Health, Ms. Kapadia served as Senior Investment Consultant for Mercer Investment Consulting in the United Kingdom, where she provided strategic investment advice to institutional investors and was responsible for heading up specific research into asset classes. Before Mercer, she served as Investment Analyst and Director of Marketing at Capital Metrics & Risk Solutions in Pune, India. Early in her career, Ms. Kapadia worked in a clinical setting at an academic medical center as part of a research team conducting phase one chemotherapy studies. While she found the work tremendously rewarding, she decided to leverage her undergraduate degree in mathematics and started her investment profession as an investment analyst at Stratford Advisory Group in Chicago, where she rose to consultant, leading institutional investor relationships and heading up asset class research.

Ms. Kapadia holds a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from the University of Chicago and a master’s degree in financial markets and trading from the Illinois Institute of Technology. She is a CFA charterholder and holds the UK’s Investment Management Certificate. She is a member of the CFA Institute, the CFA Society of New York, and 100 Women in Finance. In 2019, she was named one of the Top 30 Healthcare Chief Investment Officers Investing by Trusted Insight. She is the President of the Board of Chester County Family Academy, a Board of Trustees and Finance Committee member for the Memorial Library of Radnor Township, and a board member of the FINRA Investor Issues Committee.

The release date may not correspond to the recording date.

Improving Alpha: Catherine Ulozas on Innovating a Billion Dollar Endowment

By Improving-Alpha | September 9, 2024

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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:

Quit by: Annie Duke
To Rescue the Republic by Bret Baier & Catherine Whitney
St. Christopher’s Children’s Hospital
Aetna

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 release date may not correspond to the recording date.

Improving Alpha: William J. Kelly, CAIA on disrupting data transparency in the institutional markets

By Improving-Alpha | December 11, 2023

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As institutional investments become increasingly intricate, it is crucial to bring transparency (and perhaps even enlightenment) to both GPs and LPs. Large data sets and the scale of innovative technology shows no signs of decelerating for those seeking alpha. Serving as a cautionary tale for this installment of Improving Alpha, a famous quote by renowned British Economist Ronald H. Coase once said, “ if you torture the data long enough, it will confess to anything”.

Join Michael Oliver Weinberg as he sits down with William (Bill) J. Kelly, CAIA, President & CEO of the CAIA Association, in this captivating episode. In just :40 minutes, Bill shares his insightful perspectives on the ever-increasing regulation of private markets and the importance of data transparency. Dive into the fascinating world of AI and large language models, and explore the latest trends in ESG. Don’t forget to click on the audio play button at the top of this page to uncover even more valuable insights.

Further highlights cover:

a brief overview of CAIA and FDP, explaining their origins and their roles in the alternative investments industry
the critical importance of being able to upskill and cross-skill the cast of characters that define the investment process, and how the process has changed over the last 10 years.
will artificial intelligence ever be able to build a comprehensive mosaic around cash flow, manager letters, and more.
learning what’s on the minds of larger allocators when it comes to increasing regulation by the SEC, and would real opinions be presented better with a ‘truth serum’ cocktail on data transparency.
the huge potential of doing well at one pillar of ESG, while simultaneously nuking another pillar.
And more!

Connect with Michael Oliver Weinberg:

Connect with William (Bill) Kelly:

About William (Bill) Kelly:

William (Bill) J. Kelly, CAIA is the President & CEO of the CAIA Association. Bill has been a frequent industry speaker, writer, and commentator on alternative investment topics around the world since taking the leadership role at the CAIA Association in January 2014. Previously, Bill was the CEO of Boston Partners and one of seven founding partners of the predecessor firm, Boston Partners Asset Management which, prior to a majority interest being sold to Robeco Group in Rotterdam in 2002, was an employee-owned firm. Bill’s career in the institutional asset management space spans over 30 years where he gained extensive managerial experience through successive CFO, COO, and CEO roles. In addition to his current role, Bill is a tireless advocate for shareholder protection and investor education and is currently the Chairman and lead independent director for the Boston Partners Trust Company. He has previously served as an independent director and audit committee chair for ’40 Act Mutual Funds and other financial services firms. He is also currently an Advisory Board Member of the Certified Investment Fund Director Institute which strives to bring the highest levels of professionalism and governance to independent fund directors around the world. A member of the board of the CAIA Association, Bill also represents CAIA in similar capacities via their global partnerships with other associations and global regulators. Bill began his career as an accountant with PwC and is a designated Audit Committee Financial Expert in accordance with SEC rules.

The release date may not correspond to the recording date.

Improving Alpha: Scott Pittman on Maintaining Convictions and Balancing Portfolio Diversification at Mount Sinai’s Endowment

By Improving-Alpha | September 20, 2023

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In today’s ever-changing investment landscape, not all institutional investors can conform to a one-size-fits-all approach. This is particularly evident in the healthcare endowment sector, where our esteemed specialist oversees a staggering $2.3 billion portfolio of endowed funds and long-term capital. When you add in the support for insurance-related assets, totaling approximately $4.0 billion, and benefit plan assets amounting to around $6 billion, it becomes clear that strong investment convictions are essential for navigating diversification challenges and driving innovation.

In this highly anticipated episode of the Improving Alpha podcast, join Michael Oliver Weinberg as he engages in a compelling conversation with Scott Pittman, SVP and Chief Investment Officer at Mount Sinai Medical Center. Gain valuable insights into Scott’s visionary objectives for the future and discover how he strategically harnesses the power of research, fundamental and quantitative analysis to drive exceptional performance and unlock investment value.

Scott discusses:

his career evolution and how his passion for investing and science led him to Mount Sinai’s endowment.
how a medical endowment compares and contrasts against other allocators and how the complexity of the healthcare industry impacts the team’s investment decisions.
where do directional risk taking strategies help to improve alpha across public and private markets, non-equity markets, and even credit.
his insightful perspective on diversification and its correlation with manager relationships, encompassing market exposure and active fees.
what sort of sector and industry trends does Mount Sinai research before diving into the regional investments in Europe, Asia, and other areas.
the significance of ESG considerations and the effective two-step process employed to align Mount Sinai’s views on ESG with their future investments
And more!

Connect with Michael Oliver Weinberg:

To learn more about our host visit: https://www.vidrio.com/blog/improving-alpha-podcast-scott-pittman-convictions-diversification-mount-sinai-portfolio

Connect with Scott Pittman:

LinkedIn: Scott Pittman

About Scott Pittman:

Scott Pittman joined the Mount Sinai Health System as the SVP and Chief Investment Officer in December 2008. The Investment Office is charged with managing the institution’s $2.3 billion endowment and long-term capital. The office also helps advise on $5.0 billion of insurance-related assets and $5.5 billion of benefit plan assets. Scott serves as the Chairman of the FOJP Investment Committee as well as the Investment Committee Chairman for Healthfirst. Scott also serves on the Investment Council for TIAA-Nuveen.

Prior to joining Mount Sinai, Scott was the Director of Investments at Baylor University. He also served as an instructor in the Hankamer School of Business and taught Baylor’s Portfolio Practicum course where students actively managed a $6.5 million investment portfolio. Before joining Baylor’s Investment Office, Scott taught Corporate Finance and Economics at the University’s business school, and he spent several years in the healthcare industry.