CAASA Annual Conference 2023

Steve Drobny

Managing Partner – Clocktower Group

Steve is the Managing Partner of Clocktower Group. He has spent his career as a leader in global macro and alternative investment strategies and is the author of two critically acclaimed books on global macro investing, Inside the House of Money: Top Hedge Fund Traders on Profiting in the Global Markets and The Invisible Hands: Top Hedge Fund Traders on Bubbles, Crashes and Real Money. In recent years, Steve has focused his expertise on building partnerships that connect the global macro investment community with innovative asset managers and technology companies. Steve is responsible for leading all aspects of Clocktower Group across both public and private markets.

Christophe L’Ahelec

CFA

Managing Director, Public Markets – University Pension Plan Ontario

Christophe L’Ahelec is an investment professional with more than twenty years of global experience in France, Hong Kong, Switzerland, and Canada.

As Managing Director, Public Markets, he is responsible for UPP’s global investment strategy with a particular focus on Public Market activities.

Prior to that Christophe was a Senior Principal in the Capital Markets (CM) department, at Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board where he was accountable for the top-down management of the external managers portfolio and was part of the investment committee allocating to hedge fund, private credit and long only equity managers. During his 11 years tenure at OTPP, he originated, conducted due-diligence, and on-boarded systematic alpha managers in the equity and futures space, along with leading the group’s work in the alternative risk premia space.

Before coming to Canada, Christophe was a quantitative analyst and assistant portfolio manager at Mignon Genève SA/Alpstar Asset Management, in Switzerland, where he took part in the creation and portfolio management of a European systematic market neutral fund.

He spent the first two years of his career working for BNP Paribas in Hong Kong where he provided real-time quantitative support to the fixed-income trading desk.

Christophe is a graduate engineer in Finance and Applied Mathematics from the Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Informatique et de Mathématiques Appliquées de Grenoble, France and holds the Chartered Financial Analyst® designation. Christophe has been invited to speak globally on advanced portfolio and risk management topics and has published papers on topics regarding portfolio construction and managed futures.

Wagner Dada

PhD, CFA

Managing Director – CPP Investments

Wagner oversees a global portfolio of systematic absolute return strategies in the macro space focusing on interest rates, currencies, and commodities. Before his current role, he was previously focused on portfolio construction efforts in the global tactical and asset allocation group.

Prior to joining CPP Investments in 2015, Wagner was a Quantitative Portfolio Manager responsible for the development, research and management of a global macro multi-asset systematic strategy at Tudor Investment Corporation.

Wagner holds MPhil and PhD degrees in Economics from the University of Cambridge. He is a CFA charterholder.

Jon Feintuch

Partner and Senior Portfolio Manager – New Holland Capital (NHC)

Jon Feintuch is a Partner and Senior Portfolio Manager at New Holland Capital (NHC). Jon is responsible for sourcing, evaluating, and monitoring investments across NHC’s client portfolios as well as overseeing portfolio analysts’ efforts. Jon also serves as Head of Portfolio Implementation, ensuring that client portfolios are consistent with their stated mandates and risk preferences and liaising with clients to discuss portfolio-related questions. Prior to joining NHC in 2009, Jon was an Investment Banking Analyst within the Global Technology Group at Barclays Capital. Jon graduated summa cum laude from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania with a BS in Economics.

Marco Salerno

PhD

Principal, Total Portfolio – Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan (HOOPP)

Marco Salerno is Principal, Total Portfolio, where he works on asset-liability management, portfolio construction, and investment research and analytics with a focus on factors.

He joined HOOPP in May 2021. Prior to joining HOOPP, he earned his Ph.D. in Finance at the University of Toronto, Rotman School of Management. His research interests are related to empirical and theoretical asset pricing with a focus for portfolio allocation. He wrote several studies on the topic of stable equities, portfolio tilting, factor investing, measuring economic policy uncertainty, portfolio construction theories, the relevance of financial covenants on contract design, and agency conflicts in investments.

Roger Lee

PhD

Director of the Financial Mathematics Program and Associate Professor of Mathematics – University of Chicago

Roger Lee is Director of the Financial Mathematics Program and Associate Professor of Mathematics at University of Chicago.

His research interests include derivative pricing/hedging, algo trading, and crypto DeFi.

He has a PhD from Stanford University and a BA from Harvard University.

Maria Clara Rendon

Director, Responsible Investing – University Pension Plan Ontario

Maria Clara Rendon is a noted responsible investing specialist, with more than 12 years of experience in the assessment and management of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) factors in a wide variety of industries. Her work focuses on the implementation of responsible investing practices by asset owners and managers in both North America and Latin America.

As Director, Responsible Investing at University Pension Plan Ontario (UPP), Maria Clara supports the development and execution of UPP’s Responsible Investing (RI) strategy. She works closely with internal and external partners to ensure a seamless integration of ESG factors into UPP’s investment process and implementation of stewardship practices on behalf of over 35,000 UPP members.

Maria Clara holds a Bachelor of Science in Biological Engineering from the National University of Colombia and earned a M.S., Sustainability Management from Columbia University in New York.

Jamy Kallikaden

Portfolio Manager – CPP Investments

Jamy is a Portfolio Manager in CPP Investments Total Fund Management Department. In her role, she leads the team responsible for integrating climate change into Strategic Allocation and is a member of the Fund’s Sustainable Investing Committee. She has over a decade of experience in energy markets and sustainability and has held previous roles in capital markets, trading in energy commodities, and fundamental equity strategies.

Prior to joining CPPIB in 2015, Jamy worked with Macquarie’s Energy Markets Division supporting their physical oil and natural gas desk and commodities sell-side research efforts. Jamy holds a BA in Chemical and Environmental Engineering from the University of Waterloo.

Dave Finstad

CFA

Former Managing Director, Partnership Portfolio – BCI

Dave Finstad recently retired from BCI’s Partnership Portfolio team where he led the group’s absolute return and long-only equity fund investments. Mr. Finstad has 30 years of investment industry experience. Prior to joining BCI in 2019, he was a Visiting Researcher at Bodhi Research Group. Before that, he built and led the external fund management team at the New York office of OMERS. Previously, he spent 10 years at AIMCo in Edmonton, Alberta in a similar position. He also worked for Frank Russell Canada (now Russell Investments) and for the Workers’ Compensation Board – Alberta. Mr. Finstad is a former member of the board for Alignment of Interests, a non-profit, investor-driven organization focused on strengthening the alignment between hedge fund industry participants.  Mr. Finstad has a M.Sc. in Finance from the London School of Economics and is a CFA® charter-holder.

Patrick Augustin

PhD

Associate Professor of Finance – Desautels Faculty of Management at McGill University

Patrick Augustin is an Associate Professor of Finance at the Desautels Faculty of Management at McGill University. He holds the Canada Research Chair in Macrofinance and Derivatives, is an Associate Fellow at the Canadian Derivatives Institute, and the 2022 recipient of the Bank of Canada Governor’s Award. He holds a PhD degree in Finance from the Stockholm School of Economics and held visiting research positions at the New York University Stern School of Business, the Stockholm School of Economics, the University of Sydney, and the Luxembourg School of Finance. He is certified as Financial Risk Manager by the Global Association of Risk Professionals and served as a Fellow at the Global Future Councils of the World Economic Forum. Before joining academia, he worked as a structured credit officer at Dexia and as attaché to the Luxembourg Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Patrick’s research interests lie at the intersection of macroeconomics and financial markets with a focus on sovereign credit risk, firm fundamentals and credit risk with a focus on credit derivatives, and law and finance with a focus on insider trading. Most recently, he has become interested in the emergence of digital financial securities. His work has been published in the Review of Financial Studies, the Journal of Financial Economics, the Journal of Monetary Economics, Management Science, and the Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, among others. His work has been widely covered in the financial press, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Fortune, and The Globe and Mail.

Leia Levand

CFA

Director – Innocap Investment Management

Leia Levand is a Director at Innocap Investment Management where she is responsible for investment due diligence and oversight of alternative investment strategies. Her primary focus is hedge fund strategies, including, but not limited to, credit RV, global macro, event driven, equity hedge, and CTA.

Ms. Levand has extensive experience as an allocator across both alternative and traditional assets. Most recently, she was part of the Absolute Return Team at Alberta Teachers’ Retirement Fund, where she was responsible for a portfolio of hedge funds, with a focus on quantitative strategies. Previous to that, Ms. Levand worked at Worker’s Compensation Board, where she was responsible for external manager due diligence and oversight across traditional and alternative asset classes. Ms. Levand holds a B.Sc. in Pure Mathematics from Memorial University of Newfoundland and is a member of the Toronto CFA Society.

Darryl Orom

CIM, FCSI

Portfolio Manager, Public Equities – Alberta Investment Management Corporation

Darryl Orom is Portfolio Manager, Public Equities with Alberta Investment Management Corporation (AIMCo). Prior to joining AIMCo in 2021, Darryl served as Head of Absolute Return Investments with Alberta Teachers Retirement Fund (ATRF) after working in senior investment roles with two major Canadian bank-owned investment dealers. Darryl holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Alberta, is a Chartered Investment Manager (CIM) and is a Fellow of the Canadian Securities Institute (FCSI).

Mohamed Farid

Principal Portfolio Manager – Pension Fund of the World Bank Group

Mohamed Farid is a Principal Portfolio Manager at the Pension Fund of the World Bank Group. He is responsible for managing both the Absolute Return, and the long-only Developed Equities portfolios.  Mohamed has over 20 years of experience investing directly in hedge funds. He is also an active member of the Investment Committee of the Pension Fund. Prior to joining the World Bank, Mohamed worked for Deloitte & Touche and KPMG financial consulting groups in Toronto, Canada, Washington D.C, Egypt and Thailand where he led acquisitions and bankruptcy engagements for leading clients in North America and Asia. Mohamed started his career in commercial banking and worked in several positions related to Treasury and Trade finance functions. He holds a Master’s degree from the Johns Hopkins University in International Economics and Political Science as well as a Master’s degree in Banking and Finance from Finafrica Foundation in Milan, Italy.

Sudharshan Sathiyamoorthy

PhD

Vice President and Head of Manager Research – Richter Family Office

Sudharshan Sathiyamoorthy is a seasoned investment professional with deep experience in the search, approval and monitoring process for alternative investment managers. He is Vice President and Head of Manager Research at Richter Family Office. He is also the Chair of the Investment Committee.

Sudharshan has previously worked at some of Canada’s most respected institutions, including RBC Capital Markets, Diversified Global Asset Management, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, and Alignvest Investment Management. Sudharshan holds a Ph.D. in Physics, and was a Post-Doctoral Investigator at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. He has published in leading journals and has presented his research at conferences world-wide.

Richter Family Office (RFO) is a multi-billion dollar multi-family office that provides independent and objective wealth management services to high net worth families and individuals. Established in 1999, and as one of the largest and oldest multi-family offices in Canada, RFO has gained an exceptional reputation for providing holistic advice to clients without the bias of affiliations with other financial institutions or wealth managers. RFO has offices in Toronto and Montreal.

Constance Everson

CFA

Managing Director – Capital Markets Outlook Group, Inc.

Deborah Ann Trott

CFA

Founder and Director – Trott Lombardo Consulting

Deborah Ann Trott has over 15 years of investment management industry experience. Over her career, she has focused on delivering strategic portfolio solutions.

Ms. Trott spent over a decade at CPP Investments and was most recently part of the Active Program Strategy Team where she gained experience on a broad range of active investment strategies. As a senior member of the team, she led the implementation of portfolio solutions. Previously, Ms. Trott was part of the Asset Mix & Risk Team at OTPP, a Canadian pension fund, where she spearheaded Strategic Asset Allocation and designed a risk sharing mechanisms for pension liabilities.

Deborah Ann is currently the Founder and Director of Trott Lombardo Consulting and continues to provide innovative solutions to the financial sector. She is currently working with a large charitable endowment to develop a factor-based risk budgeting process supporting transformational efforts towards a Total Portfolio Approach.

Deborah Ann received a Bachelors in Mathematics majoring in Mathematics and Business Administration with the Risk Management and Insurance Option from the University of Waterloo and a Master of Mathematical Finance from University of Toronto. Deborah Ann is a CFA Charterholder and has earned her certificate in ESG Investing from the CFA Institute. Continuing her focus of working at the intersection of portfolio strategy and portfolio construction, Deborah Ann is expanding her knowledge of climate change. In her spare time, she can be found walking her two border collies or camping with her family.

Sandy Poiré

CFA

Senior Investment Officer – CN Investment Division

Sandy Poiré is a Senior Investment Officer for the absolute return team at the CN Investment Division. In her current role she is responsible for the allocation to external managers for the hedge fund portfolio. Sandy joined the Division in 2011 and was initially responsible for the industrials sector for the Divisions’ European, Asia-Pacific and Emerging Markets equity portfolios.

Sandy graduated from the John Molson School of Business (Concordia University) with a Bachelor of Commerce degree and was the Valedictorian of her graduating class. She also received the Calvin Potter Fellowship from Concordia’s Kenneth Woods Portfolio Management Program. Sandy is a CFA charterholder since 2014 and completed a Master’s in Business Administration at Queen’s University in 2017.

Sandy is Vice President and chair of the governance committee of the board of CFA Montreal and is also an ambassador for Fillactive, an organization aiming to promote physical activities to young Canadian women.

Bahi Kandavel

PhD, CFA

Founder & CEO – Northstar Trading Group

Bahi Kandavel is the Founder & CEO of the Northstar Trading group – a quantitative proprietary trading firm specializing in North American electricity markets, with traders based in Toronto, Calgary & New York. Northstar operates in the deregulated US power markets by providing liquidity through a variety of quantitative and fundamentally driven strategies. Bahi holds a CFA and a PhD from EDHEC Business School in Nice.

Pierre-Philippe Ste-Marie

Visiting Researcher – Bodhi Research Group

Pierre-Philippe Ste-Marie, financial executive with 25 years of experience in the financial industry working with fixed income and cross asset absolute returns teams. He has initiated and successfully unwound absolute returns and indexed portfolios and managed Canadian, US and European cross asset exposure levered and unlevered as a team leader (CEO, CIO) as well as a portfolio manager. Prior to joining Bodhi Research as a Visiting Researcher, Pierre-Philippe was Optimum Asset management Co-CIO until March 2022. During his tenure he implemented global management and global execution bringing American, European and Canadian teams under the same investment process with cross trading agreements. Prior to joining Optimum, he founded and was Chief Executive Officer of Razorbill Advisors, a Montreal-based investment management firm focused on fixed income, absolute return, total return and relative-value strategies. From 1997 to 2013, he worked for National Bank of Canada, first as a fixed income option modeller, then as a market maker, eventually rising to become a Managing Director, leading a team specialized in quantitative credit modeling and investments.

Jamie Leanne Ronson

Senior Researcher, Asset Mix, Research & Economics – Investment Management Corporation of Ontario (IMCO)

Jamie Leanne Ronson is a macroeconomist and senior researcher at IMCO investments, which is among Canada’s largest Pension funds. Jamie plays a leadership role in IMCO’s strategic research efforts, which is a cross-firm collaboration. She also helps monitor the economic outlook and contributes to top-of the house decisions with respect to asset allocation and portfolio construction. Previously,  Jamie has held positions as an economist at PSP investments in Montreal, as well as with Bombardier Aerospace and the department of Finance of the Government of Canada.

Annie Sorich

Senior Director, Strategic Planning – Public Sector Pension Investment Board

Annie Sorich is Senior Director, Strategic Planning, at the Public Sector Pension Investment Board (PSP Investments). She is responsible for facilitating the constant evolution and execution of PSP’s corporate strategy, ensuring strategic decisions enhance PSP’s market positioning and corporate effectiveness. She also oversees PSP’s annual planning process.  With over 17 years of experience in the financial services industry, Annie has deep industry knowledge and expertise in public and private markets as well as technology and data.

Prior to joining PSP Investments in 2018, Annie worked at a cybersecurity start-up and spent six years at the Charter School Growth Fund, the largest impact investment fund focused on public education in the United States. She started her career at Morningstar, Inc., where she was a mutual fund and equities analyst and worked on cutting-edge data projects.

Annie holds an MBA with Honors from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, and attended Oberlin College, where she received her Bachelor of Arts degree in biology, Phi Beta Kappa.

Cem Usakli

Senior Director, Capital Markets Alternatives – PSP Investments

Cem Usakli leads opportunistic equity investments in Alternatives within PSP Capital Markets. Prior to his current role, Cem co-managed PSP’s global log/short equity portfolio. Cem has 15 years of portfolio management experience in global and emerging markets equity covering pre-IPO, long/short equity, activist investing, equity capital markets and merger arbitrage. Prior to PSP, Cem launched ARK hedge Fund, was an investment professional at Farallon Capital and for several years was a top management consultant with McKinsey & Co.

James Burron

CAIA

President & Co-Founder – CAASA

James co-founded CAASA in response to industry support for a Canadian alternatives association to serve all aspects including: hedge / alternative strategies; private lending; private real estate; private equity; plus emerging areas where Canada is a leader such as digital assets / blockchain and robo-advisors.

Prior to CAASA, James was the Chief Operating Officer of AIMA Canada where his team of three worked with 12 committees to produce 50-60 events per annum across Canada, organize 100+ committee meetings, and increase member numbers over his 7-year tenure from 66 to 164 corporate entities.

James also has experience in research and writing for the CAIA Association as well as serving on CAIA’s Exam Council and as a grader for the Level II portion of the exam. He also had roles in institutional sales and FoHF structuring in Seoul, South Korea, as a Product Manager at ICICI Wealth Management, and an Investment Advisor at RBC Dominion Securities. He graduated from Simon Fraser University with a BBA (Finance).

Ranjan Bhaduri

PhD, CFA, CAIA

Founder & CEO – Bodhi Research Group

Dr. Ranjan Bhaduri is the Founder & CEO of Bodhi Research Group. Bodhi Research Group is focused on research and education in the alternative investments industry.

Dr. Bhaduri has extensive experience in manager research, portfolio management, and due diligence (investment, operational, and structural). Dr. Bhaduri has designed and implemented an institutional due diligence and research program. Dr. Bhaduri’s experience includes being on an Investment Committee at Morgan Stanley Private Wealth Management where he conducted due diligence and helped design customized portfolios of Alternatives. Earlier, he was at a Canadian Fund of Funds, and at a multi-billion dollar capital management firm where he was involved in all aspects of its fund of hedge funds and structured finance business. He has also worked with two major Canadian investment banks in the Financial Strategy Consulting Group and in Global Risk Management &Control, respectively. He has collaborated closely with many pensions and sovereign wealth funds on a variety of portfolio matters.

Dr. Bhaduri has a winning track record of leadership and training. Several of his former analysts and interns have gone on to have successful careers and have held positions at prestigious organizations, including the following firms: Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, Goldman Sachs, J.P Morgan, Exelon Corporate Pension, US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and Crabel Capital Management.

Dr. Bhaduri has held an advisory role at the East-West Center, a leading think tank on the Asia-Pacific region. He has taught finance and mathematics at several universities and lectured on Derivatives for the Montreal Exchange. Dr. Bhaduri has taught parts of the CFA Curriculum for Allen Resources. Dr. Bhaduri has published papers on, and been invited to speak worldwide regarding hedge fund issues, and advanced portfolio and risk management techniques. Dr. Bhaduri was invited by the CME to be part of a special delegation that met with regulators in Beijing and Taipei to discuss hedge fund issues.

Dr. Bhaduri holds both the CFA and CAIA charters. He is a member of the American Mathematical Society, the Mathematical Association of America, and the Toronto CFA Society. Dr. Bhaduri previously served as a member of the All About Alpha Editorial Board, the CAIA Chicago Chapter Executive, on the Board of Directors of AIMA Canada, co-chair of AIMA Canada Managed Futures Committee, and on the AIMA Global Research Committee. Dr. Bhaduri is an avid ice hockey fan and ACBL Silver Life Master in Bridge.

Caroline Chow

R.H.N., C.N.E.

Founder, Happy Health & Partner and Co-Founder – CAASA

Caroline is a Partner and Co-founder of the Canadian Association of Alternative Strategies & Assets (CAASA). She works closely with members to establish and grow the Association’s initiatives both within Canada and abroad.

She is also a Registered Holistic Nutritionist (R.H.N.), certified Culinary Nutrition Expert (C.N.E.) and certified Cycling Instructor. When she is not contributing to the Canadian Alternatives industry, she provides education, consulting and workshops through her brand, Happy Health.

Caroline is dedicated to helping high achieving professionals feel more energetic in their workdays, have the motivation to work out, and feel as vibrant “as they once did”.

She is an Honours graduate of the Canadian School of Natural Nutrition as well as the Academy of Culinary Nutrition and the University of Waterloo. She holds a degree in Honours Economics with a Finance Specialization and has completed the Canadian Securities Course (CSC).

Mackenzie Putici

In-house Sommelier, CAASA & Founder – New World Wine Tours and Eating Through TO

Mackenzie Putici is the founder of New World Wine Tours and Eating Through TO as a CMS certified sommelier, educator, and culinary travel enthusiast he crafts memorable experiences for those looking to taste the best of global cuisine here in Toronto.  Mackenzie is excited to team up with CAASA for a top-quality wine tasting experience delivered to your door.