Ranjan Bhaduri

PhD, CFA, CAIA

Founder and 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.

Barbara Boucher

Senior Director, Legal Affairs – Investment – CDPQ

As senior director, Barbara Boucher manages CDPQ’s positioning on derivative products and transactional activities in that field. She also sits on the strategy committee of equity 253, a $250-million fund to enhance diversity and inclusion among SMEs and technology companies in Québec and Canada. She is involved in the fund’s investment decisions and in developing its strategy.

Ms. Boucher has over 20 years of experience in the finance industry. Before joining CDPQ, she was responsible for derivative product operations at National Bank of Canada and its subsidiaries. Previously, she worked as a labour relations lawyer and risk management advisor.

She holds an MBA in finance and information technology from HEC Montréal and a Bachelor of Laws from Université de Montréal. In addition, she holds the Chartered Administrator designation (Adm.A.) from the Ordre des administrateurs agréés du Québec and is certified in civil, commercial and labour mediation. She is a member of the Barreau du Québec.

Ms. Boucher represents CDPQ on the Canadian market infrastructure Committee (CMIC). She sits on the Autorité des marchés financiers’ derivatives Advisory Committee and the board of directors of the Club de recherche d’emploi Montréal Centre-Nord.

Tarik Serri

CFA, CAIA

Senior Director, Hedge Funds & Alternative Investments – Trans-Canada Capital Inc.

Tarik Serri is Senior Director, Hedge Funds & Alternative Investments at Trans-Canada Capital Inc. (TCC) since 2011. He has cumulated over 18 years of investment experience having previously worked as an analyst and investment advisor at prior institutions. He is responsible for the ongoing management, selection, monitoring and research of TCC’s Hedge Fund and Alternative Investment portfolios including Private Debt, Real Estate, Infrastructure, Co-Investments, etc. Tarik is a voting member of the External Management Investment Committee (EMIC) responsible for the selection & management of the firm’s external managers and asset allocation decisions as well as the assessment of illiquid/liquid co-investment investment opportunities. He serves as an Advisory Board member of multiple external funds across alternative asset classes.

Tarik holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from Concordia University and a Masters of Business Administration (MBA) from HEC University. He has also completed the Canadian Securities Course offered by the Canadian Securities Institute and is a CFA and CAIA charter holder. He is also a recipient of the NextGen CIO 2019 nomination by CIO Magazine and Hedge Fund Rising Star 2023 by Institutional Investor.

Raj Kohli

CFA

Associate Director, Absolute Return Strategies – University Pension Plan

Raj Kohli, CFA, is Associate Director, Absolute Return Strategies, in the Public Markets division at University Pension Plan (UPP) in Toronto. He is a trusted advisor who provides strategic counsel and leadership on UPP’s absolute return investment strategy, with a focus on fixed income, credit, and discretionary global macro strategies.

Raj has more than 15 years of experience as a portfolio manager, and asset allocator at large financial institutions across North America. He has deep expertise in allocation across traditional and alternative asset classes, with a specialization in hedge funds.

Prior to joining UPP, Raj was Vice President of Multi Asset Class Mandates at Cidel Asset Management in Toronto, with responsibility for the management of discretionary and advisory portfolios for institutional and high net-worth clients.

Raj earned his Professional Master of Science in Financial Mathematics from Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts, and his Bachelor of Science (Honors) in computer science and applied mathematics from the New Jersey Institute of Technology.

Razvan Tonea

CFA

Director, Public Markets – CAAT Pension Plan

Razvan Tonea is Director, Public Markets at CAAT Pension Plan. He plays a key role in the management of the public markets program at CAAT, including investment in hedge funds, fixed-income, credit, commodities, currencies, equities and overlay mandates.

Razvan joined CAAT in 2020 and has over 20 years of relevant experience in the financial industry, including senior investment roles at another Canadian pension plan, PSP Investments. Razvan is a CFA charterholder and has an MBA from McGill University.

Ju Hui Lee

CFA, CAIA, FSA, FCIA, CERA, FRM

Head of Market Risk – United Nations Joint Staff Pension Fund

Ju Hui Lee is the Head of Market Risk of UNJSPF (United Nations Joint Staff Pension Fund), responsible for investment risk oversight, asset-lability management, and performance. The fund manages assets of US$84 billion as of 30 June 2023.

Ju Hui’s career spans across various financial institutions, including CPP Investments, Scotiabank, KPMG, Mercer, and Manulife Financial. Her expertise includes asset-liability analysis, factor studies, modelling, pension investment strategy development, risk management activities, and actuarial valuation reporting.

Ju Hui holds a BSc in Mathematics, an MBA from Yonsei University in Korea, and an MSc in Financial Mathematics from the University of Chicago. Ju Hui holds CFA, CAIA, FSA, FCIA, CERA, and FRM designations.

Cordell W. Thomas II

Enterprise Risk Management – General Motors Asset Management’s (GMAM)

Cordell currently serves within General Motors Asset Management’s (GMAM) Enterprise Risk Management team; and is responsible for leading operational due diligence reviews on both alternative and traditional asset managers within GM’s Defined Benefit and Defined Contribution plans across the US, Canada, Belgium, and the UK.  Prior to GMAM, Cordell worked at Mercer Sentinel, Mercer Investments’ operational due diligence consulting group. While at Mercer Sentinel, Cordell performed operational due diligence on alternative and traditional asset managers for both external and internal clients.  During his over 20 years experience in the asset management industry, Cordell has served in various roles within reputable firms including Morgan Stanley Fund Services, Citco Fund Services, Société Générale and BNY Mellon Wealth Management.  He has worked with both alternative and traditional asset managers of various sizes, strategies and geographic locations including North America, Europe, and Asia.

Christoph Dietrich

Director and Portfolio Manager – OTPP

Christoph Dietrich is a Director and portfolio manager in OTPP’s External Managers Group, focusing on liquid absolute return investments. His main areas of expertise are quantitative equity and futures, commodities and derivatives relative value. Prior to joining OTPP he spent eight years on the sell-side with a primary focus on structuring commodity quantitative strategies and volatility relative value strategies at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Christoph earned a master’s degree in Finance from Sciences Po Paris.

James Burron

CAIA

Co-Founder & Partner – 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).

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.

Skip Cooper

Managing Director – Cooper Family Office

Skip Cooper is a first-generation member of the Cooper Family Office. Skip oversees risk management, portfolio allocation and back office operations. In addition to the office’s US-based alternative investing, his primary focus for the family office is investment internationally: in private equity, hedge funds, real estate and direct opportunities. Mr. Cooper is an honors graduate of Princeton University.

Skip Cooper is a member of the NYU Stern Family Office Council and the Stanford University Global Projects Center Global Investor’s Forum. Skip speaks regularly at family office and investment conferences around the world, often addressing the topic of global investing for US family offices.

Niall Whelan

PhD

Risk Executive – Bodhi Research Group

Niall Whelan is a risk executive with over twenty years experience implementing new and emerging industry practices and regulations. He is a trusted change agent, experienced at leading complex cross-functional initiatives. Areas of specialisation include climate scenario modelling, enterprise risk, enterprise stress testing, credit modelling for IFRS 9 and CECL, and models for market and counterparty credit risk. Niall is a thought leader who has presented in industry forums, has led training sessions, has published peer-reviewed papers, and teaches the next generation of risk leaders.

He has been a trusted mentor and coach for numerous individuals throughout his career, many of whom are now in senior roles across the industry. Niall coordinates the risk course at the Master’s of Mathematical Finance at the University of Toronto as well as serving on the academic advisory board of the Masters of Quantitative Finance at the University of Waterloo.

Prior to joining forces with Bodhi Research Group, Niall spent over 20 years at the Bank of Nova Scotia leading teams involved in various aspects of risk. Previously he was an academic researcher, investigating the boundary between classical and quantum physics. He is the author of dozens of research papers which have garnered thousands of citations. His research took him to leading research institutes in Copenhagen and Paris.

He holds a PhD in theoretical physics from Yale University.

Stacy Joe

Manager, Operational Due Diligence

University Pension Plan Ontario (UPP)

Stacy Joe is UPP’s Manager, Operational Due Diligence, responsible for conducting initial and ongoing operational due diligence on UPP’s current and prospective investment managers across asset classes, including hedge funds, private equity, real estate, and infrastructure.

With expertise across operational risk and controls, Stacy is a trusted partner to UPP’s Investment, Responsible Investing, and Compliance teams, and has contributed to establishing and implementing UPP’s inaugural Operational Due Diligence program.

Prior to joining UPP, Stacy held roles as an investment analyst and consulting analyst at Mercer. She holds a Bachelor of Engineering Science in Civil Engineering from Western University and an Honours Business Administration (HBA) from Ivey Business School.

Erkan Yonder

PhD

Associate Professor of Real Estate and Finance | Chair, Finance Department – John Molson School of Business – Concordia University

Dr. Erkan Yönder is an Associate Professor of Real Estate Finance and serves as the Chair of the Finance Department at John Molson School of Business, Concordia University.

With a primary focus on real estate finance, Erkan’s expertise lies in commercial real estate, commercial mortgages, and sustainable real estate. His recent works mainly focus on the critical intersection of climate issues in the real estate industry. Erkan’s research has found its way into esteemed academic journals, including publications in the Review of Finance and Real Estate Economics.

His projects have secured multiple grants from renowned institutions such as the National Pension Hub (NPH), Real Estate Research Institute (RERI), and the European Public Real Estate Association (EPRA). Notably, his research earned him the Nick Tyrrell Real Estate Research Prize in the UK and the distinguished Best Published Article Award from Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI), a United Nations-supported initiative.

Erkan has had the privilege of presenting his scholarly work at some of the world’s leading universities, including MIT, Yale University, the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and Cornell University.

Erkan received his PhD degree in Finance and Real Estate at Maastricht University in 2013.

Oleg Mogilny

CFA

Managing Director, Public Market Alternatives – IMCO

Oleg Mogilny is Managing Director of Public Market Alternatives. He heads IMCO’s investments in hedge fund strategies, Insurance Linked Securities, royalties and other strategies with an objective to deliver diversification and absolute returns. Oleg has over 20 years of experience in research and portfolio management of multi-asset portfolios. Prior to joining IMCO in 2019, Oleg led the Quantitative Strategies and Research group at Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan (OTPP). In this role he was responsible for systematic absolute return strategies, quantitative investing in equities and investment-focused data science initiatives. Oleg’s other roles during his 16-year career at OTPP included managing equity portfolio strategy, hedging and thematic investing, research and implementation of macro strategies, portfolio construction and asset allocation research.

Oleg holds an MBA from McGill University and a Master’s degree in Economics from Kyiv School of Economics. He is a CFA charterholder.

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.