Industry Insights with Andrew Junkin

NAIC President & CEO Robert L. Greene talks to Andrew Junkin, Chief Investment Officer of the Virginia Retirement System (VRS).
Industry Insights with Donald R. Cravins, Jr.

Donald Cravins Jr., the nation’s first Under Secretary for Minority Business Development, participated in an energetic and engaging conversation with NAIC President & CEO Robert L. Greene.
Industry Insights with Mina Pacheco

Mina Pacheco Nazemi, Head of Diversified Alternative Equity at Barings, shared her candid thoughts about the opportunities she sees in the current market environment and the challenges diverse managers with NAIC’s President & CEO Robert L. Greene. Pacheco Nazemi, a champion for female and diverse managers, included an overview of the marketplace where she reaffirmed […]
Industry Insights with Renae Griffin

Renae Griffin, Managing Director at GCM Grosvenor, participated in an inspiring and captivating conversation with NAIC President & CEO Robert L. Greene. The successful entrepreneur, change agent and champion for women and diversity in finance shared her non-traditional career trajectory, the state of the diverse manager industry, how she leveraged her network for greater success, […]
Industry Insights with Kneeland Youngblood

Dr. Kneeland Youngblood, Co-Founder of Pharos Capital Group, participated in an insightful discussion with NAIC President & CEO Robert L Greene. Youngblood shared how his training as a physician helped him become a better investor and businessman. He highlighted the importance of surrounding himself with the right mentors and partnering with a co-founder who possessed […]
Industry Insights with Michael C. Hyter

Michael Hyter, President & CEO of The Executive Leadership Council (ELC), participated in a fascinating conversation with NAIC President & CEO, Robert L. Greene. Hyter detailed the early professional experiences – including the impact of his first meeting with fellow African American professionals – that later shaped his perspectives as a Black executive in Corporate […]
Industry Insights with David Clunie

David Clunie, Executive Director of the Black Economic Alliance (BEA), participated in an engaging and thought-provoking dialogue with NAIC President & CEO, Robert L. Greene. Clunie shared the BEA’s origins, which date back to the 2016 Presidential Election when a coalition of Black executives and allies realized the need to improve the trajectory for Black […]
Industry Insights with Stephanie Smith

Stephanie Smith, Chief Operating Officer of BlackRock Alternative Investors, participated in an energetic and inspirational dialogue with NAIC President and CEO Robert L. Greene. In a lively and spirited conversation, Smith shared how she attributes her success to her ability to learn from mistakes and the guidance she received from a woman of color early […]
Industry Insights with Martin H. Nesbitt

Martin Nesbitt, Co-Chairman & Co-CEO of The Vistria Group shared his wealth of experiences as an investor, public servant and entrepreneur, with NAIC President & CEO Robert L. Greene. Nesbitt, who co-founded The Vistria Group in 2013 to build a private investment firm that delivers both financial returns and societal impact, shared a few of […]
Industry Insights with Sam Johnson

Sam Johnson shared his perspectives on building and maintaining a diverse and inclusive culture, the capital gap facing Black and Latinx entrepreneurs, and why his advocacy work to further early childhood education, diverse-owned entrepreneurship and mentoring is so important.
Industry Insights with José Feliciano
One of the industry’s most widely respected investors, Feliciano leads a firm that manages more than $72 billion in assets, closed on more than 300 investments and completed a laundry list of alpha-generating transactions. Among the deals completed in 2021 alone are the sale of software and SaaS-based clinical productivity and workflow automation solutions provider Provation (for a gross MoM of 23.0x), the Janus International-Juniper SPAC business combination (for a total gross MoM of 8.1x) and the sale of Clearlake’s remaining stake in NetDocuments Software to Warburg Pincus (for a total gross MoM of 5.4x).
Industry Insights with Robert Raben
A longtime force in political arenas whose career spans more than three decades, Robert has served as an attorney, senior Capitol Hill staffer, and Assistant Attorney General. In 1999, his reputation caught the attention of the White House, earning him an appointment as Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General and, subsequently, Assistant Attorney General, Office of Legislative Affairs. After a unanimous confirmation vote by a Republican-controlled Senate, Raben was charged with overseeing Attorney General Janet Reno’s legislative initiatives and handling extensive Congressional oversight of the department.
Industry Insights with Tammy K. Jones
One of the very few African American women leading a U.S.-based diversified commercial real estate (CRE) investment and lending platform, Jones is a veteran real estate investor with more than 25 years of industry experience. Under her leadership, Basis Investment Group has closed over $5.1 billion in multifamily and commercial real estate debt and equity-related investments across the United States. Before founding Basis, Jones served as head of CWCapital’s fixed and floating rate Capital Markets Lending Division. During her tenure at CWCapital, her division closed approximately $6 billion in multifamily and commercial real estate loans and investments.
Industry Insights with Ying McGuire
NMSDC’s first Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) CEO and President, McGuire will share her vision for the organization going forward and the perspectives gained over a distinguished career. McGuire was a champion for supplier diversity long before joining NMSDC. While at Dell Technologies, she drove the strategy and execution that nearly quintupled Dell’s diversity spend from $640 million to $3 billion within three years. McGuire later joined Technology Integration Group, an NMSDC Certified Minority Business Enterprise (MBE) and took the company global.
Industry Insights with Margaret Anadu
Anadu leads the development and oversight of Goldman Sachs’ strategy for delivering commercial solutions and leading advisory services to clients related to inclusive growth and climate transition. Named to Fortune’s 40 Under 40 in Finance list in 2020, she is also Goldman Sachs’ youngest female Black partner in the firm’s history, having earned the position in 2018 at age 37. Anadu serves on the Board of Advisors of Launch With GS, a $1 billion initiative to increase access to capital and connect women and diverse entrepreneurs with investors. She is also on the board of One Million Black Women, Goldman Sachs’ $10 billion commitment to narrow opportunity gaps for Black women over the next decade.
Industry Insights with Runa Alam
One of the few female CEOs investing in emerging markets with more than $1 billion in AUM, Alam leads an investment firm that delivers top-quartile performance focused on African growth companies. In the conversation, Alam detailed the firm’s origins, and the challenges faced raising capital in her early days when most investors failed to see the opportunities in Africa. Alam’s first fund, which totaled $122.5 million, took three challenging years to close. Yet through her skills and knowledge of the continent, that fund returned 35% net IRR. Her history of outperformance resulted in pension funds, endowments, foundations, and sovereign wealth funds supporting later funds. DPI’s Fund III recently closed at an oversubscribed $900 million.
CIO Insights with Jagdeep Singh Bachher
During the conversation, Bachher, who oversees a $170 billion portfolio, announced his goal of allocating 10% of UC Investments’ assets with #diverse managers. To that end, he announced that starting in January 2022, UC Investments and NAIC will partner to facilitate meetings between diverse managers and their investment team. Over the first 25 weeks of the year, UC Investments will meet with a total of 100 diverse managers, and NAIC will track progress as UC Investments conducts its due diligence. “Show me the good opportunities because I’d like to have access to those,” Bachher said during the conversation.
Industry Insights with Marcos Rodriguez
Rodriguez also relayed his career trajectory, which began in 1989 at buyout firm Joseph Littlejohn & Levy. Despite an initial lack of industry knowledge, Rodriguez worked his way up to Partner, gaining experience as a deal-maker and leader before launching Palladium. With Palladium now a well-established and respected firm, Rodriguez provided insight into what he hopes his legacy will be – helping democratize an industry so that asset management firms led by talented women and people of color manage more than the current 3% in total AUM.