Black Alternative Asset Managers: Vital And Growing Contributors To The U.S. Economy
African Americans have played a vital role in America’s financial services industry for over a century. From the first Black-owned financial institution, Capital Savings Bank, which opened in 1888, to Reginald F. Lewis and the landmark $985 million leveraged buyout of Beatrice Foods in 1987, to Mellody Hobson, president of Chicago-based Ariel Investments since 2000, African Americans have long been pivotal to the evolution of the industry.
New Report: Private Equity Investment In U.S. Infrastructure Surged To A Record $45 Billion In 2022
WASHINGTON, D.C. – This week, the American Investment Council (AIC), the National Association of Investment Companies (NAIC), and PitchBook released a new report highlighting private equity’s role in financing, managing and accelerating the completion of critical infrastructure projects across America, including repairing roads and bridges, expanding broadband access for rural and underserved communities, building water […]
Debunking The Myths: 6 Misconceptions About Diverse Alternative Asset Managers
It’s not a secret that women and diverse-owned firms are underrepresented in investment management. According to recent research released by the Knight Foundation, of the $82 trillion in the U.S.- based asset management industry, only 1.4% of assets under management are managed by firms owned by women or people of color. Diverse-owned alternative asset management […]
Latinx Leaders Issue Joint Statement On VC Funding Report
January 26, 2022 – Crunchbase today issued a dismaying report concluding that funding to Latinx founders of companies at the venture capital stage decreased from 1.5% of the total capital invested in 2020 to 1.2% in 2021. While NAIC remains deeply disappointed in this decline in funding, our greater concern is the woefully low and […]
New Study Shows Diverse Private Equity Managers Beat Performance Benchmarks, Again!
WASHINGTON – November 1, 2021: Diverse-owned private equity firms continue to outperform their benchmarks, according to “Examining the Returns 2021: The Financial Returns of Diverse Private Equity Firms,”a study released today by the National Association of Investment Companies (NAIC). When combined with findings previously reported in NAIC’s 2019 and 2017 studies, these results confirm a […]
NAIC Exclusive: Why The Knight Foundation Placed Full-Page Ads In The Wall Street Journal And Washington Post
The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation placed two distinct full-page advertisements in the September 17 editions of the Washington Post and Wall Street Journal – the former praising transparency efforts of certain foundations and the latter lauding the 24 diverse asset managers that manage more than one-third of its endowment. In this NAIC […]
Lumos Capital Group: Investing To Change The Landscape In Education
Based in San Francisco and New York City, Lumos Capital is a growth equity investor focused on education and human capital development – two areas that have taken off in recent times. In this NAIC Member Focus, we share the young firm’s origins, detail some of the early challenges that leadership had to overcome and […]
The Vistria Group: A New Approach To Doing Well By Doing Good
“Doing well by doing good”is an old adage that management at The Vistria Group takes so seriously, they built their investment thesis around it. A Chicago-based private equity firm investing in U.S.-based middle-market companies in healthcare, education, and financial services, Vistria seeks to generate superior returns while empowering businesses that help build a stronger society.
DigitalDx Ventures: Leveraging Artificial Intelligence In Healthcare To Stake Its Claim In Silicon Valley
In this NAIC Member Focus, we spotlight DigitalDX Ventures, a woman-owned Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm that invests in cutting edge diagnostics that leverage artificial intelligence. Michele Colucci, the firm’s Co-Founder and Managing Partner, shares the innovative companies in which DigitalDX has invested, the challenges she faces operating in the insular VC community and why […]
Nile Capital Group: Putting Capital To Work With Diverse Asset Managers
Melvin Lindsey is no stranger to tumultuous market conditions. While serving as a Managing Director at Julius Baer Investment Management, his team invested $20 million to acquire stakes in asset management firms that collectively managed $800 million in AUM and organically grew those assets to a peak of $78 billion. Lindsey was leading the fastest […]
Compliance Corner: How To Manage Compliance During A Pandemic
Though COVID-19 has mandated a change of work environment for many in our industry, regulatory compliance must still be maintained to the same pre-pandemic level. In this special video installment of Compliance Corner, Medina Jett, Founder and President of NAIC partner ICSGroup, describes four steps Chief Compliance Officers can take to ensure the efficacy of […]
Buy And Build: Wm Partners And Its Strategy For The Health & Wellness Sector
The health and wellness space is performing well thanks to growing consumer trends towards fitness. In this Member Focus, we profile Fort Lauderdale-based WM Partners, which acquires lower middle-market companies in the natural consumer health space. In the article, we detail its investment strategy and share its origins, from the early days of raising Fund […]
NAIC Special Report: Major College And University Endowments Failing The Transparency Test
The endowments for America’s colleges and universities collectively oversee hundreds of billions of dollars in assets. However, when it comes to determining how much of it is managed by diverse asset managers, these same learning institutions appear reluctant to educate the masses. In this NAIC Special Report, we detail efforts by the Diverse Asset Managers […]
Access To Capital: Accelerating The Growth Of Diverse- And Women-Owned Businesses, The Trillion Dollar Opportunity
Capitalizing Growth Among Ethnically Diverse And Women-Owned Business Enterprises
Knight Foundation Study Analyzes Diverse-Managed Endowment Investments
The Knight Foundation and Global Economics Group recently published “Diversity of Asset Managers in Philanthropy,” a study that assesses the representation of diverse asset managers among 26 of the top 50 foundations in the US. Among the report’s findings are that $8.62 billion (13.5%) of the $63.95 billion in endowment investments overseen by these foundations are invested with diversely-owned firms […]
Diversifying Investments: A Study of Ownership Diversity and Performance in the Asset Management Industry
Research across a multitude of fields and industries has identified the potential economic and social benefits of diversity. Yet the asset management industry continues to struggle with a lack of diversity. Research studies and articles have consistently documented the low level of representation by women and racial/ethnic minorities among asset managers. Analyzing and exploring diversity […]
DAMI Second Annual Investment Consultant Survey
The Diverse Asset Managers Initiative (DAMI) recently released its Second Annual Investment Consultant Survey. The survey provides great insight into the underrepresentation of women and racial or ethnic minorities at some of the largest investment management consulting firms in the United States and how it contributes to an extremely low engagement of diverse asset managers […]
Affirmative Investing: Women and Minority Owned Hedge Funds
Some of the practical, performance- and risk-related questions surrounding women and diverse-managed hedge funds are addressed in this report. In doing so, the authors constructed a women and minority owned hedge fund index, as well as surveyed and interviewed more than 25 managers and investors.
NAIC Team Expands! David Smith Joins As Programs And Initiatives Manager
To support the growing number of new initiatives and programs brought about by a substantial increase in membership, NAIC is proud to announce today that we are expanding our team with the addition of David Smith, who joins the association as Programs and Initiatives Manager effective August 26th. In this multifaceted role, Smith will manage […]
Study: Black Investment Fund Managers Face Racial Bias Despite Delivering Top Returns
For years, black investment fund managers have delivered their clients some of the best returns in the industry. Yet, they continue to get judged more sternly than their white peers with similar credentials. Institutional investors exhibited racial bias when asked to appraise fund management teams overseen by white and black men, according to research from Stanford University […]
2018 Diverse Asset Management Firm Assessment
In this report, the Knight Foundation along with Professor Josh Lerner (Harvard Business School) and Bella Private Markets update our previous study using revised data and enhanced methodology. The most significant change being the availability of new ownership diversity data on PE and real estate funds, allowing us to study real estate performance for the […]
Differentiated Talent
“Why don’t we have more investment manager diversity?” That simple question from the CEO of a long-standing client served as a catalyst for a change in perspective for Colonial Consulting. Differentiated Talent chronicles that defining moment, how it challenged the firm to re-think its business practices and following that period of self-analysis, to enact change […]
Herbert P. Wilkins Sr.
A true trailblazer in the financial services industry, Herbert P. Wilkins Sr. embodied the idea of diversity while making savvy investment decisions that created value and returns for his partners. A Boston native, Wilkins received a bachelor’s degree from Boston University in 1965 and graduated from the Harvard School of Business in 1970. Wilkins operated […]
Why Not the Best? Identifying Outperforming Emerging Managers and Capturing Alpha from a Long-Neglected Market
Larry Manson, Jim Casselberry and David Kushner of NexTier examine the current state of institutional searches for emerging asset managers and prescribe best practices for identifying and utilizing the most talented emerging managers.
Examining the Results: The Financial Returns of Diverse Private Equity Firms
This study is an in-depth review of the investment performance of diverse-owned private equity firms from 1995-2015. Published with assistance from KPMG, an independent accounting firm that analyzed and compiled the performance data to ensure its integrity and accuracy, and AON Hewitt, who wrote the report, it serves as a resource for institutional investors, industry […]
The Limited Partner Perspective: The Opportunity in Diverse Emerging Managers
The Limited Partner Perspective: The Opportunity in Diverse Emerging Managers is a study that analyzes the experiences of limited partners (LPs) who invest in private equity funds managed by diverse general partners and why they invest in these funds.
Do Diverse Pension Plans Hire Diverse Investment Managers: The Answer May Surprise You
By Alan Hughes of the National Association of Investment Companies As America’s population continues to become more diverse, the number of careers and economic opportunities in which members of these communities were historically shut out has gradually declined. In the corporate arena, management, the C-Suite and boardrooms are progressively looking less homogenous after painstaking work […]
The Silverfern Group Invests In IKKS, A Leading French Ready-To-Wear Brand
Paris, France July 9, 2015 – The Silverfern Group, a leader in active global direct investment, today announced that it has co-invested in the acquisition of IKKS, one of the leading French ready-to-wear brands with a unique position in the “casual chic” segment, alongside LBO France and IKKS founder Roger Zannier, who retained a 30% […]
National Access to Capital Survey
This survey examines Minority Business Enterprises (MBEs) and focuses on the internal factors which may hamper their ability to obtain critical growth or acquisition capital.
Women in Alternative Investments
This Rothstein Kass Institute study looks at how diversity efforts – and outperformance by many of the investment teams – are leading to increased allocations to funds managed by women as well as greater female representation within the alternative investment industry.
Optimizing Your Emerging Manager Program: An Instructional Roadmap for Institutional Investors
This study was designed to gain a thorough understanding of how an Emerging Manager Program (“EMP”) can work best and identify the ways that stakeholders can cultivate that success. We began by contacting 22 pension funds to invite their Board members and/or Investment Staff to collaborate with us on this project by allowing themselves to […]
The Hardest Taboo
This case study examines how the Silicon Valley Community Foundation approached the issue of increasing investment manager diversity with its investment advisor. These first-person accounts from the foundation’s CEO and the investment advisor provide candid assessments of how they addressed the issue of increasing investment manager diversity.
Emerging Manager Programs: A Best Practices Overview
This white paper provides an overview of best practices from some of the nation’s leading pension funds that have pioneered private equity investment with emerging managers. It analyzes and compares a few of the more successful emerging manager programs in order to identify those factors that appear critical to their success.
Recognizing The Results: NAIC 2012 Performance Survey
NAIC’s performance survey, Recognizing The Results, compared the audited financial returns of NAIC Firms against the broader private equity market using four (4) industry benchmarks for the period 1998 – 2011. KPMG was engaged to collect and compile the performance data which was then analyzed by a working group of fund of funds investors.