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The NAIC Insights Series is a monthly series of virtual conversations that provide timely and relevant insights into the strategies, investments, commitments and future plans of industry leaders and prominent investors across the country. These virtual conversations will be presented live online for the NAIC community to view and engage with participants.
NAIC will host virtual conversations with industry leaders and CIOs every month. Participants can expect to hear from some of the nation’s top CIOs, Trustees, and Executives about their perspectives on the current economy, investment plans in response to COVID-19, the impact of current social issues on the industry all against the backdrop of and uncertain and incredibly turbulent market.
Upcoming NAIC Insights Series Schedule
José E. Feliciano, Managing Partner and Co-Founder, Clearlake Capital Group
NAIC is excited to welcome José E. Feliciano, Managing Partner and Co-Founder of Clearlake Capital Group, on June 2 at 3PM ET for our Industry Insights Live discussion series.
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).
More than an extraordinary dealmaker, Feliciano is a celebrated philanthropist who was named a Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights 2021 Ripple of Hope Awards Laureate. This award honors exemplary leaders across government, business, advocacy, and entertainment who have taken a bold stand for justice and human rights. Feliciano and his wife, Kwanza Jones, are co-founders of the Kwanza Jones & José E. Feliciano SUPERCHARGED Initiative, a philanthropic grantmaking and impact investment organization that invests in both nonprofits and for-profit ventures that are compatible with its goal to make a lasting impact across four key priorities: education, entrepreneurship, equal opportunity, and empowerment.
Please join us for a captivating discussion with one of the elite investors and humanitarians of his generation!
Past NAIC Insights Series Speakers
Industry Insights
Sam Johnson, America’s Vice Chair, Market and Accounts, Ernst & Young LLP
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
José Feliciano, Co-Founder and Managing Partner, Clearlake Capital Group
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
Robert Raben, President & Founder, The Raben Group
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
Tammy K. Jones, Co-Founder & CEO, Basis Investment Group
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
Ying McGuire,CEO & President, National Minority Supplier Development Council
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
Margaret Anadu, Global Head of Sustainability and Impact, Goldman Sachs Asset Management
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
Runa Alam, Co-Founder & CEO, Development Partners International
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
Jagdeep Singh Bachher, Chief Investment Officer, UC Investments
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
Marcos Rodriguez, Chairman & CEO, Palladium Equity Partners
An industry veteran who leads one of the oldest diverse-owned private equity firms in the U.S., Rodriguez shared his early experiences growing up in a family that fled Cuba to reside in a small one-bathroom apartment in the Washington Heights area of New York. From those beginnings, he earned a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Columbia University, an MBA from the Wharton School and an M.A. in International Studies from the University of Pennsylvania.
Industry Insights
Stacie Olivares, Board Member, CalPERS
Appointed to the CalPERS board in 2019, Stacie Olivares has extensive financial services, technology, and policy knowledge. She also serves on the boards of Kroll Bond Rating Agency, the Hispanic Heritage Foundation, and Mission Advancement Corp (NYSE: MACC), a SPAC focused on the consumer market and social impact. As Chief Investment Officer of Lendistry, a FinTech small business lender, Olivares helped achieve record capital raises, loan performance, and borrower diversity, elevating the number of female, diverse, and low or middle-income borrowers in the portfolio to above 80%.
Industry Insights
David Grain, Founder & CEO, Grain Management
David Grain, Founder & CEO of Grain Management, shared his approach to deal-making, where he sees opportunities in the communications industry, as well as his leadership philosophy in a one-on-one virtual conversation.
With a focus on the global communications industry, Grain’s leadership and acumen have resulted in top quartile returns for the firm he founded in 2007. Among his long list of accomplishments was the transformation of Pinnacle Towers (later renamed Global Signal) from bankruptcy to a successful IPO and eventual sale to Crown Castle International for $5.7 billion. The transaction, which spanned 2002-2006, resulted in a return of capital exceeding 15x to private equity investors and 3.5x to IPO investors.
Industry Insights
Kim Y. Lew, President & CEO, Columbia Investment Management Company
In a candid conversation, Lew shared the lessons learned growing up in the Bronx and her determination to bet on herself at each stage of her career, including leaving Prudential Capital Group to join a charitable organization, the Ford Foundation. A decade later, she again took the road less traveled, moving to Carnegie Corporation. Though a smaller philanthropic fund, Lew gained invaluable exposure to all major asset classes and the necessary skills to later succeed as its CIO.
Industry Insights
Jon Winkelried, Chief Executive Officer, TPG
In a captivating conversation, Winkelried shared the leadership lessons learned in his early days at Goldman Sachs under his mentor, Henry Paulson, former Secretary of the Treasury. These lessons contributed to an impressive career that began as an intern in 1981 culminated as President and Co-Chief Operating Officer of the financial services juggernaut.
Industry Insights
Jarvis Hollingsworth, Chairman, Board of Trustees, Teacher Retirement System of Texas (TRS)
In an engaging dialogue, Hollingsworth shared the life lessons he learned growing up in 1960s Alabama and the leadership skills forged during his time at West Point Military Academy and as an officer in the U.S. Army. Hollingsworth also shared anecdotes from his initial days as a Partner at a prominent Houston law firm, to being a TRS Trustee back in the early 2000s, including the origins of its robust Emerging Manager Program and Emerging Manager Conference.
Industry Insights
Robert F. Smith, Founder, Chairman, and CEO, Vista Equity Partners
Robert F. Smith, Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Vista Equity Partners, joined us on April 14, 2021, for Industry Insights Live. In an uplifting and deeply personal discussion, the renowned investor shared his thoughts on systemic racism, his experiences growing up in an all-Black segregated neighborhood, the impact Dr. Martin Luther King’s assassination had on Smith as a child, and America’s incredible capacity to change for the better.
Industry Insights
Mellody Hobson, Co-CEO and President, Ariel Investment
Mellody Hobson, Co-CEO & President of Ariel Investments gave a behind-the-scenes look at the events that led to the launch of Ariel Alternatives, a private asset management firm created to scale Black and Latinx-owned businesses as essential Tier 1 suppliers to Fortune 500s. She also told her powerful story as a child of a single mother on Chicago’s South Side who became one of the most prominent and respected professionals in financial services.
In an inspiring conversation with NAIC’s Chief Operating Officer, Carmen Ortiz-McGhee, Hobson discussed her remarkable career, offered fascinating anecdotes of her experiences as an African American woman at a Black-owned asset management firm in a white male-dominated industry. She also weighed in on the Biden Administration and the main item on her bucket list – changing the world.
CIO Insights
Alex Doñé, Chief Investment Officer, NYC Retirement Systems
How has recent turmoil in the financial markets and social unrest impacted capital allocations, portfolio expectations and the manager selection process in New York City? This conversation covered a host of topics, including the impact of COVID-19 on the Plan, TRSNYC’s Diversity & Inclusion practices, and Doñé’s professional journey.
Industry Insights
What is the outlook for diverse managers in the Constitution State, what pivots have been made in the face of the global pandemic, and how can diverse managers address the state’s portfolio objectives? This and much more was covered in a recent Industry Insights Live featuring Shawn T. Wooden, Connecticut State Treasurer.
Industry Insights
NAIC recently welcomed true business legend and lifelong champion of diversity, James H. Lowry, Senior Advisor, Boston Consulting Group for the 18th edition of Industry Insights Live.
Lowry, a pioneer for supplier diversity, was the first African American consultant for global consulting firm McKinsey & Co. in 1968, where he convinced corporate clients of the value of investing in diverse communities and sought to increase the firm’s number of African American consultants. In 1975, he founded James H. Lowry & Associates where his strategic partnership with Ford led to the automotive giant sourcing more than $3 billon of goods and services to more than 300 minority suppliers.
Trustee Insights
Hosted by NAIC President & CEO, Robert L. Greene, this Trustee Insights Live Stream covered such critical issues as the impact of COVID 19 on CalPERS, their renewed commitment to engaging with diverse asset managers, the outlook for emerging managers, the potential impact of California voters deciding in November whether the state and its public colleges can consider race in their hiring, contracting and admissions decisions (Proposition 209), and more.
Industry Insights
CIO Insights
Michael Miller, CIO, Crewcial Partners
What are some of the top-of-mind issues CIOs are facing in today’s uncertain markets, and what portfolio adjustments do they anticipate as a result? Michael Miller, Chief Investment Officer of Crewcial Partners, shared his thoughts on current market conditions and how Crewcial’s institutional clients are adjusting to the ‘new normal.’
Industry Insights Live
How have diverse managers evolved over the years, what does the future look like for women in alternatives and what impact has COVID-19 have on the way a leading diverse-owned fund of funds approaches investing? Don’t miss this opportunity to gain valuable insight from longtime industry leader JoAnn H. Price, Co-Founder & Managing Partner, Fairview Capital Partners, joins us for Industry Insights Live!
CIO Insights Live
What are some of the top-of-mind issues faced by today’s leading CIOs and how have recent market and socio-political trends affected their outlooks and allocations? This and more was covered as Johara Farhadieh, Executive Director/Chief Investment Officer, Illinois State Board of Investment, joined us for CIO Insights Live!