Congratulations to Columbia Investment Management CEO and TIFF Investment Management Board member, Kim Lew for receiving Institutional Investor’s Lifetime Achievement Award. This is a well-deserved recognition for this talented and selfless leader.
Author: Amy Paterson
Press
July 14, 2021
TIFF Board Member and Columbia CEO Kim Lew to Receive Lifetime Achievement Award
Client Management
Samantha Gross, CFA
Director, Client CIO Group
Sam Gross joined TIFF in 2021 and serves as a Director in the Client CIO Group. She works with clients and perspective clients to identify an asset allocation strategy that best matches their distinctive risk and return considerations. In this role, she is responsible for delivering TIFF’s comprehensive investment management solution to organizations in support of their mission and objectives.
Prior to joining TIFF, Sam was an Associate at Goldman Sachs in the Multi-Asset Solutions group, where she constructed and managed custom multi-asset portfolios for institutional clients globally.
Sam graduated with honors and magna cum laude from Brown University and holds a BA degree in Economics and East Asian Studies. She also sits on the investment committee for Combined Jewish Philanthropy (CJP) in Boston and is a Kol Atid Director on CJP’s board of directors.
Check the background of this investment professional on FINRA’s BrokerCheck. By clicking this link, you will leave the TIFF website and go to FINRA’s BrokerCheck website.
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Investments
Julia Zhan
Director, Investments and Head of Sustainability
Julia Zhan joined TIFF in 2021 and serves as Director, Investments and Head of Sustainability. She performs sourcing, investment research, and manager selection across marketable equity-oriented assets, with the additional focus of portfolio management for sustainable investments. She chairs TIFF’s Corporate Responsibility Committee and is a member of the ESG Committee and DEI Committee.
Previously, Julia worked at Marsoft Inc. in areas including distressed debt, impact investments, banking decarbonization, and voluntary carbon credit markets.
She graduated from Jiangxi University of Finance and Economics with a BA in Finance, summa cum laude and valedictorian, and from Boston College with an MS in Finance, Dean Scholarship. She holds the FSA Credential.
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CIO Commentary
June 30, 2021
2nd Quarter 2021 CIO Commentary
A Season for Change
Happily, we can confirm that most vaccines appear to be working and that COVID appears to be on the wane in most places throughout the world. It is not over, but with some luck it will be substantially contained within the next 12 months everywhere. That means back to business as “normal” as we remember it. We will need to factor all the changes that COVID has forced onto the world into our investment thinking, of course, but at least we will not have to experience as much medical tragedy nor try to read epidemiological tea leaves (we hope) much longer. The great acceleration in technology adoption COVID forced upon the world may be a long-lasting phenomenon, we’ll see. Our first order of business in this re-opening, if you will, is to take stock of the basics.
Nearly six years ago, as we took the investment Hippocratic oath to do no harm, our first order of business was to eliminate portfolio exposures expected to underperform. The first thing we did was eliminate dedicated exposures to capital intensive sectors (commodities and REITs) from our equity portfolios. We also determined that Europe was not well positioned to produce attractive returns primarily because their equity markets were heavily skewed toward bank and other value-oriented stocks and the political/monetary structure of the Eurozone seemed destined not to work, at least not as well as other regions. While our longer-term Europe thesis may still be correct, for the next few years we think the tables may tilt back towards Europe (more later).
This is an excerpt from a longer article. Please download the PDF to read more.
Press
June 7, 2021
Private Equity Firms Wrestle With SPAC Dilemma: Inside or Outside the Fund?
Brendon Parry, TIFF’s Managing Director of Private Equities, is quoted in the June 7, 2021 issue of WSJ Pro Private Equity. Brendon is quoted on the recent boom in the Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPAC) market and the impact they have on the alignment between limited and general partners.
Private Equity Firms Wrestle With SPAC Dilemma: Inside or Outside the Fund?