Webinar: Allocator Insights: Debriefing Tools and Tactics by Chief Investment Officer

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About This Webinar

2021 has been a charged year for portfolios, as well as allocators. This webinar will vet ideas and review what worked, what didn’t, and what tactics allocators are considering for an evolving investment landscape.

Presenters

Robert “Vince” Smith

Chief Investment Officer New Mexico State Investment Council

Robert “Vince” Smith, CFA is among the country’s longest-serving public fund investment officers. Over the past three decades, Mr. Smith has provided investment leadership and portfolio management to both pension and sovereign wealth investment programs across four state-level public funds in Montana, Texas, Kansas and New Mexico. In the latter two states, he served as chief investment officer, presently serving as CIO for the New Mexico State Investment Council and based in Santa Fe. Vince and his investment teams implement a top-down investment process, driven by macroeconomic analysis, long term strategy, and strategic asset allocation. Vince was educated in Finance and Economics in his home state of Montana, and he is presently a board member and chairs the investment committee of the Santa Fe Community Foundation.

Charles Van Vleet

Chief Investment Officer Pension Investments, Textron Inc.

Charles Van Vleet is Assistant Treasurer and Chief Investment Officer of Pension Investments at Textron Inc., Providence RI*. Together with an investment team of four, Charles has Trustee oversight of $12.6BN in defined benefit and defined contribution assets for Textron’s U.S., Canada and UK Plans providing retirement security for over 75,00 current and past employees. The Textron retirement Plans are well funded with broadly diversified investments including private equity, hedge funds, real estate, fixed income and public equity. In addition to investment oversight, Charles serves as a Member of Textron’s Investment Committee, Investment Management group, Employee Benefits Committee, Trustee and Board Member of Textron’s UK and Canadian Plans. Prior to Textron, Charles spent 8 years as Director, Pension Investments at United Technologies in Hartford CT. Prior to pension investment Charles spent 25 years in the asset management divisions of Credit Suisse, Putnam Investments, Alliance Capital, Brown Brothers Harriman and Nomura Securities. At different times -living and working in New York, London and Tokyo- he has had the opportunity to manage ‘40 Act mutual funds, high net worth, endowment, public pension and corporate pension funds.

Charles holds bachelors’ degrees in Economics and Political Science from UC Berkeley, Berkeley CA and an MBA from the University of CT (UCONN) in Storrs, CT. Currently, Charles is a member of the Board of Directors and Chair of the Investment Subcommittee for CIEBA (Committee on Investment of Employee Benefit Assets) and serves on the investment advisory board for the Lifespan endowment, Rhode Island’s largest not-for-profit health care system. In addition, he serves on the advisory board for Rhode Island’s Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), advisory committee for the Washington DC based, Managed Fund Association (MFA), Industry Affairs Committee for the Institutional Limited Partners’ Association (ILPA) and Defined Contribution Alternatives Association (DCALTA).

Evril Clayton Jr.

Deputy Director of Global Equity, New York State Common Retirement Fund

Evril Clayton, the New York State Common Retirement Fund’s deputy director of global equity, has logged some fine returns during his tenure. The entire pension plan rose 33.5% in its fiscal year ending March 31. He also oversees a bevy of outside asset managers. “We’re always looking for new ways to get alpha,” he said. Up ahead, he see more volatility, which he believes will make getting market-beating returns tougher.
Clayton started out with a bachelor’s in business administration from the State University of New York in Potsdam, and joined Merrill Lynch as a financial adviser. There, he decided that he wanted to get a taste of institutional investing. He got experience in endowments at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) as a senior investment analyst. Then, he jumped over to a new firm started by RPI investment folks, Kuramo Capital Management, which did hedge fund and private equity investing in Africa.
After receiving his MBA from Clarkson University and in a new role at New York Common, he was identified as a leader within the global equity team, and won a promotion to his current position in 2019. The global equity portfolio currently is 55% of the fund’s $255 billion in assets.

Barry Kenneth

Chief Investment Officer at the UK’s Pension Protection Fund

Barry Kenneth is chief investment officer at the UK’s Pension Protection Fund, where he oversees investment strategy. The fund protects people with a defined benefit (DB) pension when an employer becomes insolvent. It manages £38 billion (US$51 billion) for its 228,000 members.
He previously worked at Morgan Stanley, where he was managing director and head of UK fixed income institutional and pensions coverage.
Prior to this, he was director at the Royal Bank of Scotland, advising on risk management and balance sheet management solutions for large corporates. Kenneth holds a bachelor’s in accounting from the University of Abertay.

Larry Light

Markets Editor of Chief Investment Officer magazine

Larry Light is the markets editor of Chief Investment Officer magazine. A veteran financial journalist, he was part of the team that won the National Magazine Award for Business Week, and he has won numerous other journalism awards. He has served as investing editor of the Wall Street Journal, finance editor of Forbes and corporate finance reporter at Bloomberg Business Week. He also was a senior editor at Money magazine, a writer/editor at CBS MoneyWatch and editor-in-chief of financial website AdviceIQ. Larry is the author of Taming the Beast, a history of market investing styles. In addition, he is a lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserve.