Tracy Cao, CFA
Vice President, Team Lead Manager Research, Multi‑Manager Strategies, Xponance
Tracy Cao is Vice President, Team Lead for Manager Research, Multi-Manager Strategies at Xponance and joined the firm in 2013. In this capacity, Tracy identifies and evaluates prospective asset managers for the multi-manager strategy platform on a global basis. Additionally, she sources boutique managers, conducts frequent on-site due diligence meetings, and produces original research for clients on a variety of global equity related topics. Prior to Xponance, Tracy was an equity research analyst intern at UBS Investment Bank, in both Amsterdam and Hong Kong, as well as an investment advisory intern at Merrill Lynch Wealth Management in Baltimore, Maryland. Tracy earned her M.S. in Finance from Johns Hopkins University; her M.S. in Business Economics from University of Amsterdam in The Netherlands; and her B.S. in Insurance at Dongbei University of Finance and Economics in China. She is a CFA Charterholder.
Carolyn Diaz Roberts
Managing Director, LEIA
Carolyn Diaz Roberts, Managing Director, joined LEIA in 2010, and has over 35 years of institutional investment experience, working with public, corporate, endowment, foundation and Taft- Hartley plans, conducting client policy, asset allocation and asset/liability modeling reviews, manager research and evaluation, portfolio risk modeling, construction and transitions, and custodial trustee and third-party administrator searches. Carolyn’s institutional experience includes working as a senior investment consultant at Milliman, Inc. where she provided a full range of consulting services across multiple asset classes. Previously, Carolyn was Risk Management & Institutional Research Manager at SunGard Advisor Technologies, where she helped develop and launch a web-enabled investment consulting service for large financial intermediaries, structured custom investment platforms utilizing third-party investment managers, conducted on-site due diligence and served on the Due Diligence Committee.
Carolyn worked as an investment officer for California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS), where she was responsible for oversight, recruitment, and research pertaining to external international equity managers with assets managed for CalPERS in excess of $30 billion. Before that, Carolyn worked as a principal and senior investment consultant with R.V. Kuhns, and Dorn Helliesen & Cottle, as a consultant at Wyatt Asset Services, where she worked on manager and fund research and asset/liability projects, and as a senior analyst and portfolio administrator at Callan Associates and client administrator/analyst with A.G. Becker/SEI. Carolyn also worked at Del Monte Frozen Foods as a Personnel Relations Manager for two production facilities where she trained staff, administered benefits, and worked with the San Francisco Mayor’s Office and labor unions to help transition employees when the facilities were shuttered.
Carolyn has a Bachelor of Science degree in Education from Lesley College, and completed graduate level financial and managerial accounting, advanced mathematics coursework at Golden Gate University. Carolyn has served as Affiliate Chair and as a member of the Executive and Program committees for the State Association of County Retirement Systems (SACRS) and as a speaker at investment conferences and seminars. Carolyn worked on the team that developed and launched the first NASP Pension and Financial Services Conference in 1989.
Kirk Sims, CFA
Head of Emerging Managers Program, TRS Investment Management Division
Kirk Sims heads TRS’ Emerging Manager Program. Since being established in 2005, TRS has committed $3.7 billion to one of the largest programs of its kind. An additional $2 billion has been invested directly with EM Program graduates. Each graduate was selected as a result of consistent outperformance among a group of more than 160 EM managers. Recognizing the Program’s success, in early 2019, TRS rolled out a plan to invest another $3 billion over the next three to five years.
Sims joined the Teacher Retirement System of Texas on March 1, 2019. Before joining Texas Teachers, he was a Senior Investment Officer for the Teachers’ Retirement System of the State of Illinois. Sims had oversight and management responsibility of TRS’s Emerging Manager Program, a $750 million evergreen pool of capital designed to identify and invest in emerging investment managers across all asset classes.
Prior, Sims worked at Prudential Retirement where he was responsible for a manager of manager’s retirement platform as well as an open architecture investment platform. He also has a background in asset management and has held various positions with both large and small asset managers.
Sims is a CFA charter holder and holds a Masters in Business Administration from the Columbia University Graduate School of Business. He received a Bachelor of Business Administration from Howard University in Washington, DC.
Claire Tucker
Senior Investment Officer UBS Hedge Fund Solutions
Claire Tucker is a Senior Investment Officer for UBS Hedge Fund Solutions. Claire is primarily responsible for manager research, performing investment due diligence on prospective and existing hedge fund investments, while also contributing to asset allocation and portfolio management decisions. Prior to joining UBS in 2013, she was an Analyst on the European Rates Research desk at RBS Markets. Claire has nine years of investment industry experience and is a CFA charter holder. She holds a BSc (Hons), First Class, in Mathematics and an MSc in Operational Research from the University of Edinburgh.
Wendy Walker
Managing Director & Chief Investment Officer, Cambridge Associates
Wendy Walker, CFA, is a Managing Director and a Chief Investment Officer in CA Capital Management, Cambridge Associates’ outsourced investment office business. Wendy works with endowment & foundation clients and is a member of the firm’s Mission-Related Investing Practice. Prior to joining Cambridge Associates, Wendy worked on the investment teams at Imprint Capital Advisors, focusing on socially responsible and environmental-themed fund managers, and at Parnassus Investments, integrating environmental, social and governance factors into industry and company-specific research. She is a former vice chair of the Sustainable Investing Committee of the New York Society of Security Analysts.
Wendy graduated cum laude from Yale University and earned an MBA (with Honors) from the Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley. She serves on the Advisory Committee to the Haas Socially Responsible Investment Fund.
Nadine Terman
CEO and CIO, Solstein Capital
Nadine Terman is the CEO and CIO of Solstein Capital, a San Francisco-based investment firm that concentrates capital in high conviction value investments around the globe via hedged and long-only strategies. Previously, Ms. Terman was a Partner with Blum Capital Partners and served on its Investment Committee. For over eight years, she invested in both public and private companies and worked extensively with portfolio companies' management teams and boards on business, financial, and governance initiatives. Prior to Blum Capital, Ms. Terman was a private equity Associate with Behrman Capital. She also worked as an Analyst with both Merrill Lynch and Goldman Sachs. Ms. Terman has a B.A. with Honors and with Distinction from Stanford University and was recognized with the Firestone Medal for Excellence in Research and as Phi Beta Kappa. In addition, she earned an M.B.A from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, where she was an Arjay Miller Scholar.
