Texas Alternatives Conference 2024 - Agenda
February 27, 2024
Conference
Four Seasons Hotel
Austin, TX
Register
Day 1: Monday February, 26
5:00pm – 6:00pm
Welcome Drinks on the Four Seasons Lawn
Generously Sponsored by LGT Capital Partners
6:00pm – 8:00pm
Dinner Reception on the Four Seasons Lawn
Generously Sponsored by Citi
Day 2: Tuesday February, 27
8:00am – 11:30am
Institutional Breakfast & Investor Symposium
Invitation Only
11:00am – 12:30pm
Welcome Lunch & Networking on Four Season Lawn
Generously Sponsored by Barclays
12:30pm – 12:40pm
Opening Remarks
Speaker
Nora Richardson
,
Vice President, Membership & Investor Services
,
MFA
Prior to joining MFA, Nora was at Bank of America Securities as a Director in the Prime Brokerage Business Consulting team. Prior to that, Nora worked in both the U.S. and London offices of Bank of America as a prime brokerage account manager. She has more than thirteen years of experience serving equity, multi-strategy, and quantitative hedge funds of various sizes from new launches and emerging managers to institutionalized funds.
Nora graduated with honors from Fairfield University with a B.S. in mathematics and economics.
Andrew Rosell
,
Chairman of the Board, TAIA
12:40pm – 1:00pm
TAIA Lifetime Achievement Presentation
Awardee
Caroline Cooley
,
Managing Partner and Chief Investment Officer, Crestline Summit Strategies
Introduced by
Douglas Bratton
,
Founding Partner, CEO and Co-Chief Investment Officer, Crestline Investors
1:00pm – 2:00pm
A Fireside Chat with Paul Singer
Speaker
Paul Singer
,
Founder, President, Co-Chief Executive Investment Officer, Elliott Investment Management
Paul E. Singer is the Founder, President, Co-Chief Executive Officer, and Co-Chief Investment Officer of Elliott Investment Management. Launched in 1977 with $1 million of capital, total assets under management for the Elliott funds have grown to approximately $55.7 billion as of June 30, 2022. Elliott is a Florida–based trading firm with affiliated offices elsewhere.
Mr. Singer is co-founder of Start-Up Nation Central, an Israel-based non-profit organization. He is also chairman of The Manhattan Institute for Policy Research.
Mr. Singer holds a B.S. in Psychology from the University of Rochester and a J.D. from Harvard Law School.
Moderated by
Dale West
,
Senior Managing Director and Head of Public Markets, Teacher Retirement System of Texas
Dale West is the Senior Managing Director of Public Markets at the Teacher Retirement System of Texas in Austin, Texas. Mr. West’s team oversees the Trust’s portfolio of publicly traded securities including both internal and externally managed strategies. TRS’ portfolio includes $18 billion in hedge fund investments. Mr. West joined TRS in 2008 and serves on the Internal Investment Committee and Executive team. He is a trustee of the Standards Board for Alternative Investments.
Prior to joining TRS, Mr. West was based in London with the emerging markets equity team of T. Rowe Price International, where he covered telecoms and emerging markets. He also served in the U.S. Foreign Service, including a three-year posting to the American embassy in Bucharest, Romania.
Mr. West received an MBA from Stanford University and is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin.
2:00pm – 2:45pm
Texas Energy Panel
Speakers
Carolyn Hansard
,
Managing Director, Head of Energy, Natural Resources & Infrastructure, Teacher Retirement System of Texas
Charles Labanowski
,
Founding Partner, Goodlander Investment Management
Warren Lasher
,
President, Lasher Energy Consulting
George Wojciechowski
,
Co-Founder and CEO, Manifest Commerce
Moderated by
Mark White
,
Head of Real Assets, Albourne Partners
2:45pm – 3:15pm
Networking and Refreshment Break
Charity Presentation
3:15pm – 4:00pm
Jeopardy! Texas Alternatives Edition
Speakers
Keri Findley
,
Chief Executive Officer, Tacora Capital
Joel Hinkhouse
,
Director, Public Markets, Teacher Retirement System of Texas
Joel Hinkhouse is a Director of External Public Markets at the Teacher Retirement System of Texas (TRS), a $150 billion pension system serving 1.5 million active and retired educators and their families. Mr. Hinkhouse currently directs the management of the Trust’s $23 Billion external equity portfolio; he previously managed much of the Trust’s $12 billion hedge fund portfolios. Joel is also currently leading TRS’s efforts in leading the Trust’s evaluation of potential on-the-ground presence in Asia. Prior to TRS, Mr. Hinkhouse served in a similar role at the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation in Chicago, where he co-managed the fixed income portfolio and a $1+ billion hedge fund portfolio and a $500 million private distressed portfolio. He has also worked for two hedge fund firms in Chicago in various roles ranging from risk management to creation of new fund offerings. Joel began his career at PricewaterhouseCoopers as a technology consultant focused on trading systems for energy companies. Mr. Hinkhouse earned an MBA with High Honors from the University of Chicago, and is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin.
Shaun Jordan
,
Director of Business Development, Quantitative Investment Management
Moderated by
Speaker TBA
4:00pm – 5:00pm
Pitch Perfect 2024
Judges
Ryan Bailey
,
Chief Investment Officer and Managing Partner, Paradigm Institutional Investments
Mel Carter
,
Vice President, Principal, Investments, GCM Grosvenor
Charles Murphy
,
Founder, Portfolio Manager, Liberty Park Capital Management
Pitchers:
Sara T Brand, Ph.D.
,
Founding General Partner, True Wealth Ventures
Rhett Carter
,
Founder, Heights Investment Partners
Aushrif Javeed
,
Portfolio Manager, Mountain Cove Capital Management
Moderated by
Steven Wilson
,
Director, Public Markets, Teacher Retirement System of Texas
Steven Wilson is Director in the Public Markets group at the Teacher Retirement System of Texas, a $200 billion pension system serving 1.8 million active and retired educators and their families. Mr. Wilson is responsible for the $10B Stable Value Hedge Fund Portfolio, which includes allocations to Equity Market Neutral, Macro, Managed Futures, Platform, Volatility, and Reinsurance Hedge Funds. He is also responsible for the $7B World Equity Portfolio, which includes Beta Sensitive strategies benchmarked to global equity indices.
Prior to joining TRS, Mr. Wilson was an Investment Director at Ameriprise Private Wealth Advisors, where he oversaw fund selection for $250 million of client assets.
Mr. Wilson received an MBA from the Rice University Jones School of Business in 2012, is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin McCombs School of Business, and holds the CAIA designation.
