Texas Alternatives Conference 2024 - Speakers
February 27, 2024
Conference
Four Seasons Hotel
Austin, TX
Register
Ryan Bailey
Chief Investment Officer and Managing Partner, Paradigm Institutional Investments
Sara T Brand, Ph.D.
Founding General Partner, True Wealth Ventures
Douglas Bratton
Founding Partner, CEO and Co-Chief Investment Officer, Crestline Investors
Mel Carter
Vice President, Principal, Investments, GCM Grosvenor
Rhett Carter
Founder, Heights Investment Partners
Caroline Cooley
CEO and Co-Chief Investment Officer
SummitTX Capital
Ms. Cooley is the Chief Executive Officer and Co-Chief Investment Officer of SummitTX Capital, L.P. (formerly Crestline Summit). A veteran in the alternative investment industry, Ms. Cooley has experience as a portfolio manager, risk manager, and trader in equity, fixed income, and derivative markets. Prior to SummitTX’s inception, Ms. Cooley joined Crestline Investors, Inc. in 1998 and was previously the Chief Investment Officer of Crestline’s former Fund of Hedge Funds business, overseeing manager selection and portfolio management. From 1986 through 1997, Ms. Cooley was a derivatives trader and risk manager with Taylor and Company, an investment firm associated with the Bass Family of Fort Worth, TX (one of the earliest multi-asset, multi-strategy alternative asset managers). Ms. Cooley began her career in the investment industry at Manufacturers Hanover Trust Company (later merged into JP Morgan), specializing in futures markets in New York and Chicago after receiving her BA in Economics from The College of William & Mary in 1983. Ms. Cooley also serves on the Management Committee of Crestline Investors, Inc. and is a member of the Advisory Board of Texas Wall Street Women. She formerly served on the Texas Employee Retirement System Investment Advisory Committee.
Keri Findley
Chief Executive Officer, Tacora Capital
Carolyn Hansard
Managing Director, Head of Energy, Natural Resources & Infrastructure, Teacher Retirement System of Texas
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.
Aushrif Javeed
Portfolio Manager, Mountain Cove Capital Management
Shaun Jordan
Director of Business Development
Quantitative Investment Management
Shaun joined Artemis Capital Management with 15 years of capital raising experience in the global macro hedge fund space. Before joining Artemis, Shaun directed the capital raising efforts at Abraham Trading Company for thirteen years and at e360 Power LLC for one year. Shaun attended The University of Texas at Austin. While at Texas, he was a captain of the Swimming & Diving team which won 4 consecutive NCAA National Championships. He graduated with a degree in Economics in 1991 and returned to The University of Texas at Austin for an MBA, which he received in 1997. Shaun was a member of the 1988 and 1992 USA Olympic Swim Teams, where he won two Olympic Gold Medals as a member of the 4X100 freestyle relay. Shaun is a member of The Harry Ransom Center Advisory Council, The Austin Bat Cave Board of Advisors and is a University of Texas Athletic Department Ambassador.
Charles Labanowski
Founding Partner, Goodlander Investment Management
Warren Lasher
President, Lasher Energy Consulting
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
Andrew Rosell is a business and solution-oriented attorney, strategically guiding investment managers, family offices and professional and institutional investors in all aspects of their business. He brings to the table a robust background as a staff auditor at Ernst & Young focusing on real estate audit and consulting, as well as more than 8 years serving as the former General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer at Kleinheinz Capital Partners, Inc., a multi-billion-dollar SEC registered investment adviser.
Because of this unique background and experience, Andrew has a comprehensive understanding of not only the accounting side of transactions, but also the business, trading, investment, and strategy aspects of the investment industry. This depth of knowledge allows him to advise clients on day-to-day operations and the most complex transactions and legal issues, finding creative solutions and avenues to successfully get the deal done.
Andrew chairs our Investment Management & Private Funds Industry Group, heading up a full-service team of attorneys working with clients across the country and beyond. He has a diverse corporate and securities practice representing investment fund managers, wealth managers, family offices and private companies.
He primarily focuses on the representation of registered investment advisers on a wide range of issues such as formation and structuring, regulatory compliance, strategic transactions (e.g. seed deals and growth acceleration transactions), strategic mergers and acquisitions, investment portfolio transactions, due diligence, fund formation and liquidation and business cessation. He also advises clients on the regulatory and securities laws associated with investments in digital assets, as well as the incredibly important issue of cybersecurity as it pertains to investment advisers and the highly sensitive client data they retain.
Andrew also has significant industry experience beyond investment management. He regularly represents and works with companies in the oil & gas, and healthcare industries. In this capacity, he often acts as outside general counsel addressing corporate governance, and contract negotiations, as well as merger and acquisition transactions.
Andrew is the co-author of Winstead’s Investment Insights Blog.
Outside his legal practice, Andrew is a member of the board of trustees for Cook Children’s Medical Foundation where he serves on the Audit Committee, and the boards of directors for Cook Children’s Medical System and Cook Children’s Health Plan. Andrew is a founding board member of STREAM Foundation, a Dallas based organization focused on providing scholarship and internship opportunities to students from underrepresented groups in the area of asset management. Andrew also sits on the boards of directors for Texas Alternative Investment Association and Capital for Kids. Andrew also served the City of Fort Worth as a member of the Ad Hoc Gas Well Revenue Advisory Committee (2005) and currently serves on the City’s Entrepreneurship and Innovation Committee.
Andrew and his family are avid runners competing in cross country, half-marathons and marathons.
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.
Dale West
Senior Managing Director, 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 over $28 billion in hedge fund investments. Mr. West joined TRS in 2008 and serves on the Internal Investment Committee and Executive Committee.
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 Plan II Honors Program at the University of Texas at Austin.
Mark White
Head of Real Assets, Albourne Partners
Steven Wilson
Head of Portable Alpha
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.
George Wojciechowski
Co-Founder and CEO, Manifest Commerce
