Finance Division Other Affiliates

Patricia Angus, JD, MIA, TEP, is Founder and CEO of Angus Advisory Group LLC, an Adjunct Professor and Founder of the Global Family Enterprise Program Columbia University’s Graduate School of Business.

Ward Bortz is an ETF Portfolio Manager and the Head of Distribution for U.S. Wealth at Angel Oak Capital. He launched Angel Oak’s ETF business and serves as a Portfolio Manager for Angel Oak’s ETFs as well as ETFs sub-advised by the firm. Ward is also responsible for distribution in the wealth channel including oversight of the product development process and sales team.

Maria Brisbane began her professional career after receiving a Bachelor’s degree in English Literature and Journalism from New York University and a Master’s degree from University of Virginia. Before joining Morgan Stanley, Maria was a Managing Director and Portfolio Manager at Merrill Private Wealth Management. And before joining Merrill in 2007, Maria was a Portfolio Manager at U.S. Trust and Brown Brothers Harriman. From 1984-7 she was a Press Associate for New York City Mayor Edward I. Koch. 

Ellen Carr has over two decades of experience as a high yield bond portfolio manager, most recently at Weaver C. Barksdale (WCB), a majority-women-owned, institutional fixed income investment management firm based in Nashville, TN. She specializes in the construction and management of high yield and core plus bond portfolios. Prior to joining WCB, she served as senior vice president and a high yield portfolio manager for institutional separate accounts and mutual funds for The Capital Group Companies/American Funds in Los Angeles, CA.

Professor Chotalia is a venture capitalist focused on both direct venture capital investments as well as liquidity solutions for the venture capital industry. 

His investments include AutoLeap, Avenue8, BentoBox (acquired by Fiserv), Front, LaunchDarkly, Loftium (acquired by Flyhomes), Casper (IPO), Dollar Shave Club (acquired by Unilever), The Honest Company (IPO), HelloGiggles (acquired by Time, Inc.), PureWow (acquired by Vayner Media), and Retention Science. 

Paul Clifford has over 20 years of origination, structuring and execution experience in the Project Finance sector. He arranged and advised on financings for infrastructure projects in the US and international markets at Standard Chartered Bank and other global banks, where he was responsible for negotiating and executing multi-billion dollar deals across Oil & Gas, Power & Energy, Renewables, Infrastructure and Mining & Metals industry sectors. His experience covers Middle East, South Asia, Africa and the Americas.

Jay Dahya's primary areas of expertise are corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance, corporate valuation, and international financial markets. He has taught finance at the undergraduate, MBA, EMBA, and PhD level, and is the recipient of several teaching awards for his efforts in the classroom. His research has been published in leading finance journals including the Journal of Finance, Journal of Financial Economics, and Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, among others.

Ivo de Wit is an Adjunct Professor and Senior Fellow at Columbia Business School and has been a visiting lecturer at University of Cambridge, New York University, MIT, University of Connecticut and University of Northern Carolina.

Ivo is a Managing Director at CBRE Global Investors and has over 20 years of real estate investment experience across the world. He has been the Fund Manager of the core+ global flag ship fund of CBRE Global Investors since inception which grew to $5Bn+ of equity.

Avi Friedman is a Retired Managing Member and Senior Advisor of Davidson Kempner Capital Management LP, a global investment management firm with approximately $37 billion in assets under management and over 500 employees across seven global offices. He joined Davidson Kempner in 2001 and was promoted to Managing Member in 2006. Mr. Friedman co-managed all the credit portfolios of the firm, including distressed investments, high yield, convertible arbitrage, real estate and structured products.

Michael Gatto was one of the first employees at Silver Point Capital, a credit-focused global investment firm. After joining the Firm in April 2002, he became the first non-founding partner in January 2003. He has helped grow the business from $120 million of investable capital in 2002 to ~$30 billion. Today, he is the head of the Firm’s Private Side Businesses.

Kristin Gilbertson is the Chief Investment Officer at Access Industries, a private holding company.  She was previously the Chief Investment Officer for the University of Pennsylvania and a Managing Director at the Stanford Management Company.  She began her investment career at the World Bank in Washington, DC.  Kristin holds an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and a BA in Economics from Harvard University.  She has been an adjunct professor at Columbia Business School since 2018. 

David has over 15 years of experience investing in distressed, special situations and all-weather credit strategies, including as a Partner and Portfolio Manager of Standard General, LP. and Sunago Capital Partners LP. He also serves as Executive Chairman of Turning Point Brands, Inc. (NYSE: TPB), a Director of National Cinemedia, Inc.

Professor Gundlach is a Director of Arnhold and S. Bleichroeder Advisers LLC, an investment firm based in New York City. He was formerly with Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan and ING/Artemis Advisors LLC. He received his MBA (2001) from Columbia Business School and his BS (1993) and MS (1994) degrees from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service. He is a Member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a Trustee of the American Academy in Berlin.

Scott Hendrickson is a Partner and the Co-Founder of Permian Investment Partners, a $2.2 billion management-focused global long/short investment fund. Prior to co-founding Permian, Mr. Hendrickson worked at Brahman Capital as an Investment Analyst. Prior to Brahman, Mr. Hendrickson worked as an Associate at Industrial Growth Partners, a middle-market focused private equity fund.  Mr. Hendrickson started his career as an Analyst in Merrill Lynch’s Investment Banking Program. Mr.

David Horn is the Managing Partner of Kiron Advisors LLC which serves as the Investment Advisor for Kiron Partners L.P. Prior to founding the firm in 2006, Mr. Horn served as a research analyst at Perennial Partners, a long/short value oriented fund, from 2004-2005. At Perennial, he was a generalist, covering long and short investments of varying sizes across a range of industry groups. In 2003, he served as a research analyst at the Hummingbird Value Funds, a long only, value oriented, micro-cap fund. While attending Columbia Business School, Mr.

Takatoshi Ito is one of Japan premier economists. A professor at the prestigious University of Tokyo, he is the author or co-author of several books on the Japanese and global economy. He served in the Japanese government as Deputy Vice Minister for International Finance in the Ministry of Finance and was a member of Japan’s Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy. He has been a senior advisor in the research department of the International Monetary Fund and has taught at Harvard University and the University of Minnesota.

Andrew Jacobs is a Managing Director and Partner at Metropolitan Real Estate Equity Management, having joined the firm in 2008. Professor Jacobs is responsible for identifying, evaluating and overseeing real estate private equity fund managers and investment opportunities. Investments span the capital stack, property types and global markets, but his focus is managers based in the eastern United States and Brazil. Professor Jacobs also seeks and reviews opportunities to purchase interests in underlying funds on the secondary market.

Professor Johnson runs Nicusa Investment Advisors, an advisory firm focused on helping CEOs and Boards of Directors deal with strategy, capital allocation, shareholder value creation, and corporate governance. Johnson applies his 35 years of experience as an investment professional, combined with his 30 years as a business school professor, to help senior managers sort through these critical strategic issues.

Robert Johnson is a Partner Emeritus with the law firm Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, LLP, having practiced commercial litigation for 30 years.  Much of that time was spent on litigation of contested matters in the bankruptcy cases of Washington Mutual, Nortel, Lehman Bros., and Enron.  Robert is now retired from full-time law firm practice, but teaches occasional workshops in deposition skills and trial advocacy, and he volunteers with the Ali Forney Center, a non-profit in New York City.

Efrem Kamen is Managing Member at Pura Vida Investments, a life sciences investment firm he co-founded in 2012. The firm has significant investments across the healthcare universe, including Medical Technology, Life Science Tools and Biotechnology.

Mr. Kravit is currently a Senior Managing Director at Cerberus Capital Management on the Supply Chain and Strategic Opportunities team, which invests in businesses driving next-generation technologies and capabilities that advance supply chain integrity and national security. Mr. Kravit is also an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Business at Columbia Business School and teaches the Real Estate Distressed Investing course.

Daniel Krueger is a Partner at Owl Creek Asset Management, a hedge fund based in New York, where he is the Global Head of Credit and Co-Portfolio Manager. Mr. Krueger has been with Owl Creek since its inception in February 2002.  Owl Creek invests in event-driven value opportunities across all parts of the capital structure, and Mr. Krueger focuses much of his time on distressed securities. Prior to Owl Creek, Mr. Krueger worked at Angelo Gordon and Chase Securities Inc.

Keith Luh is a portfolio manager and head of cross asset investing for the Mutual Series group at Franklin Templeton focused on value and event-driven opportunities across equity and fixed income investments, globally. Prior to joining Mutual Series, Mr. Luh was an analyst in global investment research at Putnam Investments, where he also helped manage a best-ideas research fund. Previously, he worked in the investment banking group at Volpe Brown Whelan and Co., LLC, and the derivative products trading group at BNP. Mr.

Yin Luo joined Wolfe Research in October 2016 as a Vice Chairman to lead the coverage of Quantitative Research, ESG, and Portfolio Strategy (QES). Yin was ranked #1 in Institutional Investor magazine’s II-All America equity research survey in Quantitative Research for 2024 and has been ranked #1 or #2 in the past 15 years. He has also been top ranked in Portfolio Strategy, Economics, and ESG Research sectors in the past decade.

Omid Malekan is the the author of several books, including Re-Architecting Trust: the Curse of History and the Crypto Cure for Money, Markets and Platforms as well as The Story of the Blockchain: A Beginner’s Guide to the Technology That Nobody Understands. An eight-year veteran of the crypto industry, his writing on this and related topics has appeared in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Spectator Magazine, and his own blog on Medium.

Michael J. Mauboussin is Head of Consilient Research at Counterpoint Global. Prior to joining Counterpoint Global in January 2020, he was Director of Research at BlueMountain Capital Management in New York. Before joining BlueMountain, he was a Managing Director and Head of Global Financial Strategies at Credit Suisse. Before rejoining Credit Suisse, he was Chief Investment Strategist at Legg Mason Capital Management from 2004-2012. Mr. Mauboussin joined Credit Suisse in 1992 as a packaged food industry analyst and was named Chief U.S. Investment Strategist in 1999.

Karl Mergenthaler, CFA is an Executive Director in the J.P. Morgan Investment Analytics & Consulting Group. His principal responsibility is to provide analytical and consulting services to pension funds and other institutional investors. Karl has more than 14 years of experience in the financial services industry. Prior to joining J.P. Morgan in 2007, Karl was an equity analyst and portfolio manager at Avatar Associates, where he was actively involved in the management of portfolios of Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs).

Professor Moon is a Partner and Managing Director of Morgan Stanley Private Equity. He initially joined Morgan Stanley Private Equity in 1998 and was promoted to Managing Director in 2002. He serves on the Investment Committee of Morgan Stanley Capital Partners. Prior to rejoining Morgan Stanley Private Equity in 2008, he was a Managing Director of Riverstone Holdings LLC where he served on the Investment Committees of the Carlyle/Riverstone Global Energy & Power Funds III and IV. Previously, Prof.

Professor Mueller is the co-Portfolio Manager of Polen Capital’s Global Growth Strategy.  Polen Capital is a global, independently-owned equity boutique that aims to identify the highest quality companies and hold them for long periods of time in order to achieve sustainable above average growth for clients.  Professor Mueller holds an MBA from Columbia Business School where he graduated from the Value Investing Program with Dean’s Honors and Distinction.  He is a Tillman Scholar, an ambassador for the Travis Manion Foundation, and a former US Marine.

Vikas Raj is an Adjunct Professor at Columbia Business School.  He is a noted expert on venture capital and impact investing, with a particular focus on financial technology (fintech) and resilience.

Aamir A. Rehman is a Senior Fellow at the Richard Paul Richman Center for Business, Law, and Public Policy at Columbia University. His contributions to the Center focus on investors’ ESG considerations and the public aspects of private investments. 

Professor Luigi Rizzo is Vice Chairman of Investment Banking at Morgan Stanley, based in London (United Kingdom).  

Prior to Morgan Stanley, he held leadership positions at Bank of America and Goldman Sachs.

Fabio Savoldelli most recently served as Chief Investment Officer for Optima Fund Management. He is also a Contributing Editor on Bloomberg Television, commenting on developments from a hedge fund perspective. Previously, Mr. Savoldelli was Managing Director & Chief Investment Officer at Merrill Lynch Investment Managers Alternative Strategies. At Merrill Lynch, Mr. Savoldelli chaired the Investment and Asset Committee and oversaw investments into hedge funds and managed futures funds, a position he held for over ten years.

Mr. Sherman is Senior Advisor and Chairman of the Investment Committee at BGO Strategic Capital Partners (formerly Metropolitan Real Estate), a real estate investment management business that he co-founded in 2002 and of which he served as President through 2018. (Metropolitan became part of the Investment Solutions Division of The Carlyle Group in 2013 and was acquired by BentallGreenOak in 2021). In addition, Mr. Sherman is Co-Director of the Paul Milstein Center for Real Estate and an Adjunct Professor at the Columbia University Graduate School of Business Administration. Mr.

Ross L. Smotrich joined Barclays in September 2008 and is currently a managing director and senior research analyst responsible for the US real estate investment trust (REIT) and real estate securities sectors. Previously, Mr. Smotrich joined Lehman Brothers in June 2008 after 10 years as a senior managing director at Bear Stearns and four years as a senior equity analyst at Merrill Lynch.

Mr. Stone is the head of Oaktree Capital Management’s high-yield bond area. In this capacity, he serves as co-portfolio manager of Oaktree’s US High-Yield Bond and Global High-Yield Bond strategies, and has supervisory responsibility for European High-Yield Bonds.

Achilles Venetoulias has 30 years’ experience in taking and managing risk, and in creating and running businesses. He has founded and run two hedge funds, taken proprietary risk for large institutions, supervised the investment process for a European fund of hedge funds, and served on the Board of a fund of hedge funds for an international wealth management firm. He has also founded a fintech company that

Brian Waterhouse is Vice President at East Rock Capital. Prior to this, he was a founding Partner of Hunter Capital Limited Partners. Prior to founding Hunter, Brian was a member of the investment team at Blue Ridge Capital where he was a Managing Director and sat on Blue Ridge Capital's risk committee from 2016 until Blue Ridge Capital's closing. Prior to this, Brian was an Associate at Millennium Technology Value Partners from 2008-2013. Brian received his MBA from Columbia Business School in 2015 and his bachelor's degree from the University of Utah in 2008.

For 29 years Michael has invested directly at the security level and indirectly as an asset allocator in traditional and alternative asset classes.  He is a Managing Director, Head of Hedge Funds and Alternative Alpha, and on the Investment Committee at APG, a world leader in Environmental, Social and Governance Investing.  Previously he was the Chief Investment Officer at MOV37 and Protege Partners.

David E. Weinstein is the Carl S. Shoup Professor of the Japanese Economy at Columbia University. He is also the director of the Center on Japanese Economy and Business (CJEB), co-director of Columbia’s APEC Study Center, co-director of the Japan Project at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), a member of the Center for Economic Policy Research (CEPR), and he was appointed Global Advisor to Global Financial City Tokyo by Yuriko Koike, Governor of Tokyo Metropolitan Government.

Since 2008, Robert Willens has been the president of his own tax and accounting service.  Previously, he was a Managing Director in the Equity Research department at Lehman Brothers, Inc in New York for 20 years. Mr.

C. Scott Wo, Ph.D. is an Owner / Executive of C. S. Wo & Sons. He is a 1983 graduate of Punahou School, and received his Bachelors of Science in Economics from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, his MBA in Finance, Accounting, and International Business from Columbia Business School, and his PhD in finance from UCLA. Dr.