LATEST NEWS

Jessica Jackley, Fahmi Quadir and Teresa Barger

It’s rare to go to an investment conference today without someone mentioning ‘gender-lens’ investing. This lens can be applied in any number of ways—allocating to female fund managers, increasing the gender diversity of the investment team, investing in female-led companies, encouraging higher representation of women on corporate boards, and many more.

Research has shown that taking a gender lens to investment management has the potential to both enhance returns and reduce risk. But we think it’s also important that gender diversity extends to industry conferences.

That’s why we are committed to providing a diverse speaker line-up featuring both men and women with a range of viewpoints and experiences. We are pleased to share that we will have more than 30 NEW speakers at the 2019 Cayman Alternative Investment Summit, the majority of whom are women.

So for those planning to attend CAIS19, we’d like to take a moment to introduce you to a few of those female speakers.

Teresa Barger, Co-Founder & CEO, Cartica

Teresa spent 21 years at the International Finance Corporation (IFC) investing in emerging markets companies located all over the world. She channeled that experience to form Cartica, an emerging markets investment specialist with a focus on small and mid-cap companies.

Teresa has been especially focused on the U.S.-China trade war, with an appearance on Bloomberg TV and a byline for CNBC.com in recent months.

Nancy Davis, Founder, Quadratic Capital Management

Nancy is a regular on the conference circuit but a new face at CAIS. After nearly 10 years at Goldman Sachs where she led the proprietary trading group and became Head of Credit, Derivatives and OTC Trading, Nancy decided to go off on her own and founded Quadratic Capital Management in 2013.

As a macro manager, Nancy has made a name for herself by correctly calling (or playing) some of the biggest shocks to hit the market in recent years, such as Brexit, the volatility spike in early 2018 and now the potential for a tech bubble.

Marisa Drew, CEO, Credit Suisse Impact Advisory and Finance (IAF) Department

Marisa has been in the investment banking business for 30 years, the last 15 of those with Credit Suisse where she led the Impact Advisory and Finance (IAF). The IAF Department is responsible for setting the strategy as well as directing, coordinating and facilitating activities across the bank, which leads to sustainable finance on behalf of the bank’s private wealth, institutional and corporate clients.

Marisa has championed sustainable investing for many years, including publicly discussing the vital role of women in sustainable investment decision-making and how Credit Suisse brings sustainable finance to its clients.

Jessica Jackley, Co-Founder, Kiva

Jessica is an entrepreneur and investor best known as a co-founder of Kiva.org, the world’s first P2P microlending platform that helps individuals loan small amounts of money to entrepreneurs around the world. Since its founding in October 2005, Kiva has facilitated over $1 billion in loans worldwide. Jessica now spends her time teaching Social Entrepreneurship at the Marshall School of Business at USC and works as an advisor and investor with several venture funds.

Here is Jessica’s Ted Talk about how she thinks about “poverty, money – and love.”

Inna Khidekel, Partner, Bridge Investment Group

Inna is a well-known expert on real estate and currently leads Bridge’s business development efforts. She serves on the Investment Committee for Bridge Workforce and Affordable Housing, and is also the Chair of the Bridge Charitable Gift Fund.

Inna’s firm is among the first to launch an Opportunity Zone Fund, with a $500 million fund planned that will target “attractive opportunities” in distressed communities across the U.S.

Cari Lodge, Managing Director, Commonfund Capital

Cari specializes in all things private capital. After stints at Credit Suisse and Tulane University’s Investment Management Office, where she worked on private equity and private real assets investments, Cari joined Commonfund Capital as the firm’s Head of Secondaries. Her current role includes oversight of due diligence, underwriting, manager selection and investment management for the firm’s private capital Primary, Secondary, Co-Investment and Distressed Capital programs.

Here is Cari’s recent appearance on Bloomberg TV where she discusses the development of the secondaries market for private equity and the opportunities available for investors.

Asha Mehta, Director of Responsible Investing, Acadian Asset Management

Asha leads ESG research and execution at Acadian and serves as the chair for the firm’s Responsible Investment Committee. Asha’s impressive career includes experience as an investment banker at Goldman Sachs, a strategist at Johnson & Johnson, and microfinance lending in India.

Asha has been especially vocal about emerging markets over the past year, calling Chinese stocks “very compelling” and observing that Saudi Arabia’s equity market “could be sizeable—potentially as large as Mexico or Russia.”

Eileen Murray, Co-CEO, Bridgewater Associates

Eileen is co-CEO of Bridgewater Associates, the world’s largest hedge fund and one of the world’s largest institutional asset managers. Prior to joining Bridgewater in 2009, Eileen held senior roles at Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse First Boston, Duff Capital Advisors and Investment Risk Management. She was also twice named one of the 25 Most Powerful Non-Bank Women in Banking by U.S. Banker Magazine.

Eileen’s expertise in technology and back-office operations has defined her career. Learn more about Eileen’s success story in this feature by Irish America.

Christina Qi, Co-Founder & Partner, Domeyard

Christina is a rising star in the world of high-frequency trading, with a Forbes profile and “30 Under 30” ranking already to her name. Her firm, Domeyard, closed its Series C in 2017 and now trades up to $1 billion per day.

To learn more about the story behind Domeyard and how to start a high-frequency trading hedge fund, check out this 2015 Harvard Business School case study.

Fahmi Quadir, Founder & CIO, Safkhet Capital

Fahmi, known as “The Assassin” by her friends and foes alike, is a skilled short seller with a history of correctly calling out fraudulent healthcare and biotechnology companies. She launched Safkhet in January 2018 and focuses on opportunities in global equities.

Her targets in recent months have included Tesla and Valeant Pharmaceuticals. In this Bloomberg TV clip, Fahmi talks about starting her hedge fund and how she thinks about short selling.

Bettina Warburg, Co-Founder, Animal Ventures

Bettina is a bonafide blockchain expert and sought-after speaker all over the world. Her firm, Animal Ventures, is a venture studio and consultancy that advises companies, governments and SMEs about how to take advantage of next-generation technology such as blockchain, digital platforms, artificial and augmented intelligence and the Internet of Things.

Check out Bettina’s Ted Talk about how the “blockchain will radically transform the economy.”

Anna-Marie Wascher, Founder & CEO, Flat World Partners

Anna-Marie is an early investor in companies like Lyft, Sweetgreen and Neuroderm. Her passion for sustainable investing led her to launch Flat World Partners in 2015. Flat World is an institutional advisory and asset management firm 100% focused on sustainable investments and helping clients build customized investment portfolios that deliver a competitive market return.

Anna-Marie spoke to Business Insider in December about her 2019 outlook for early-stage impact investors, and has appeared on Cheddar TV talking about the growing enthusiasm among millennials for sustainable finance.