IADEI Fellows & Forum Program

Jesús Argüelles joined the Irvine Foundation in 2019. He works with the Chief Investment Officer and investments team, responsible for the sourcing, evaluation, recommendation, and monitoring of Irvine investment managers, opportunities, and the portfolio. He is also the Chair of the Finance and Investment Committee of the UC Davis Foundation.

Previously, he was a Director for the Private Capital Global Funds Team of Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, where he sourced, evaluated, and managed new and established private equity fund opportunities in the Americas.

Earlier in his career, Jesús served as a Portfolio Manager in the Private Equity (PE) Program with the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS). During his time at CalPERS, he invested across the private equity spectrum – from venture capital to distressed debt fund investing. He was also a member of the senior leadership that managed the PE Program’s team and organizational development.

Jesús served as Chair of the Emerging Market Private Association’s Limited Partner Council, lectured as Practitioner Faculty at the Latin America Private Equity Association’s Private Equity Executive Program, served as Co-Chair of the Principle for Responsible Investment’s Private Equity Advisory Council, and was a board member of the Institutional Limited Partners Association.

Jesús earned his Bachelor of Science in Managerial Economics from the University of California, Davis, and he serves as an Advisor to the Finance and Investment Committee of the UC Davis Foundation.

Paul Chai, CFA, CAIA, is the Associate Vice President of Investments & Chief Investment Officer at the Kansas State University Foundation, managing $1.2 billion of investable assets for the university. Chai joined the Foundation in 2018 as Director of Investments after 11 years as a senior investment partner at Grandway Asset Management. Earlier in his career, Chai had worked at Pratt & Whitney and TSMC in various engineering and consulting roles. Chai was born and raised in Taiwan, graduated from MIT, and obtained his MBA from Carnegie Mellon University Tepper School of Business.

Amy Chung is the Managing Director, Impact Investing at The California Endowment. In 2023, The California Endowment committed to go “All-In” and is beginning to align all of its investment assets with its mission and values. 

Prior to joining The California Endowment, Amy held positions in impact investing across the private and nonprofit sectors. She was previously the Associate Director of Capital Innovation at Living Cities and a Vice-President in Citi’s Community Capital division. 

Amy holds a B.A. from Northwestern University and an M.B.A. from Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management. Amy also holds an M.P.A. from the Harvard Kennedy School.

Alex is a managing director at Investure, which she joined in May 2019. Previously she worked at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, where she focused on hedge funds as well as traditional equity and fixed income investments. Prior to the foundation, she spent eight years at the Georgetown University Investment Office, where she focused on public market investments, macroeconomic research, and asset allocation. Earlier in her career, Alex worked on a private foundation effort at the Atlantic Media Company, where she oversaw programming focused on the U.S. policy response to global terrorism and the advancement of civil society in developing countries. Alex serves on the Investment Committee of both The Madeira School in McLean, Virginia and the Charlottesville Area Community Foundation. She holds a BS from the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University and a master’s degree from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS).

Jessica Eastling joined The Nature Conservancy in May 2022 and serves as a Director of Investments. Her primary responsibilities include helping to grow and manage the private investment portfolio, particularly related to impact and DEIJ, while also leading the team’s co-investment program to further support mission-aligned companies. Prior to TNC she worked at early-stage impact venture firm, Better Ventures, and at energy access startup, Zola Electric. She has a BS and MS in Earth Systems from Stanford University.

With 24 years of experience in the startup/technology sector and 20 years as an allocator, Ms. Tracy Fong is a Partner at General Catalyst, leading the firm’s fund-partnership activities and as the Executive Sponsor of its Diversity Steering Committee. Previously at Albourne Partners, a leading investment consulting firm that advises on over $700bn of alternative assets to over 330 institutional clients, Ms. Fong was an Equity Partner, led Albourne’s global Venture Capital coverage (including crypto/blockchain), and previously served as the co-chair of the Private Markets Investment Committee. Ms. Fong was previously a Managing Director at SVB Capital’s $4bn+ VC fund-of-funds and direct VC fund. Ms. Fong also spent four years at the Harvard University endowment, Harvard Management Company, where she was Vice President of Alternative Assets and worked on HMC’s $20bn+ alternatives portfolio construction, investment manager selection, and direct natural resources transactions (including timber and agriculture). Her Venture Capital experience included allocations to prominent access-constrained firms and strategic transactions resulting from the IPOs of numerous portfolio companies. Prior to business school, she also worked at Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) on the Corporate Finance and Treasury Team during the Web 2.0 era, where her group managed Yahoo!’s $4bn+ fixed income portfolio; worked on structured transactions; and helped manage 30 acquisitions, including the landmark joint venture with Alibaba (NYSE: BABA). Ms. Fong has also worked in Investment Banking at Citigroup and Goldman Sachs where she worked on Technology Mergers & Acquisitions and Corporate Finance transactions including the IPO of Netscreen Technologies (NASDAQ: NSCN) and NPTest Holding (NASDAQ: NPTT). During the first technology boom, in 1999-2000, Ms. Fong began her career at two startup companies, Webvan Group (NASDAQ: WBVN) and Varsitybooks.com.

Ms. Fong received a B.S. in Business Administration from the University of California, Berkeley (honors recognition) and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. In her spare time, Ms. Fong enjoys adventurous international travel (60+ countries), immersive art projects, listening to podcasts, dancing, and healthspan/fitness activities.

Cynthia Haidar is the director for investments at the Doris Duke Foundation. In this capacity, she is responsible for evaluating investment opportunities across multiple asset classes, including liquid alternative strategies, private equity, real estate and private credit investments. 

Prior to joining the foundation in 2021, Haidar spent over a decade at Gapstow Capital Partners, a credit-focused multi-manager and advisory firm. At Gapstow, Haidar was involved in various research and operational aspects of the business. She was responsible for portfolio and fund analysis for Gapstow’s discretionary accounts and those of advisory clients. She also led the development and management of some of Gapstow’s alternative credit indices and the in-depth analysis of their constituents. When Gapstow managed discretionary assets, she was a member of the firm's investment committee and valuation committee. 

Haidar earned a Master of Science in financial engineering from Columbia University and a Bachelor of Engineering in computer engineering from the Lebanese American University in Lebanon.

The road to successful technology investing takes seeing new trends well ahead of others and building that conviction to bet on companies that are going to disrupt status quo. As a Director with Cisco Investments, I invest in and support innovative tech startups paving the way to a new future in Collaboration and Analytics. I dedicate my time to discovering novel tech companies and am truly happy when I can help entrepreneurs scale their products and services to enterprise-level solutions. 

I began my journey to Cisco as a design engineer at WJ Communications (Qorvo Communications). After time as an engineer, I shifted my focus to pursue business degree and afterwards worked for J.P. Morgan and TAP Advisors in their tech-focused franchises, advising clients on technology investments and M&A. After six years with TIAA-CREF, where I primarily focused on investing in early-stage technology companies for growth funds, I joined Cisco. Today, I focus on investing in high-potential startups that are changing the way companies of all sizes work. 

I have an MBA from the Wharton School and received my Master of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of Michigan.

Laura Kim is a portfolio manager at the Mellon Foundation helping manage Mellon’s investment portfolio across asset including public equities, hedge funds, and private investments.
 

Prior to joining Mellon, Laura was an investment manager at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, covering all asset classes for the long-term investment pool and overseeing the short-term investment pool and pension portfolio. She also worked at the Harvard Management Company as an assistant vice president.

She holds a BS in finance from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, an MBA from the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School of Business, and is a CFA charterholder. 

Aaron serves as the Principal of Stakeholder Engagement and Special Projects for the Cleveland Clinic’s Investment Office, where he is responsible for developing and executing stakeholder engagement strategies tailored to the Investment Committee, Finance Committee, Executive Leadership, donors and various other internal and external stakeholders. He also serves as a member of the Investment Working Group, which helps oversee the retirement offerings for Cleveland Clinic caregivers. Prior to joining the Cleveland Clinic Investment Office, Aaron was a member of Highland Consulting Associates, Inc., where he was responsible for research and manager due diligence. He is a member of the CFA Society of Cleveland and has earned both the CFA and CAIA designations. He earned both a B.S. and M.S. with concentrations in Finance from Case Western Reserve University.

Jason Malinowski, CFA, is the Chief Investment Officer of the Seattle City Employees’ Retirement System. Prior to joining the City of Seattle in October 2014, he was a Managing Director at BlackRock, serving as the Head of Risk and Quantitative Analysis for alternative investments. His service with the firm began in 2003, including his years at Quellos Group LLC, a boutique firm specializing in alternative investments that was acquired by BlackRock in 2007. At Quellos, Jason was an Associate Director and Head of Quantitative Research. Jason received a BA in Economics and Mathematics from New York University and a MA in Policy Studies at the University of Washington, Bothell. Jason is a member of the Investment Committee for Seattle Foundation and the Finance Committee for the Fred Hutch Cancer Center. 

Dave Mullen is Partner on Pinegrove Ventures direct and fund investing strategies, notably covering Fintech and Enterprise Software for the direct strategy, and emerging managers on the fund strategy. In addition, Dave is an active advisor on business strategy and fundraising to founders throughout the ecosystem in board advisor roles. In 2020, Dave founded the Emerging Venture Capital Association’s PropTech vertical, creating discourse and awareness of the ‘Built World’ in the tech ecosystem. Dave has been published on TechCrunch and via his personal blog on Medium and is an advocate and liason to StartOut, serving on the programming board.

Previously, Dave was an investor with Wells Fargo Strategic Capital, the venture capital arm of Wells Fargo where he focused on venture growth investments in the technology sector. Dave started his career with J.P. Morgan in the Leveraged Finance division of the Investment Bank where he was responsible for raising capital for both sponsor buyout and M&A transactions. 

Dave earned an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business with concentrations in Economics, Analytic Finance, and Entrepreneurship and earned his B.B.A. in Finance from the Terry College of Business at the University of Georgia. Dave currently lives in San Francisco with his husband John and is a competitive triathlete. On any given weekend you can find him biking, running, swimming, hiking or skiing in Northern California.

Antonio Rodriguez is currently Director of Investments at the Building Service 32BJ Funds, a collection of eleven multi-employer retirement and health, and benefit funds with assets totaling $9.4 billion. Prior to his role at the 32BJ Benefit Funds, Antonio was the Director of Investment Strategy at the New York City Board of Education Retirement System. Antonio has also served as a trustee for four of the New York City Retirement Systems (NYCRS). Before holding various roles at NYCRS, he was Research Director at SEIU Local 1107 in Las Vegas and a Financial Analyst with the SEIU Capital Stewardship program in New York. Antonio is a graduate of Washington University in St. Louis and CUNY-City College of New York, and holds the Chartered Financial Analyst designation and Certificate in Performance Measurement.

June Yearwood serves as Managing Director of The Church Pension Fund (CPF). In addition to leading Private Specialty Strategies, she also focuses on private equity and real estate investments. She joined CPF in 2006.

Prior to CPF, she served as Vice President, Finance and Administration of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Before this, she served as Investment Director for the Foundation. June received a BA in History from Yale University and an MBA from The Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Leena Bhutta is the chief investment officer for the Doris Duke Foundation. She joined the foundation in 2019, was promoted to Deputy CIO in 2020 and to CIO in January 2022. Before joining the foundation, Leena served as director of alternative investments at the Hollyhock Foundation. In that role she created the investment program for the foundation and initiated investments in external fund managers across various strategies. Prior to that role, Leena was an investment professional at Joho Capital, an Asia-focused hedge fund, where she invested in public companies across the region. She started her career in investment banking at Goldman Sachs. Leena earned her Master of Business Administration from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business and a Bachelor of Arts in economics from Wellesley College.

Laurie Bonello, CFA, Managing Director, directs the research, development, and implementation of Strategic Investment Group’s hedge fund investment activities. Additionally, she is a member of Strategic’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee, a cross-functional team that works to develop and retain diverse talent both within the firm and within the financial industry, to encourage and evaluate diversity within our sphere of influence (our firm, our managers, our vendors), and to foster an equitable and respectful work environment throughout the firm. Prior to joining Strategic, Laurie worked in the Equity Research Department of J.P. Morgan Investment Management in New York. Laurie holds a B.S. in Applied Mathematics from Saint Mary’s College, Notre Dame, Indiana. She is a CFA charterholder and a member of the CFA Society of Washington, D.C.

Nicola is a Director of Investments at ALSAC St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. Prior to joining ALSAC, she was an Investment Consultant with Fund Evaluation Group (FEG), where she was responsible for creating and managing custom investment portfolios for endowments and foundations in higher education, healthcare and other nonprofit organizations. Additionally, Nicola has held a number of different roles in the investment industry, including manager research and equity research. Nicola has an MBA from the Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University, and a BA in International Relations and Economics from Tufts University. Nicola is a CFA and CAIA charterholder and is a Board member of the CFA Society Memphis. 

Ashley Dennig is Director of Investments at the Broad Family Office and Foundations in Los Angeles, helping to oversee the Foundations' and Broad family's diversified investment portfolios across asset classes. Previously, Ashley was a Vice President at Franklin Templeton Private Equity (FTPE), working to build out FTPE’s private equity fund-of funds business. Prior to FTPE, Ashley served on the investment teams at San Francisco Employees’ Retirement System (SFERS) and Kingsbridge/Riverun multi-family office. She began her career at Goldman Sachs. Ashley graduated from Princeton with a degree in History. She was born and raised in Hong Kong.

Mark is the San Francisco Foundation’s Senior Director of Investments and leads the team which stewards $1.6 billion in philanthropic capital. Mark’s team is responsible for the strategy, operations, and communications related to the foundation’s core investment portfolios, externally managed funds, and impact investing portfolios.   The foundation is committed to advancing racial equity and economic inclusion. Currently, 40% of the foundation’s assets are invested with firms that are majority-owned by women or people of color — two groups that have historically faced barriers to accessing capital. In 2019, Mark helped launch the foundation’s Mission-Aligned Investments program which seeks to invest in companies whose work contributes to the foundation’s equity agenda. 

Greg joined NYSIF as Chief Investment Officer in June 2015. As CIO, Gregory oversees an investment portfolio of over $21 billion in assets and investments for both the Workers' Compensation Fund and Disability Benefits Fund. Prior to joining NYSIF, Greg spent more than 20 years as an investment professional in both the private and public sector, including senior investment positions at GE Capital, New York Life Insurance Company, and Santa Clara County. Greg began his career at the investment banks of Donaldson, Lufkin, and Jenrette and Bankers Trust Securities. Gregory holds a bachelor’s degree in Applied Physics from Columbia University School of Engineering. He is a graduate of the Bronx High School of Science.

James Glenn is the Director of Investment Operations in the Spelman College Endowment. He focuses on curating operation efficiencies and strategic enhancements to the functioning of the endowment. He also partners with his OCIO in sourcing, investment performance tracking, and portfolio construction. In his free time, he enjoys spending time with his dog, practicing jiu-jitsu, gardening (primarily vegetables), and learning about AI and its applications. 

Geetanjali Gupta joined The New York Public Library as the Chief Investment Officer in February 2018. Prior to joining the Library, Ms. Gupta was a Senior Vice President of Absolute Return and Public Market Funds with the Harvard Management Company for more than 10 years and helped manage portfolios valued at more than $15 billion across a wide array of asset classes globally. Earlier in her career, she worked for Goldman Sachs in the Investment Banking Division. Ms. Gupta graduated from Harvard University with a B.A. in Applied Mathematics and Economics, and received an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and J.D. degree from Harvard Law School.

Tracy Harris is a strategic experienced CFO, SEC Qualified Audit Committee Financial Expert, Board Finance & Nominating Committee Member, and Audit Chair. A results-oriented leader, she deftly advises multi-billion dollar organizations on growth strategy, financing, and operational transformation. Tracy is a director on the Board of the Bally’s Corporation, the $10.1B CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield Board, and the District of Columbia Retirement Board’s $11B public pension fund. Previously, Tracy was Executive Vice President, CFO and Treasurer of a start-up insurance industry technology provider, MIB Group Holdings, LLC. She led the financial transformation and innovation of the former Medical Information Bureau and was key in M&A integration. While CFO for UMUC Ventures, a VC fund established by University of Maryland Global Campus, Tracy identified key sectors within the education technology vertical space for M&A and advised portfolio companies on operational and financial management to drive growth.