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Johara Farhadieh – Setting the Expectation for Progress in Public Funds

Johara Farhadieh is Executive Director and Chief Investment Officer of The Illinois State Board of Investment (ISBI), in which she oversees a $20 bn defined benefit fund and a $5 bn dollar defined contribution plan with over 150,000 beneficiaries. She has been at ISBI for over 13 years, and prior to that was a financial analyst. She was named an All-Star Chief Investment Officer by Trusted Insight and ISBI was ranked number one in private equity returns among public pension funds in 2020 by the American Investment Council.

A story about resilience and a refusal to accept “no” for an answer when it comes to building diversity in an institutional portfolio.

277. Shan Chen: AI Pathbreaker: Tales from the Crucible of Public Fund Innovation

Shan Chen was until recently a portfolio manager focused on mostly private investments at the Arizona Public Safety Personnel Retirement System, where he spent over 17 years. He previously worked primarily within information technology and did research work in biochemistry. He has recently retired from the PSPRS and is focusing full time on developing AI solutions for investment management. 

263. Kurt Summers of Blackstone: Public Service from Every Angle

Kurt Summers is a Senior Managing Director and Head of Public-Private Partnerships in
Blackstone’s Infrastructure Group. In this capacity, Mr. Summers is responsible for
investment strategies in partnership with governments, public entities, civic and labor
organizations, and broader stakeholders to help advance local infrastructure priorities
and he also advances Blackstone Infrastructure’s ESG efforts. Mr. Summers was
elected and served as Chicago’s 70th City Treasurer until 2019. Mr. Summers also
served as both Chairman of the Chicago Infrastructure Trust, where he led the largest
lighting retrofit project in North America, and Chairman of the Chicago Community
Catalyst Fund, a first-of-its-kind $100 million local investment fund focused on private
investments in Chicago neighborhoods.

262. Kevin Leonard of NEPC: Towards a Sustainable Future for Public Pensions and Solving Pension Envy

Kevin Leonard is Partner and Practice Group Director – Public Funds and Taft Hartley at
NEPC. He has had a long career in consulting and started his career as an accountant.
Kevin has had a career of over 30 years in investment consulting, and it had a somewhat
“accidental” start – being driven more by location and convenience than a calling. Things
quickly shifted however, and Kevin found that working with public funds where the possibility to
add value and have impact was high and the touchpoints with investment committees and
Boards frequent and satisfying.

Series 3 of 2024 – Trailer – A Tour through Public Service, Private Wealth and Culture

Summer is coming, and so is Series 3 of the 2024 Fiftyfaces Podcast, and this series is filled with themes that we have not touched in as much depth before. The notion of service, and in particular serving public funds – whether in an officer, trustee or consultant capacity is explored in depth – we look at the mindset required, the rewards that accrue, and how to attract new talent into this segment.

Bonus: UK Public Fund Special – Doug Heron CEO of CERN (formerly CEO at Lothian) – Cycling Through Pensions the World Over

Doug Heron is Chief Executive Officer at CERN pension fund based in Geneva, a role he assumed in August 2021. He was formerly Chief Executive Officer of Lothian Pension Fund, and prior to that held a number of finance industry roles throughout banking and asset management. He’s a trustee director of the NatWest group pension funds and was a Member of the Business Council of the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland for five years.

Mark Steed – Out of the Box and Data-Driven – A Vision for Pension Funds of the Future

Mark Steed is Chief Investment Officer at Arizona PSPRS Trust, a US public defined benefit fund with over $13 bn AUM, where he has spent over 14 years. He previously worked as a banker and prior to that as a financial analyst, and has a Masters in Predictive Analytics. He describes himself as an “investment ideas” guy and an out of the box thinker at that.

An out of the box thinker and public fund CIO takes us out of the box to discuss his current investment ideas and what it takes to motivate a retain a team.