Hedge Fund Consultant Roundtable

Tuesday, January 26, 2009
12:00 pm – 1:30 pm

Moderator:

Cynthia Harrington, CFA

Cynthia Harrington Coaching LLC

Speakers:

Jonathan Miles

Wilshire’s Manager Research Group

Mike Lewis
Mercer

Chair: Erik Einertson, CFA

From an asset allocation standpoint, hedge funds are not like any other asset class. Today this fact is sending investors and portfolio strategists back to the drawing board for help to both select and manage alternative assets.

The Alternative Investments community of interest presents a moderated panel to provide insight into these questions. Join Jonathan Miles, head of Wilshire’s Manager Research Group, and Mike Lewis of Mercer as they outline what institutions are looking for from funds in this new environment. Top strategies, portfolio construction issues, levels of transparency, and demands on due diligence processes will be covered. Fund managers as well as plan sponsors and other decision makers would be interested in the formal comments and moderated panel discussion that follows. Panel moderator is widely published financial journalist Cynthia Harrington, CFA, who now consults with professional investors in both the conventional and alternative asset space.


Jonathan Miles is a member of Wilshire's Manager Research Group. Jonathan leads the group's single strategy hedge fund research and portfolio construction efforts. He has over twelve years of investment experience. Prior to joining Wilshire, Jonathan worked at Mercer conducting single strategy hedge fund manager due diligence and portfolio construction. Prior to Mercer, Jonathan worked at Ritchie Capital Management in two different roles: first helping build and manage the firm's convertible bond arbitrage capabilities, and then as a research analyst on the distressed debt desk. Jonathan earned a B.S. from the University of Illinois Chicago, concentrated in Finance with graduate studies in time series analysis, and a M.B.A. in Finance from W.P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University. He is a Chartered Financial Analyst, a Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst, and a member of the CFA Society of Los Angeles, the CFA Institute, and a member of the CAIA Association.

Mike Lewis is based in Toronto and researches currency, Global Macro and GTAA strategies. He joined Mercer's investment consulting line of business in 2006. He came to Mercer from BEST Strategic Trading, a specialized quantitative foreign exchange, bond and commodities trading advisor, where he initiated the Canadian operations. In addition, he was the lead researcher on efforts to add new factors and improve the effectiveness of the firm's forecasting models. Prior to that, Michael was Head of Global Asset Allocation research for Nikko Securities in New York. He started his career in finance, in 1998, as a quantitative analyst at CDC investment Management in New York. He holds a Master's degree in Economics from Queen's University, and is a CFA Charterholder.

Cynthia Harrington, CFA, founder and principal coach of the firm bearing her name, brings thirty years experience in asset management and investment counsel to the practice. Her firm Harrington Capital Management followed a large cap value style, using a market behavioral model for timing of purchases and sales. Cynthia advised the high net worth and small institution market at Bear Stearns and Piper Jaffray before founding Harrington Capital Management. She holds the designation of chartered financial analyst (CFA) and was a Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE) through 2008.  An award winning journalist, Cynthia has interviewed the best and brightest. Over 400 of her articles appear in publications such as CFA Magazine, Fraud Magazine, Accounting Today, Financial Engineering News, and Journal of Accountancy. Her article “The Value Proposition of Sarbanes Oxley” was cited by the Editorial Board of the Journal of Accountancy as one of the best articles of 2005.

She is co-author of the CFA Program textbook Corporate Finance, and lead author of the self study course "Financial Statement Fraud" for the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners. Cynthia's feature articles on behavioral finance were well received. “Beyond Belief: Pioneering Insights into Behavioral Finance” appeared in Sept.-Oct. 2003; and “Best Behavior” in March 2006, in CFA Magazine, and most recently "Mind Games" in CFAMag of Jan/Feb 2010.

As Board member and Program Chair of the Applied Behavioral Finance Group of CFALA, she is active in attracting speakers from the practitioner as well as academic community in Southern California and globally.

Location: California Plaza 2
                  350 S. Grand Ave, ETC Room
                  Los Angeles, CA 90071