CIO Announces Innovation Awards Finalists

For the 8th consecutive year, CIO is announcing its short list of the most innovative asset owners and asset managers. Nominated by a network of their peers who represent more than $1.2 trillion in assets under management, the brightest and most forward-looking asset owners have made it onto our 2017 short list for CIO’s Innovation Awards. 

Finalists were selected following a two-month nomination period which produced hundreds of entries. Our shortlist was finalized by the CIO editorial team and our advisory board of asset owners: Jagdeep Singh Bachher of University of California, Tim Barrett of Texas Tech University System, Robert Hunkeler of International Paper, Jacque Millard of Intermountain Healthcare, Mark Schmid of the University of Chicago and Robert “Vince” Smith of the New Mexico State Investment Council.

We asked nominators to share their answers to three central questions: Who is inspiring to you? How are they innovative? Which asset owners are challenging the status quo and succeeding?

We also asked which asset managers and service providers had honestly offered them something of true value that fit their investment needs over the long term.

Since we started these awards in 2010, ‘innovation’ has perhaps become an overused buzzword. While others may confuse innovation with change, we do not: Our goal since the beginning has been to highlight the truly innovative approaches to asset owning and asset management, separating the merely different from the meaningful. As a result, over the past seven years we’ve honored an ever-growing list of the world’s most innovative thinkers on both sides of the business.  This year we added a new ESG category to reflect the traction it is showing in portfolio management.

Winners of all categories will be announced at the eighth annual Innovation gala, which will again be held at the New York Public Library on December 7, following CIO’s Influential Investors forum.

Our finalists are:

Asset Owners

Foundation

Kim Lew (Carnegie Foundation)
Susan Manske (MacArthur Foundation)
William Reeser (University of Florida Foundation)
Denise Strack (Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation)
Joel Wittenberg (WK Kellogg Foundation)

Endowment

Seth Alexander (MIT)
Andrew Golden (Princeton)
Tom Joy (Church Commissioners for England)
Erik Lundberg (University of Michigan)
William McLean (Northwestern University)
Sandra Robertson (Oxford University Endowment)

Corporate Defined Benefit Pension Plan Below $5 Billion

Angela Buk (DTE Energy)
Tom Crook (Essentia Health)
Thomas Mucha (Eastman Kodak)
Brian Reed (Computer Sciences – CSRA Inc.)
Jessica Wang (NextEra Energy)

Corporate Defined Benefit Pension Plan Above $5 Billion

Elisabeth Bourqui (ABB)
Sanjay Chawla (Raytheon)
Jonathan Glidden (Delta Air Lines)
Christopher Li (Lockheed Martin)
Susan Ridlen (Eli Lilly)
Andrew (Andy) Ward (Boeing)

Public Defined Benefit Plan Below $15 Billion

Tim Allen (Tacoma Employees’ Retirement System)
Matt Clark (South Dakota Investment Council)
Sam Masoudi (Wyoming Retirement System)
Andrew Sawyer (Maine Public Employees Retirement System)

Public Defined Benefit Plan Between $15 Billion and $100 Billion

T.J. Carlson (Texas Municipal Retirement System)
Vijoy Chattergy (Hawaii Employees’ Retirement System)
Dhvani Shah (Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund)
John Skjervem (Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund)
Tom Tull (Employees Retirement System of Texas)

Public Defined Benefit Plan Above $100 Billion

Gary Bruebaker (Washington State Investment Board)
Ted Eliopoulos (California Public Employees’ Retirement System)
Scott Evans (NYC Retirement Systems)
Vicki Fuller (New York State Common Retirement Fund)
Ashbel (Ash) Williams (Florida State Board of Administration)

Sovereign Wealth Fund

Raphael Arndt (Australian Future Fund)
Waleed Al Mokarrab Al Muhairi (Mubadala Capital)
Adriaan Ryder – (Abu Dhabi Investment Council)
Holland Timmins (Texas Permanent School Fund)

Healthcare

Ryan Bailey (Children’s Health System of Texas)
Robert Durden (Texas Children’s Hospital)
Cameron Black (Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona)
David Holmgren (Hartford HealthCare)
Jason Klein (Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center)
Scott Pittman (Mount Sinai Medical Center)
Anthony (Tony) Waskiewicz (Mercy Health)

Defined Contribution

Michael Block (Australian Catholic Superannuation)
Karin Brodbeck (Nestlé USA)
Jill Harlan (Caterpillar)
Gail Maytin (Prudential)
Bob Watson (Fiat Chrysler FCA US) 

ESG

Jagdeep Singh Bachher (University of California Regents)
Tom Joy (Church Commissioners for England)
Clara Miller (Heron Foundation)
Rick Scott (McKnight Foundation)
Geraldine (Gerry) Watson (Rockefeller Brothers Funds)

Asset Management and Service Providers

Fixed Income

Franklin Templeton Investments
Nuveen Asset Management
Parametric Portfolio
Payden & Rygel
PIMCO 

Equities

BlackRock
Deutsche Bank
Dimensional Fund Advisors
TOBAM

Multi-Asset

AB Custom Alternative Solutions
AQR Capital Management
Bridgewater Associates
Natixis Global Asset Management
Neuberger Berman

Private Equity

Apollo Global Management
KKR (Kohlberg Kravis Roberts)
Pantheon
Platte River Equity
Trive Capital

Hedge Funds

Alantra 
Citadel
D.E. Shaw
Renaissance Technologies
Two Sigma

Real Assets

AEW Global
Arden Group
Brookfield
Partners Group
TH Real Estate

DC

Dimensional Fund Advisors
JP Morgan Asset Management
Prudential
T Rowe Price
Vanguard

OCIO

Fidelity Investments
Goldman Sachs Asset Management
Morgan Stanley
Russell Investments
SEI

Corporate Strategies

Goldman Sachs Asset Management
Legal & General Investment Management America
NISA Investment Advisors
Parametric Portfolio (Clifton)
PIMCO 
Prudential
Russell Investments

Transition Management

BlackRock
Citi
Northern Trust
Russell Investments
State Street

Data & Technology

BlackRock
Bloomberg
Clearwater Analytics
FactSet
PitchBook

ESG

Generation Investment Management
Invesco
JP Morgan Asset Management
Morgan Stanley Investment Management
Neuberger Berman

For more information about the event, click here.