NextGen Nominations Open

It’s been quite a year for all of us. Incredible skill, resourcefulness, grit, and leadership in the younger generation of CIOs-to-come certainly made many things possible. Now, it’s time for those in the know to extend a much-needed atta-girl or atta-boy, and to shine a spotlight on those who we think will likely rise to take the CIO seat one day.

We’re inviting asset owners and managers to champion the brightest rising stars of the industry through this nomination form.

From your nominations, CIO will select 25 future leaders to be profiled in candid Q&A’s that highlight their skills and interests. The top five will likely compete in a title round during our Dec. 7 Influential Investors Forum to be crowned that evening at our gala as NextGen of the Year.

Our last winners were Elizabeth Jourdan in 2019 and Carlos Rangel in 2018. NextGen replaced our Forty Under Forty list, which means candidates can be 29 to 49 years old, male or female, and from any allocation fund in the world. Additionally, nominees can be former Forty Under Forty or NextGen achievers but cannot repeat from 2020.

Both asset owners and managers can make nominations, but those selected must work for asset owners. 

This is not just an ego boost for these individuals. As with our previous Forties, NextGens have been able to break the glass ceilings and enter the upper echelons of the industry. Make a good case for them, though, because there is a high volume of submissions.

A few examples of the paths of our rising stars, since they were featured as NextGens:

• Carlos Rangel took the CIO seat at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation; 
• Jenny Chan was the senior investment officer for the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, an organization she worked at for 11 years, when she was named a 2018 NextGen. By that August, she had been named CIO of the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia; 
• Chaya Slain, now CIO of AdCap management, has a similar story; 
• Benjamin Frede was promoted to senior portfolio manager–private equity and private credit at the Public School & Education Employee Retirement Systems of Missouri; 
• Christie Hamilton moved to head of investments from investment director at Children’s Health; 
• Thomas Lefler transitioned from director of absolute return at Raytheon to CIO at Eagle Advisors; 
• Ruchit Shah was promoted to CIO at the Texas Treasury Safekeeping Trust Company;
• Terence Thompson departed his position as investment manager at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona to work as a director of investments at a single family office; 
• Mark Shulgan is the new growth equity managing director at the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System (OMERS), after working as the senior portfolio manager for thematic investing at the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) at the time of his profile; and 
• Charles Wu was promoted to deputy CIO of Australia’s State Super

Nominations, of course, will be kept anonymous to provide the best experience possible. To nominate, please answer this questionnaire about who you think is the next big investment rock star. If more than one candidate comes to mind, feel free to feature multiple nominations in your answers, and please incorporate as much detail as possible in your responses.

A few rules:

1. Nominees must be asset owners working in public or private pension plans, endowments or foundations, sovereign wealth funds, and/or single-family offices. (They cannot be asset managers, outsourced CIOs, or work in multi-family offices.)
2. Nominees must be senior investment professionals in a CIO’s investment office or report to CIOs.
3. Nominees must be under the age of 50.

The nomination process will close on April 1, 2021.