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U. California Hires Famed Risk Guru Rick Bookstaber

The Volcker Rule co-author and Bridgewater alum departs the US Treasury to become UC Regents' first chief risk officer.
Reported by Featured Author

The bench keeps getting deeper at the University of California’s (UC) investment office.

Financial risk virtuoso Rick Bookstaber has signed on to become the inaugural chief risk officer to the $91 billion pension, endowment, and working capital fund.

Bookstaber is to leave his post as a research principal at the Treasury Department’s Office of Financial Research to join the institution effective August 3, according to an internal UC email obtained by CIO.

“Rick’s various roles have put him at the center of some of the critical crises of the last three decades: Working with portfolio insurance during the 1987 crash while at Morgan Stanley, with the 1998 failure of Long-Term Capital Management while at Salomon Brothers, and with the aftermath of the 2008 crisis while in the regulatory sphere,” wrote UC CIO Jagdeep Bachher in a message to staff on Thursday.

For more than 30 years, Bookstaber has specialized in financial risk management, holding senior positions on the buy-side, sell-side, and in the public sphere.

The New York Times called him “one of Wall Street’s ‘rocket scientists’” in a review of his 2007 book, A Demon of Our Own Design: Markets, Hedge Funds, and the Perils of Financial Innovation.

Bookstaber’s résumé includes some of finance’s most notable players. He has led risk management for Morgan Stanley (1984 to 1994), Salomon Brothers (1994 to 1998), Moore Capital Management (1998 to 2002), and Ziff Brothers (2002 to 2004). Following those roles, he launched a hedge fund (FrontPoint Partners) and spent a year managing risk for the world’s largest—Bridgewater Associates.

As UC’s chief risk officer, the email noted that Bookstaber will report directly to Bachher. Like the fund’s asset class heads, he will also hold the title of managing director.

This latest hire is perhaps the most high profile in a string of major talent acquisitions.

Two US public pension chiefs—Scott Chan, formerly of Sacramento County, and Sam Kunz, ex-Chicago Policemen’s Annuity and Benefit Fund—have traded the CIO title for managing director jobs with UC.

Bachher has also recruited senior staff from leading international asset owner organizations, including Ontario Teachers’, Norges Bank Investment Management, and his former employer, the Alberta Investment Management Corporation.

Earlier this month, US Vice President Joe Biden hosted Bachher and representatives from New Zealand and Alaska’s sovereign wealth funds, among others, at the White House to announce a $1 billion-plus commitment to clean energy innovation.

Related: U. California Loses Hedge Fund Chief, Looks to Recruit & UC Stacks Talent with Another CIO Hire

External Hires:

  • Rick Bookstaber, Managing Director, Chief Risk Officer (ex-US Department of Treasury) 
  • Scott Chan, Senior Managing Director, Public Equity (ex-Sacramento County Employees’ Retirement System)
  • Arthur Guimaraes, COO & Associate CIO (ex-AIMCo)
  • Brian Gibson, Senior Investments Advisor to the CIO (ex-AIMCo and Ontario Teachers’)
  • Ashby Monk, Senior Advisor to the CIO
  • Sam Kunz, Managing Director, Asset Allocation & Investment Strategy (ex-CIO of the Policemen’s Annuity and Benefit Fund of Chicago)
  • Niclas Winterstorm, Director, Operational Risk Management (ex-Norges Bank Investment Management)
  • Lindsey Adams, Director, Real Estate (ex-San Francisco Public Employees’ Retirement System)
  • Jessica Hans, Senior Investment Analyst, Private Equity & Real Assets (ex-Monsanto and Blackstone)
  • Matt Webster, Senior Investment Analyst, Private Equity & Real Assets (ex-Chertoff Group)
  • Sheng-Sheng Foo, Senior Investment Analyst, Public Equity (ex-California Endowment, a $3 billion foundation)
  • Thomas Fischer, Investment Officer, Real Estate (ex-Otto Finlay Investment, a real estate operating company)

Promotions:

  • Cay Sison, Director, Real Estate (formerly Investment Officer)
  • Paul Teng, Director, Deputy Head, & Acting Head, Public Equity (formerly Investment Officer)
  • Edmond Fong, Managing Director, Cross Asset Class Investments (formerly in absolute return unit)
  • Susie Ardeshir, Investment Officer

Exits:

  • Lynda Choi, Managing Director, Absolute Return
  • William Coaker, Senior Managing Director, Public Equity (now CIO of San Francisco Employees’ Retirement System)
  • Mel Stanton, Deputy CIO (now retired)
  • Peter Taylor, CFO (now president of a private foundation)