MSCI Institutional Investor Forum - Sacramento

Head of Investment Stewardship, Fidelity Investments

Ariel Babcock is head of investment stewardship and co-head of sustainable investment research in the Asset Management division at Fidelity Investments. Fidelity Investments is a leading provider of investment management, retirement planning, portfolio guidance, brokerage, benefits outsourcing, and other financial products and services to institutions, financial intermediaries, and individuals.

In this role, Ms. Babcock oversees Fidelity’s overall stewardship strategy, including leading the engagement work across Asset Management. Ms. Babcock acts as a key investment team point of contact for all corporate governance related topics and develops thematic research and thought leadership that contributes to Fidelity’s sustainable investing, stewardship, and engagement activities. In this capacity, she also coordinates with the Investment Proxy Research team to ensure consistent and unified messaging across voting and issuer engagements. She also oversees a team of sustainability analysts that focus on developing differentiated insights by incorporating sustainability factors into security analysis and portfolio construction.

Prior to joining Fidelity in 2022, Ms. Babcock was managing director, head of research at FCLTGlobal (Focusing Capital on the Long Term), a nonprofit organization whose mission is to develop actionable research and practical solutions to help better focus capital on the long term to support a sustainable and prosperous economy. Her research focused on the levers that drive behaviors in capital markets, including governance, engagement, incentives, and metrics, with a particular emphasis on how effective process and strategy can shift investment and capital allocation behavior to improve longer-term outcomes and returns.

Ms. Babcock has been in the investments industry since 2004 when she started her career as a trader and research analyst at a long-short financial sector focused hedge fund. From there, she moved on to serving as portfolio manager for value and equity income focused mutual funds at both American Independence Financial Services and Calamos Investments. More recently she worked with clean energy company Tecogen Inc. as their first post-IPO director of investor relations and corporate communications.

Ms. Babcock earned her Bachelor of Arts in economics and environmental studies from Tufts University. She is also a CFA® charterholder.

Head of Systematic Edge Fixed Income and Co-Head of Custom SMA Investments, Allspring Global Investments

Manju Boraiah is a senior portfolio manager and the head of Systematic Edge Fixed Income and Custom SMA Investments for the Systematic Edge team at Allspring Global Investments. In this role, Manju is responsible for overseeing all active factor-based and enhanced passive fixed income capabilities and solutions. In addition, he leads Allspring’s retail custom separately managed account (SMA) capabilities and is responsible for setting and driving the strategic vision for Allspring’s Custom SMA platform. Manju is also the chief architect of Remi, Allspring’s tech-enabled investment platform that delivers customized, tax-optimized SMAs at scale. He joined Allspring from its predecessor firm, Wells Fargo Asset Management (WFAM). Before WFAM, Manju served as managing director and head of systematic macro strategies at State Street Global Advisors. Before that, he was a founding partner and co-head of research and portfolio management at Incapture Investments and Technologies. Earlier, Manju served as a senior researcher and portfolio manager for the quantitative investment strategies team at Goldman Sachs Asset Management, where he managed systematic global tactical asset allocation strategies. Manju was also a founding member of BlackRock’s emerging market team, focused on building and managing systematic strategies in emerging market rates, FX, and credit as part of the Fixed Income Global Alpha hedge fund. He has held a number of research positions at Stanford's Project-Based Learning Lab and Stanford-NASA National Biocomputation Center. Manju began his investment industry career in 2006. He earned a bachelor’s degree in computer science from RV College of Engineering, India, and a master’s degree in computational mathematics from Stanford University.

Managing Director, Quantitative Investment Strategies, Goldman Sachs Asset Management

Oliver is a managing director in Quantitative Investment Strategies (QIS) within Goldman Sachs Asset Management, serving as global head of the QIS Alternatives team. The QIS Alternatives team delivers hedge fund beta strategies, systematic multi-asset alternative strategies, as well as options based solutions to investors. He joined Goldman Sachs in 2014 as an associate in QIS and was named managing director in 2023.

Prior to joining the firm, Oliver researched and developed equity strategy indices at Barclays.

Oliver earned a master's degree in Mathematics and Economics from the University of Bonn in 2007 and a PhD in Economics from Yale University in 2013. He has published research in the Journal of Portfolio Management and the National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper series.

Chief Investment Officer, California State Teachers' Retirement System

Scott Chan has been the chief investment officer of CalSTRS since July 2024. Joining CalSTRS in August 2018 as deputy chief investment officer, he leads an investment staff of more than 200 and oversees a portfolio valued at $374.3 billion as of August 31, 2025.

Chan has extensive experience as a financial executive overseeing a wide range of investment strategies, at large-scale plans, across all assets and geographies. Prior to joining CalSTRS, Chan was senior managing director of the University of California Regents (UC) where he oversaw the $55 billion global equities portfolio across the university’s pension fund, endowment and working capital pools. While at the UC, he sat on the investment committees of the Los Alamos and Livermore National Laboratories defined benefit and defined contribution pension plans. Chan also served as chief investment officer for the Sacramento County Employees’ Retirement System and was a partner and portfolio manager for several hedge fund partnerships, where he gained direct investing expertise.

Chan is a board member of the Toigo Foundation, co-chair and board member of the Institutional Investors Roundtable and serves on the Milken Institute’s Executive Counsel for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in Asset Management. He’s also on the advisory boards of the Alternative Investment Management Association, Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst Association, The Investment Diversity Exchange, the Alternative Investors Forum, Institutional Investor’s Public Funds Roundtable and the Kroner Center for Financial Research.

Chan has a master’s in business administration from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business and a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of California, Los Angeles. He is a CFA charterholder.

Executive Vice President, Chief Investment Officer, Franklin Equity Group

Jonathan Curtis is Executive Vice President and Chief Investment Officer of Franklin Equity Group (FEG). Mr. Curtis has oversight of San Mateo and New York-based investment teams who manage equity and convertibles strategies, along with Franklin Equity Group’s research and venture capital teams and other supporting functions.

Franklin Equity Group offers in-depth expertise in managing global, U.S. and sector specific equity strategies across the style and market-capitalization spectrum. With its center of gravity residing in the innovation capital of the world, the team’s strategies can offer unique insights into growth and innovation, in all its forms, across all sectors. Mr. Curtis is also the lead portfolio manager of Franklin Technology Fund and heads FEG's Technology and Communications Research Team.

Mr. Curtis has been active in the tech sector for more than 30 years, first as a software development and integration test engineer and now as an investor. Mr. Curtis joined the Franklin Equity Group in 2008 as an equity analyst covering the IT hardware and communications equipment sectors. He served as FEG’s Director of Portfolio Management in 2022. Prior to joining Franklin Templeton, Mr. Curtis spent four years on the sell side researching the communications equipment sector. Before transitioning to the financial services industry, he was a software and systems engineer in the communications equipment sector.

Mr. Curtis holds an M.B.A. from UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business and a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY.

Investment Director, Sustainable Investments, Public Markets Portfolio, CalPERS

Nelson Da Conceicao is an Investment Director in the Sustainable Investments Group at CalPERS, where he leads ESG integration and Investment research with a focus on Public Markets. Previously, he headed cross-asset investments in the Alternative Investment Solutions group at Investcorp in New York, developing and implementing systematic cross-asset risk premia and macro strategies. Earlier in his career, Nelson was a Senior Quantitative Portfolio Manager in the Scientific Active Equity group at BlackRock, and served as Head of Equity Research and Portfolio Manager at Bank of Oklahoma. He began his career as an equity derivatives trader at Société Générale and later joined Barra/MSCI as a client consultant, where he entered the factor investing space.

Nelson holds an MSc in Management from ESSEC Business School (France). He is a CFA charterholder and holds the Financial Risk Manager (FRM) designation.

Senior Portfolio Manager, California State Teachers' Retirement System

Josh joined CalSTRS in 2004 and is the Senior Portfolio Manager for Total Fund Management with responsibility for investment risk, asset allocation, and balance sheet management. He was part of the Investment Strategy & Risk team, focusing on investment risk and asset allocation, from 2013 to 2024 when that team became Total Fund Management. Prior to that, he spent 7 years in Fixed Income helping to manage securitized products portfolios.

Chief Investment Officer, CalPERS

Stephen Gilmore serves as CalPERS' chief investment officer and assumed the role in July 2024. He leads the CalPERS Investment Office and is responsible for total fund investment strategies and business management.

As chief investment officer, Gilmore oversees a team of more than 300 professionals and a portfolio valued at over $500 billion.

Stephen has earned global recognition as an investment leader during his 40-year career working in public and private financial institutions. Before joining CalPERS, he served for more than five years as chief investment officer of the government-owned New Zealand Superannuation Fund, a sovereign wealth fund.

The New Zealand fund was valued at $75 billion (NZD) when he left in mid-2024, nearly doubling in size under his watch. It achieved annual investment returns of more than 12% from 2013 to 2022 and was named the best performing sovereign investor globally over the preceding 10 years in 2023.

He was also chief investment strategist of the Future Fund, Australia’s sovereign wealth fund and oversaw portfolio strategy, portfolio overlays, investment risk and investment data and analytics. While in the private sector, Stephen held international positions with AIG Financial Products and Morgan Stanley. He held positions as an economist and a resident representative in Tajikistan with the International Monetary Fund and at the Reserve Bank of New Zealand as a research officer.

Stephen attended the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand and earned a Bachelor of Commerce and a Master of Commerce in economics. He is a chartered accountant and a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Partner, Lexington Partners

Matt is a Partner at Lexington Partners, a leading global manager of private equity secondary and co-investment funds.  Matt primarily focuses on technology investing through the acquisition of limited partnership interests in buyout, growth equity and venture capital funds, and direct interests in private companies.  Prior to Lexington, Matt was a co-founder at Data Marketplace, a digital marketplace for data that was acquired, and an investor at Genstar Capital, a San Francisco-based middle market buyout firm.  Matt began his career at J.P. Morgan’s investment bank and studied finance at the Indiana University Kelley School of Business.

Managing Director, BlackRock

Jennifer Hsui, CFA, Managing Director, is Global Head of Index Equity Portfolio Management within BlackRock Global Markets & Index Investments ("BGM"). She leads the team responsible for delivering investment quality across roughly $5 trillion of BlackRock’s equity index funds and ETFs. Jennifer is a member of the BlackRock Global Operating Committee.

BlackRock Global Markets and Index Investments provide clients with superior market access and index investment outcomes. Our shared mission across these functions is to deliver investment, trading, financing and risk management excellence for clients every minute of every day, and to champion investor progress by relentlessly pursuing better ways for clients to access expanding investment opportunities.

Managing Director, Private Equity and Secondaries ESG Lead, Ares Management

Ms. Huang is a Managing Director in the Ares Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Group, where she leads the ESG program for Private Equity and Secondaries. Prior to joining Ares in 2023, Ms. Huang was a Managing Director at BlackRock, where she was the Global Head of Sustainable and Transition Product Integrity. She was also formerly the Head of Americas Sustainable Investing Solutions and a founding member of the BlackRock Sustainable Investing Team. Previously, Ms. Huang was a Senior Product Manager at Invesco, where she covered emerging markets debt and high yield strategies. Ms. Huang holds a B.S.E. from MIT in Mechanical Engineering. She is a CFA® charterholder and a member of the CFA Society of San Francisco.

Director, Portfolio Design, CalPERS

Michael Krimm is Head of Portfolio Design at the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS). He is responsible for risk budgeting and capital allocation, portfolio completion, and total portfolio analytics.

Prior to joining CalPERS in 2015, Michael spent seven years as an Investment Associate at Bridgewater Associates, where he held roles on both the portfolio construction and institutional client advisory teams.

Previously, Michael worked in strategy consulting as an Engagement Manager for McKinsey and Company in London. He holds an MBA from the University of Chicago and a BA, Summa Cum Laude, in Physics and Economics from Claremont McKenna College.

Global Chief Investment Officer, Panagora Asset Management

Mr. Mussalli is PanAgora’s Global Chief Investment Officer. He is responsible for the oversight of the firm’s Equity and Multi Asset investment teams, including research, portfolio management, portfolio construction, and trading. He is also a member of the firm’s Investment, Operating, Risk, and Sustainability Committees, as well as the Board of Directors.

As Global Chief Investment Officer, Mr. Mussalli directs innovative research used in the development of models implemented in PanAgora’s investment strategies. As a leader in the field, he was appointed to the Editorial Boards of The Journal of Financial Data Science and The Journal of Impact and ESG Investing and is also a member of the MIT Sloan Finance Group Advisory Board.

Before becoming Global CIO, Mr. Mussalli was Chief Investment Officer of Equity Investments, overseeing PanAgora’s Dynamic and Stock Selector Equity strategies. Prior to this role, he led the firm’s Stock Selector strategies. His work focused on combining fundamental insights with sophisticated quantitative techniques to develop proprietary models designed to analyze companies across many dimensions. In addition to overseeing the management of the firm’s Stock Selector strategies, he contributed significantly to the proprietary pool of Equity research leveraged across the entire firm during his tenure.

Before joining PanAgora, he was a Portfolio Manager on the Putnam Investments Structured Equity team, where he was responsible for Structured Equity portfolios. He contributed to quantitative research and analysis that supported all Equity strategies, including International and Global strategies.

Prior to joining Putnam, Mr. Mussalli worked as a Senior Investment Analyst at John Hancock Funds.

Head of Investment Data & Technology Strategy, UC Investments

Vu Nguyen leads the Investment Data team at UC Investments responsible for the design and implementation of the future state investment data architecture, investment data vendor management and procurement, and creating operational efficiencies in investment operations.  He draws much of his experience from his tenure at State Street where he held many analytics based roles, namely the two latest roles he occupied, as West Coast Lead of Performance and Analytics Client Service and Global Multi Asset Class Analytics Consultant.  In these roles, he oversaw client service for some of State Street’s most complex and demanding clients, led and designed implementations protocols on new investment analytics technologies, as well as consulted with various global teams to enhance skills and success of servicing the new products.

Vu also served for six years at Washington State Investment Board where he spent the majority of his time implementing the first in-house managed performance and data warehouse platform, creating reporting and processes, and directly supporting the analytics of the Public Equity team.  As Vu was finishing up his Bachelor’s degree, he also held an internship at Russell Investments where he worked with the America’s Institutional Client Service, Technical Analyst, and Performance teams.

Managing Investment Director, Private Equity

Anton Orlich was named managing investment director for the CalPERS Private Equity group in November 2022.

His responsibilities include overseeing the Total Fund’s global private equity asset class’s strategies, programs, and policies. Additionally, Anton sits on CalPERS’ Total Fund Management Committee and the Investment Underwriting Committee, which determines the strategies and allocations of the Total Fund’s assets.

Prior to joining CalPERS, Anton was the head of alternative investments at Kaiser Permanente. He also served as an intelligence officer in the U.S. Navy, and held roles as the head of private equity at the Pivotal Group, as a portfolio manager in CalPERS’ Private Equity Program from 2013 to 2016, as the head of equities for the Arizona Public Safety Personnel Retirement System, and as a consultant at McKinsey & Co.

Anton holds a bachelor's degree in economics, summa cum laude, from Columbia University and holds a doctorate in political science from Yale University. He is also a Kauffman Fellow and a Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst Charterholder.

Chief Risk Officer, Emirates Investment Authority (EIA)

Vasilios Siokis is the Chief Risk Officer for the Emirates Investment Authority (EIA), the Sovereign Wealth Fund of the Federal Government of the United Arab Emirates. He has over twenty years of investment and risk management experience within the asset management, sovereign wealth fund and Endowment sectors. Prior to joining EIA, Vasilios held various roles at Cheyne Capital, Cape View Capital and HSBC. Vasilios holds a Ph.D., from Bayes Business School, University of London.

Global Head of Investment Content, Willis Towers Watson

Roger Urwin is Global Head of Investment Content for Willis Towers Watson, a role he assumed after acting as the Global Head of the investment practice from 1995 to 2008.

Roger joined Willis Towers Watson to start the firm’s investment consulting practice and under his leadership the practice grew to a global team of over 500.

Roger’s current role includes work for some of the firm’s major investment clients around the world and thought leadership within Thinking Ahead Institute which he co-founded in 2016.

He is the author of a number of papers on asset allocation policy, manager selection, sustainability and governance.

Roger can claim a number of innovations where he was the first to develop new investment content – notably the first lifecycle DC design in 1988 and the originator of governance budget and risk budget methods in the 2000s as well as building out the universal ownership model in 2011.

Roger has worked on strategic issues for some of the largest and most complex asset owners globally. He has led significant engagements at among others RPMI-Railpen, CalPERS, ADIA, Future Fund, TCorp, Aware Super, New Zealand Super and USS in each case contributing to these organisations’ governance and investment models.

He is a strategic adviser to the Future of Finance initiative of the CFA Institute and an Advisory Director to MSCI Inc.

He is a Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries, a Fellow of the Society of Investment Professionals and a graduate of Oxford University.

In 2022 Roger received the CFA Institute Inspirational Leader Award for Professional Excellence for innovation and excellence of practice in the investment profession.

Investment Manager, Economics, Total Fund Program Management, CalPERS

Lauren is the California Public Employees' Retirement System’s (CalPERS) Lead Economist and heads up the Markets and Economics team, supporting and informing the Investment Office on global macroeconomic analysis and research.  Prior to this, Lauren managed the research side of the developed markets International Fixed Income portfolio for Global Fixed Income.  Lauren also built and co-led the Investment Associate Program.

Prior to joining CalPERS in 2017, Lauren was a Senior Advisor for the central bank in New Zealand: the Reserve Bank of New Zealand.  In her capacity there, she was a Monetary Policy Committee member (non-voting); a voting and inaugural member of the Tactical Asset Allocation Committee; and an appointed member of the Financial Stability Report Advisory Group.  Lauren is a regular guest lecturer at UCDavis and UCBerkeley, and taught economics for the University of Otago MBA program in New Zealand.  Earlier in her career, Lauren worked for a variety of corporate and commercial banks in London and New Zealand; was a business media commentator for CNBC and has been regularly quoted in the Financial Times and The Wall Street Journal.  She holds a Bachelor of Commerce and Master of Science in Economics from the University of Otago in New Zealand and completed the Advanced Management Program at the Wharton Business School.  In 2025, Lauren was named a P&I Influential Women in Institutional Investing Rising Star.