Being named a Rising Star by Institutional Investor is a meaningful recognition for each of the recipients. But the category carries weight beyond individual achievement. It reflects a view by allocators that leadership is built early and that decisions made at this stage can shape outcomes for decades and have real-world implications.
Many of this year’s Rising Stars have already taken on big responsibilities and wield influence at their institutions and in the industry. They are coming up at a moment when long-held assumptions are being tested by a shifting macro environment, a world at war, and AI, which is changing how information is processed, and decisions are made. What’s required is judgement: knowing what to question, what to keep, and when to act with restraint.
This cohort of Allocator Rising Stars is an eclectic mix of proactive innovators who understand that the old road maps no longer work, and the standard goalposts no longer apply. But that’s not slowing them down. In fact, these investors show that an opaque and uncertain future is in thoughtful hands.
Some have already demonstrated what it takes to be a chief investment officer, boosting returns by implementing new strategies or offering new approaches to targeting investment opportunities. These future CIOs are ascending the ranks during a time of aggressive uncertainty; many are proving their mettle by taking over their organization’s private credit operations — an impressive feat for even a seasoned allocator. But they seem ready for the challenge.
The Rising Stars will be honored at the ninth annual Allocators’ Choice Awards on September 17 at the Mandarin Oriental in New York City. (You can register here.) We're also honoring professionals in nine other categories this year: Public Plan CIO of the Year, Corporate Plan CIO of the Year, Endowment/Foundation CIO of the Year, Health Care System CIO of the Year, Family Office Investor of the Year, Insurance CIO of the Year, Asset Manager/Allocator Partnership of the Year, Leadership and Vision in the Allocator Community, and Team of the Year, a new category.
Here are Institutional Investor’s Allocator Rising Stars for 2026:
Riana Burlile, New York Life
Since joining New York Life in 2012, Riana Burlile has become an indispensable part of the firm’s forward-looking investment strategy — not just for her technical command of private markets, but for her rare ability to find actionable opportunities to implement companywide priorities. As one colleague noted, she consistently brings innovative perspectives to senior leadership through her deep understanding of the complexity of insurance.
Now a senior director in the investment office, Burlile leads the insurance giant’s capital markets efforts, focusing on advancing NYL’s private asset strategy and expanding the investable universe for the general account through partnerships and origination initiatives. Burlile distinguished herself on the investment-grade credit team by managing a $6 billion health care portfolio across more than 50 issuers. Since pivoting to business development, she has played a leading role in advancing the firm’s private asset strategy, originating and underwriting health care investments that contributed to $400 million in net exposure growth.
At NYL, Burlile has demonstrated strong intellectual rigor and strategic capabilities in sourcing, evaluating, and executing opportunities across private credit and asset-backed markets. She has helped position the firm to access emerging, high-growth segments of private markets, from digital infrastructure to data center–related opportunities and fund finance.
Burlile has also been key in improving integration between the portfolios managed in-house and OCIO investments. For example, Burlile drove enterprise-wide impact by building cross-asset analytics capabilities in data visualization software Tableau, enabling more coordinated, data-driven decision making.
Colleagues consistently highlight her combination of execution excellence and strategic thinking and say she can define direction and deliver results across large, complex initiatives.
A public thought leader who regularly speaks at events, the Columbia Business School MBA is recognized for demonstrating initiative, proactively identifying opportunities, and independently driving complex workstreams forward.
Lauren Denton, Exelon
In just a few short years, Lauren Denton has made herself vital to Exelon by seizing opportunity in private markets.
Before joining the Chicago-based utility company, the summa cum laude graduate from Lehigh University cut her teeth as an analyst at J.P. Morgan Private Bank. From there, she moved to Altair Advisers, a Chicago-based wealth manager, where she spent more than four years on the research team conducting manager due diligence with private investments.
In 2023, Denton joined Exelon as a generalist senior analyst, where she learned quickly, observed closely, and waited for her moment. It came sooner than anyone expected. When a member of the private markets team left, Denton stepped up and took on the role of principal analyst for private markets in a portfolio that is more complex than a standard corporate pension (which mostly consists of public fixed income).
The move impressed Exelon CIO Jessica Hart. “She saw this opportunity and said, ‘I want to take on more,’” Hart recalls. “That’s what I love to see: Don’t wait to be called on. Raise your hand and see how you can help.”
Fast-forward to today. Denton is looking at how these complex assets connect to the company’s whole portfolio — how the funds play off each other and where the risks and opportunities weave together.
“She’s a sponge. She takes things from one meeting and figures out how to apply [them] to the portfolio holistically,” Hart says.
Todd Fridline, the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe of Michigan
Todd Fridline has been portfolio manager for the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe of Michigan’s family office only since 2023, but he’s already made the portfolio demonstrably more efficient and profitable.
Since the tribe moved into the gaming industry back in the 1990s, it has amassed a sizable pool of capital (estimated to be between $1 billion and $3 billion) split among roughly a dozen managed accounts. When he joined the family office, Fridline “found over time if cash came in, it just sat there and would be a drag,” creating a performance gap of roughly 30 basis points between accounts, he says.
Inspired by Baylor University’s portfolio under CIO David Morehead, Fridline built a rules‑based allocation system to determine where best to deploy the capital, subdivided by asset class, sector, region, and duration. "Let's have a systematic, formulaic approach of doing this," he says.
His model identifies where the portfolio is overweight or underweight by asset class, capitalization size, and duration relative to benchmarks, determines where to reallocate, and identifies the precise trades needed.
Since implementation in the second half of 2023, the performance gap between accounts with and without inflows has shrunk to between 10 and 15 basis points. Adam Rogers, the tribe’s CIO, says they “immediately saw the numbers were getting closer, so it was a huge positive to us.”
Fridline’s approach during periods of market uncertainty is to be prepared. “By the time markets have sold off, he says, it's often too late to meaningfully adjust positioning.”
Helen Huang, Massachusetts Pension Reserves Investment Management Board
In just five years at the Massachusetts Pension Reserves Investment Management Board, Helen Huang has helped transform the state pension’s approach to venture capital and growth equity. Recently promoted to senior investment officer and director of growth and venture capital, Huang has quickly become one of the industry’s most respected — and noticed — allocators.
When Huang joined MassPRIM in 2021 as a senior investment officer on the $20 billion private equity team, the former senior adviser from China Growth Capital brought a blend of analytical rigor and strategic foresight that would soon revitalize the plan’s venture capital program.
She helped redesign the process, including how the team sourced and evaluated managers, leading to successful new partnerships. She has also strengthened the pension fund’s long-term pipeline development and expanded access to harder-to-reach managers. Huang has been credited with making MassPRIM one of the top-performing public pension funds for ten-year returns, according to the American Investment Council’s 2024 Public Pension Study.
Colleagues and investors praise her unique ability to be a bridge for different groups. As one LP noted, Huang possesses “a gift for aligning internal stakeholders and external partners around a clear strategic road map.” A fellow LPAC member describes her as “a key sparring partner who offers valuable insights to help with our long-term thinking and strategy,” adding that Huang has “consistently demonstrated exceptional judgment, intellectual rigor, and a forward-thinking approach to portfolio construction.”
Huang brings more than 15 years of investment experience at allocators and managers. She began her career as an equity research analyst at Merrill Lynch/Bank of America and later took on roles at Summit Partners and Harvard Management Co.
Sohel Hussain, Meyer Memorial Trust
Five years ago, Sohel Hussain decided to leave the world of asset management at PIMCO to join a $1 billion foundation in Oregon. Now observers see a powerhouse in the making.
“For most of my career, I helped contribute to the growth of capital for institutions whose primary goal was strictly financial,” he wrote in a February blog post. “At Meyer, I saw a different opportunity: the chance to apply institutional-grade investing skill sets to a pool of capital explicitly designed to serve people, particularly those from underserved and underrepresented communities, and to protect the environment we all depend on.”
As managing director and head of investments at Meyer Memorial Trust, Hussain has become a rising voice in mission-aligned investing. “Performance still matters deeply,” Hussain notes, “but that performance serves a much broader purpose.”
Hussain has helped design a mission-aligned investment framework built on investing with diverse managers, advancing sustainable and environmental solutions, and supporting social solutions that address structural injustice. This disciplined, metric-driven approach treats impact as just another asset class.
Before joining Meyer, he spent nearly three years at Pacific Investment Management Co. as head of middle office for North America and as a portfolio management associate focused on emerging markets and foreign exchange. Hussain previously worked at SECOR Asset Management, QFR Capital, and Taconic Capital (a hedge fund pedigree uncommon in the foundation world). He holds a master’s degree in finance from Harvard.
A big proponent of health equity and education access, Hussain has drawn praise for building on the legacy of predecessors Rukaiyah Adams and Wayne Pierson while deepening Meyer’s partnership with Cambridge Associates and launching a regional investment strategy with Occam Advisors.
Looking ahead, Hussain plans to relaunch Meyer’s Pacific Northwest strategy, using locally deployed catalytic capital to support the region alongside a global portfolio. It’s the next step in realizing a conviction he’s held since leaving the asset management world: that capital can shift power, unlock opportunity, and help build a more resilient economy.
Ryan Johnston, State of Wisconsin Investment Board
Ryan Johnston has made a name for himself on a team that itself has received accolades. Since joining SWIB a decade ago, Johnston has developed a reputation within the allocator community not just as a savvy, diligent, and checklist-forward investor, but also as a mentor and central figure in SWIB’s culture.
Allocators have recognized Johnston internally and externally for his technical command of both traditional and alternative strategies, institutional knowledge accumulated over a decade at SWIB, and consistent investment in the development of colleagues at all levels.
Since joining SWIB in 2016, after graduating from Marquette University (he just completed his MBA at NYU), Johnston has worked his way up to senior analyst covering a range of traditional and alternative mandates. He developed the state plan's “beta one” long-only and benchmark-relative strategies and pioneered new methods for accessing them, including through SWIB’s managed account platform, Dockside.
He regularly volunteers to plan firmwide events, adding to his reputation as a cultural figure within the organization (“Everyone knows him,” one colleague says). Johnston also participates in SWIB's Research Task Force, contributing to initiatives that evaluate new asset classes and investment vehicles, and serves on several cross-functional collaboration teams aimed at improving operational workflows between investment, risk, and technology groups.
As part of the team that won II's Hedge Fund Allocator of the Year Award in 2024, Johnston has established himself as a central figure in both portfolio execution and organizational culture. As manager of the team's internship program, he regularly serves as a mentor to new staff. One colleague noted, "Ryan is one I have always felt comfortable [asking] for help. He would do whiteboard presentations with me, walk me through things, and he wouldn't even have to be asked."
Jennifer Katz, Doris Duke Foundation
As a Columbia astrophysics graduate and CFA charter holder, Jennifer Katz brings a scientist’s discipline to every investment decision.
As director of investments and head of mission-aligned investing for the Doris Duke Foundation’s $2.2 billion endowment, she has become the driving force behind one of the sector’s most thoughtful impact programs.
Since joining the foundation in 2017 after a decade in private infrastructure, Katz has steadily expanded Doris Duke’s exposure to health and life sciences, venture capital, and climate-focused strategies. Her technical rigor — honed by analyzing regulated utilities and power assets — translated seamlessly into biotech private investments and global public equity. But her strategic vision sets her apart.
When the foundation shifted in 2024 from a carve-out impact approach to an integrated model, Katz identified profitable investments that advanced the foundation’s priorities in nature, arts, and well-being. That conviction was tested during biotech’s prolonged downturn. As many allocators retreated, Katz held firm.
The result was the foundation’s public biotech assets soaring roughly 40 percent in 2025, outpacing the Nasdaq Biotechnology Index’s 30.5 percent gain. As one colleague noted, Katz isn’t trend-chasing but is building durable strategies through fallow cycles.
“Unfortunately, sometimes impact investing is treated as a fair-weather activity, and we do not want to approach it that way,” Katz notes.
Doris Duke has allocated 12 percent of its portfolio to the mission-aligned investing program. Those investments include environmentally focused strategies, where Katz has seen the big-growth opportunity shift over the past couple of years, from climate mitigation technologies to climate adaptation. “It’s actually a good thing that the financial reality is shaping the strategies, because there’s a lot of different ways you can have impact,” Katz recently told Institutional Investor.
Katz anticipated that shift, repositioning the portfolio ahead of the curve. CIO Leena Bhutta praises her as a rigorous, strong investor who has strengthened the private book and shaped the foundation’s impact framework from the ground up.
Jessica Lerman, Somers Re
Jessica Lerman has built a reputation as a disciplined and intellectually rigorous investor, combining strong analytical instincts with a clear, pragmatic approach to portfolio construction.
Lerman, who holds an MBA from Cornell Johnson Graduate School of Management and a BA in psychology and Near Eastern studies from Cornell, began her career in research at Weill Cornell Medical College before joining Starr Insurance Cos. in 2018 as a financial analyst.
Now working in private credit and insurance portfolio management at Somers Re, she brings nearly a decade of experience across public and private markets, much of it shaped during her time at Starr. There, Lerman progressed through multiple roles spanning private equity and broader investment analysis, developing a well-rounded perspective on manager selection, underwriting, and portfolio risk.
She is regarded as a standout senior investment analyst known for her disciplined investment approach, clear thinking, and ability to translate her research into actionable insights — a skill that resonates in both portfolio construction and governance settings. Along with analytical rigor, Lerman brings a team-first attitude to the organization. She is widely viewed as a trusted resource and an emerging leader.
Colleagues describe Lerman as a thoughtful contributor whose work consistently elevates investment discussions. Just as notable is her approach within a team. Lerman is known for her steady judgment, collaborative mind-set, and willingness to engage deeply with complex problems without losing sight of the broader portfolio context.
Peers and observers see a clear trajectory ahead for Lerman, with a foundation that blends technical training and real-world investment experience. As one person noted, she combines the analytical discipline and temperament that increasingly define the next generation of investment leaders.
Observers note that it is only a matter of time before Lerman becomes a CIO herself.
Zachary Mees, Carnegie Corporation of New York
Colleagues and industry leaders are noting that Zachary Mees has what it takes to be a CIO. One of his mentors, current UFICO chief Mark Baumgartner, describes Mees as “a SWAN: someone who is smart, works hard, is ambitious, and is nice.”
Mees is a standout in the allocator world: someone who seamlessly combines curiosity and intellectual honesty with great investing acumen and an incredible work ethic.
He began his institutional investing career on Baumgartner’s team at the Ford Foundation. He then moved to AQR, where he worked on multiasset strategies and advised institutional investors on portfolio construction and alternative investments. Now at Carnegie, Mees has taken on a broad mandate spanning asset allocation, risk, and implementation. As managing director of portfolio management since 2024, Mees manages the foundation’s diversified beta portfolio.
Among his most notable contributions at the foundation is the introduction of a public equity overlay program that reduced tracking error by 20 percent and added roughly $100 million in gains to the portfolio. He also managed the build-out of Carnegie’s in-house portfolio monitoring tool that speeds up decision making.
Other accomplishments include using alternative beta and risk parity strategies to create a low-cost, liquid alternative to traditional diversifying assets like hedge funds and fixed income, with similar correlation but higher expected returns.
A CFA charter holder, Mees has a master’s degree in quantitative finance from Fordham University and a bachelor’s in engineering management from the University of Arizona.
“Zach is known as a culture-carrying leader who is as kind as he is capable: deeply analytical, humble, tireless, and remarkably effective,” notes Baumgartner. “A true rising star.”
John Newell, Texas Permanent School Fund
The Texas Permanent School Fund has become one of the best-performing endowments, thanks in no small part to John Newell’s pushing the $60 billion fund to invest additional funds in private credit.
After providing analysis on video game and toy companies (among many other sectors) for Bank of America, Newell worked his way from buy side equity analyst to running a team at Texas Permanent. When he took over the credit portfolio as vice president of debt in 2024, he increased private credit to potentially generate higher-excess returns. Texas Permanent had committed $4.1 billion to private credit as of May 2025.
Newell consolidated debt investments under one team and hired a core fixed-income manager to simplify operations and let the team focus on higher-return strategies. (Texas Permanent began operating like a private sector company in 2023 following legislative approval.)
Texas Permanent CEO and CIO Robert Borden recently attributed the plan’s outperforming its benchmark to private credit under Newell. Borden also commended Newell for increasing the portfolio’s expected rate of return without upping the risk.
One investor who’s worked with Newell describes him as having a deep understanding of the public and private credit world and says he has built out “one of the best teams at a major and massive institutional investor.”
Thomas Schultz, Cornell University
As a principal investment analyst, Thomas Schultz is involved in all aspects of Cornell’s portfolio, which includes real estate, resources, infrastructure, fixed income, and emerging-markets equity. Under CIO Ken Miranda, Cornell’s portfolio has seen strong returns at a time when Ivy League schools are under intense liquidity pressure.
Known as a thoughtful, detail-oriented investor, Schultz manages to connect the dots on numerous aspects of how investing is tied to liquidity, operations, and risk management. His thoughtful approach is serving the portfolio well: Cornell posted a return of 12.3 percent for 2025, the second-highest fiscal-year return among the Ivies after Columbia’s 12.4 percent and Penn’s 12.2 percent.
In addition, colleagues consider him an exceptional team player and a great mentor to new staff. He runs Cornell’s investment analyst program that trains recent college graduates in endowment investing and management.
Before joining the Cornell University endowment office, Schultz worked at Bessemer Trust, where he underwrote various alternative-investment strategies. He graduated from Cornell with bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mechanical engineering.
A sports enthusiast who enjoys giving back to various communities, Schultz is both a CFA and a CAIA charter holder and a member of CFA Society New York.
Erik Strobel, YMCA Retirement Fund
When Erik Strobel was a student interning at the University of Connecticut Foundation, then-CIO Kevin Edwards recalls that “he just immediately showed this . . . analytical skill set, modeling skill set, that was unlike what we had seen with other interns.”
Whether looking at a particular idea or preparing materials for subcommittees, Strobel quickly jumped on any analytical assignment to effectively complete the job. It was natural to use his talents as much as possible.
Since Strobel moved to the YMCA Retirement Fund in 2017 — first as a senior investment analyst, now as a managing director leading the fund’s private and venture capital portfolios — colleagues and collaborators who have worked with him his entire career noticed how much his abilities have grown.
“I could absolutely see him as a CIO,” says Edwards, who’s now managing director of investments at Carnegie Mellon University. “He's got the skill set.”
Held in high regard across YMCA, Strobel has been described by colleagues as exceptionally inquisitive, humble, and professional.
Those who’ve witnessed his development into a highly accomplished allocator have noted his ability to go into great depth with the funds he works with: He understands why they’re investing in a particular fund, as well as the strengths and weaknesses of each manager.
“I’m in awe of his insightful mental acumen [even as he maintains] a kind and personable mannerism, making him quite unique in today’s alts world,” says former Hartford Healthcare CIO and independent allocator David Homgren, who’s known Strobel throughout his career. “And although Erik has become quite knowledgeable over the years, he’s still curious to learn, making him a rare industry standout.”
Santiago Tagle, AFP Habitat
Santiago Tagle is a rising leader in Latin America’s institutional private equity landscape, shaping the evolution of the alternatives program for one of the largest pension platforms in the region.
Tagle is directly involved in manager selection, portfolio construction, and the strategic development of AFP Habitat’s private markets platform across Chile, Colombia, and Peru. He helped move the private markets program from a fragmented, country-specific approach to a more integrated regional strategy. This has helped standardize due diligence processes, improve capital allocation decisions across jurisdictions, and strengthen the overall quality and consistency of investment decision making.
Over the past two years, Tagle has been directly involved in committing more than $1 billion across buyout, growth, secondaries, and co-investments. Notably, he has helped the $60 billion pension fund access oversubscribed global managers that had never raised capital from Latin American investors. He also launched the fund’s co-investment program and strengthened key relationships through separately managed accounts.
What distinguishes Tagle is his portfolio construction mind-set. He doesn’t just evaluate individual opportunities, he thinks about pacing, vintage diversification, and how each investment fits with long-term objectives. Colleagues describe his judgment as “well beyond what would typically be expected at this stage of [his] career.”
External partners agree. One global manager notes that Tagle reached out more than a year before their fundraising process began to map out a long-term partnership — a rigorous approach that secured Habitat a seat at tables where Latin American LPs rarely sit. Another describes his combination of speed and depth as “not common among institutional LPs.”
Already operating with a level of responsibility typical of more senior professionals, Tagle is not just executing deals but actively shaping the design and governance of Habitat’s private markets program.
“Santiago represents the type of next-generation investor that institutional platforms need,” says one colleague.
