Institutional investors in hedge funds were finally rewarded for their patience last year — especially the savviest and most sophisticated of these allocators. 

Their skill at manager selection and portfolio construction will be honored at Institutional Investor’s and II's Alpha’s 16th annual Hedge Fund Industry Awards gala dinner, which will be held at the Mandarin Oriental hotel in New York on Thursday, June 28. 

The allocator finalists this year include public and corporate pension plans, university endowments and sovereign wealth funds. Among them are the State of Wisconsin Investment Board, Orange County Employees Retirement System, University of Texas Investment Management Co., Boeing Co., and China Investment Corp. Family office nominees include Duquesne Family Office and BlueCrest Capital Management. 

II begins the voting process with a public call for nominations; the editorial staff concurrently develops a list of candidates based on its knowledge of the firms and institutions and discussions with its wide network of industry sources. The staff then vets each of the nominations, as well as its internally generated candidates, based on how strongly it believes the candidates meet a wide range of criteria for their respective categories. 


Once the nominees are publicly announced, the magazine group then conducts a wide survey of U.S. institutional investors and invites them to vote for the manager nominees. Hedge fund managers are also invited to vote for the investor nominees. II’s editorial staff analyzes the results of the voting to determine the winners, which will be announced at a gala dinner and ceremony. 

For more information about the dinner or to request a ballot, please visit the event web site


In the coming days, Institutional Investor will announce the Hedge Fund Rising Stars — a list of 30 rising stars in the hedge fund industry, also honored at the dinner — as well as two industry Lifetime Achievement honorees. A list of manager nominees can be found here

Following is a complete list of the 2018 Hedge Fund Allocator finalists. The list can also be found on the Hedge Fund Industry Awards web site


Sovereign Wealth Fund of the Year

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA)

Alaska Permanent Fund Corp.


China Investment Corporation (CIC)

Korea Investment Corporation (KIC) 

Government of Singapore Investment Corp. (GIC) 

Qatar Investment Authority


Family Office of the Year

Bienville Capital Management


BlueCrest Capital Management

Duquesne Family Office

Hillview Capital Advisors

Wolfson Group


Hedge Fund Consultant of the Year

Jim Vos, Aksia

John Claisse, Albourne Partners

Gregory Dowling, Fund Evaluation Group

Michael Larsen, Cambridge Associates

Stephen Nesbitt, Cliffwater


Corporate Plan of the Year

Boeing Co.

IBM Corp.

Michelin Group

Raytheon Co.

Western Union Co.


Endowment of the Year

The J. Paul Getty Trust


Northwestern University

Penn State Office of Investment Management 

Texas Tech University System

University of Texas Investment Management Co. (UTIMCO)


Foundation of the Year

Alfred P. Sloan Foundation

Carnegie Hall Foundation

Jewish Foundation of Greater Toronto

The Kresge Foundation

MacArthur Foundation


Health Care System of the Year

Ascension 

Children’s Health (Dallas)

Children’s Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota

Cleveland Clinic

Hartford HealthCare 


Insurance Investor of the Year

Axis Capital

Farmers Insurance 

MetLife

Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co.


Public Plan of the Year, Large

Massachusetts Pension Reserves Investment Management Board


State of Wisconsin Investment Board

Texas Municipal Retirement System

Utah Retirement Systems


Public Plan of the Year, Small

Employees’ Retirement System of Rhode Island


Fire & Police Pension Association of Colorado

Maine Public Employees Retirement System

Orange County Employees Retirement System