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