Third-generation entrepreneur Joel Adelman has hired a chief investment officer for his Cleveland family office.
Chaya Slain earlier this month became CIO of AdCap, the organization tied to the sizable fund. She arrived with a deep background in ultra-high-net-worth investing and alternative asset classes, which Adelman prioritized during his informal search.
Slain spent more than a decade at Parkwood, a single family office for the Mandel industrial fortune. She worked at Goldman Sachs Group for five years after graduating from Columbia University in 1998 with a math degree, according to her LinkedIn profile.
“I met her a few months ago, and at the time, was hoping to find a new CIO sometime in the next year,” Adelman said by phone from Miami Wednesday. “I knew I needed to keep my eyes open for a superstar.” He quickly found one, he said.
[II Deep Dive: Inside Texas’s Exclusive, Bizarre Enclave of Family Offices]
“Looking forward for my family office, I’m keenly aware of opportunities in alternative investments,” Adelman said. “Public debt and public equity for us take less thought. Having Chaya with her background and deep expertise in alternatives is going to be wonderful in helping us build that out.”
Slain has the opportunity to invest in managers and funds as well as directly, according to Adelman. “I love co-investments, private equity, real estate, and alternative lending.”
His last operating business, Advance Partners, lent more than $15 billion in working capital to small staffing businesses, AdCap’s website says. Adelman sold the company in 2015, one of two liquidity events in the past 20 years that created the assets Slain now oversees.
With a new CIO aboard, “I think you’re going to see some exciting things coming” from the family office, Adelman predicted.
