One of Institutional Investor’s allocator rising stars is ascending quickly.
Sohel Hussain, head of investments at Meyer Memorial Trust, is leaving the trust to launch his own non-discretionary investment advisory after more than five years at the Portland, Ore.-based philanthropic foundation. The new consulting practice, Integrated Capital Advisors, provides fractional and transitional CIO services to foundations, endowments, and family offices with less than $1 billion in assets. The practice will focus on impact investing and mission-aligned multi-asset portfolios.
Integrated Capital Advisors offers what’s called the “fractional executive model,” in which an experienced CIO joins the organization as a senior leader embedded in the system on a part-time or contract basis. As Hussain explained it, a fractional CIO can develop a deeper understanding of an organization’s portfolio needs better than an independent investment advisor. The approach arguably costs less than hiring a full-time C-suite executive while offering more deeper institutional knowledge than a temporary consultant.
“It’s something I’ve been working on for a while,” Hussain sad in a phone conversation with II, noting that “fractional investment is an incredibly compelling opportunity that’s quietly growing in the CIO world.”
A major challenge for many small mission-aligned institutions is that they have very sophisticated and nuanced needs but can’t afford the in-house expertise: If a $200 million foundation wants a more sophisticated, mission-aligned investment portfolio, it won’t get the attention it needs with a private bank or OCIO giant like Goldman Sachs or Morgan Stanley.
Smaller, mission-aligned institutions “can be very binary when” it comes to investment structures,” Hussain said. With budgets tighter and the talent market constricting, he expects more small and midsized allocators to take this fractional leadership model. It offers mission-driven institutions access to senior talent that would otherwise be out of reach, with the flexibility to scale the engagement as their needs evolve.
“The point is to have a more hands on, collaborative approach,” he said.
While at Meyer Memorial, the former PIMCO portfolio management associate helped design a mission-aligned investment framework built on investing with diverse managers. This disciplined, metric-driven approach is advancing sustainable and environmental solutions and supporting social solutions that address structural injustice. He was recently named one of II’s Allocator Rising Stars.
Hussain added that he’s relocating to New Jersey to be closer to his aging parents.
Meyer Memorial Trust will be his first client when he leaves his full-time role at the end of the month (he plans to move to a part-time role for a few months starting in July).
