SPARK Event: Allocator Expectations of Small and Emerging Managers

Tonya Conrad-Moses

MD Prime Financing/Business Consulting, BofA Securities

Tonya Conrad-Moses is a Managing Director in the Prime Financing Business Consulting group of BofA Securities. In her role, she is responsible for helping alternative investment managers build their business strategies across brand, operations, talent, and company culture.

In addition to her hedge fund advisory focus, she oversees BofA’s Diversely, Represented, Equity, Asset Managers (DREAM) initiative within the Equities Division. The DREAM program is an effort to provide an ecosystem of support for diverse-owned asset management firms. The program is also committed to raising institutional investor awareness about the opportunities of investing in funds with minority-and women-owned managers.

Tonya is also a member of the Equities ESG Committee and serves as Enterprise Co-chair of BofA Securities’ Developing and Engaging African American Leaders (DEAL) employee network. In 2021, she was a recipient of the bank’s Global Diversity & Inclusion Award and recognized for championing diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace.

Prior to joining the firm in 2004, Tonya was a television producer for NBC. At NBC, she was responsible for handling all facets of producing the station’s award winning morning news broadcast and executing media strategies for optimal audience engagement.

Tonya holds a B.A in broadcast journalism from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and a Certificate of Advanced Studies in Finance from the City University of New York.

Adrian Sales

Partner & Head of Regulatory Affairs, Albourne America

Adrian Sales is a Partner and Head of Regulatory Affairs at Albourne, a specialist investment consultancy specializing in alternative investments, and is based in their Stamford, CT office. He joined Albourne in 2001 and until recently was Global Head of Operational Due Diligence.

Prior to Albourne he was Finance Director at Viacom UK and a manager at Ernst & Young.

He is a chartered accountant and graduate of Manchester University, UK.

Mario Therrien

SBAI Trustee; Head of Investment Funds and External Management, CDPQ

Mario Therrien leads CDPQ’s investment funds activities. The teams he oversees invest in private investment funds and credit in private markets, as well as in venture capital in Québec and internationally. They are also responsible for external management in equity markets, as well as developing and managing strategic and institutional relationships. His mandate consists of adding value by building portfolios with the best external managers, while improving in-house management through the sharing of knowledge and expertise. He sits on the Investment-Risk Committee.

Prior to this role, Mr. Therrien was Senior Vice-President and Head of Strategic Partnerships, Developed Markets. He joined CDPQ in 1993 as an Analyst before taking on the role of Portfolio Manager in the group responsible for absolute return activities. Subsequently, he was mandated to develop external management activities in liquid-asset classes.

He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics and a Master’s degree in Finance from Université de Sherbrooke. He has also completed the Canadian Securities Course given by the Canadian Securities Institute, and is a CFA charter holder.

Sapna Vir

MD, Business Development, Verition Fund Management

Sapna Vir is a Managing Director in the Business Development group at Verition Fund Management, responsible for sourcing portfolio managers across all strategies in North America. Sapna is also the Vice Chair of the North American Committee of the Standards Board for Alternative Investments (SBAI).

Prior to joining Verition in 2022, Sapna was the Director of External Relationships at New Holland Capital (NHC) where she oversaw manager sourcing efforts, peer relationships, and business development. She has also previously held roles at Napier Park Global Capital (fka Citi Capital Advisors), within their Product Management team, and Morgan Stanley, in their Debt Capital Markets group specializing in structured solutions for insurance companies.

Sapna graduated from Georgetown University with a BSBA in Finance and International Business and received an MBA in Finance from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Paula Volent

Vice President and CIO, The Rockefeller University

Paula Volent is Vice President and Chief Investment Officer at The Rockefeller University, the world’s leading biomedical research university. Prior to joining The Rockefeller University in August 2021. Ms. Volent served as Chief Investment Officer and Senior Vice President at Bowdoin College, a private, residential college in Brunswick, Maine. At Bowdoin, where she was responsible for the oversight and management of the College’s endowment. Prior to joining Bowdoin in July 2000, Ms. Volent was a Senior Associate at the Yale Investments Office.

Ms. Volent has a BA from the University of New Hampshire; a Master’s Degree in Art History from the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University; a Certificate in Conservation from the Conservation Center at NYU, with a specialization in the conservation of works of art on paper; and an MBA from the Yale School of Management. Prior to focusing on endowment management, Paula worked as a paper conservator at the New-York Historical Society, the San Francisco Palace of Fine Arts, the LA County Museum of Art, and the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC. She also ran a private paper conservation studio in Los Angeles, California.

She serves on the Board of Directors of MSCI, Inc.; the Board of Directors of 1st Dibs; a member of the Investment Committee of the Pritzker Family Foundation, a member of the Advisory Board of Girls Who Invest, a Trustee of the Skowhegan School of Art and Painting, and an Investment Committee Member of the Rockefeller Foundation. She is also Vice Chair of the Yale School of Management Advisory Board, a member of the Milken Institute’s Global Markets Advisory Council, a member of the Advisory Board of the Private Capital Research Institute and a member of the National Gallery of Art Investment Subcommittee. In 2020 Barron’s named Ms. Volent as one of the “100 most influential women in U.S. Finance.