ALO10: How to Manage $50bn ft. Jason Morrow

Today, we are joined by Jason Morrow, Deputy CIO at Utah Retirement Systems, for a conversation on how portfolio management is carried out at a large pension fund. We discuss how Morrow approaches the objective and constraints of URS’s portfolio and the realized volatility over time, how they manage the challenges of an inflationary environment and balance their portfolio to mitigate risk, how they find the right mix of public and private equities and their approach to absolute return strategies. We also address the process of assembling a team of managers and evaluating quant strategies, how to mitigate behavioural biases when selecting manager, cultivating talent as a CIO and much more.

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Episode TimeStamps:

00:00 - Intro

03:35 - Introduction to Jason Morrow

08:02 - Investment objective and constraints of URS’s portfolio

13:21 - How does inflation affect URS's portfolio?

20:27 - Building and balancing the portfolio

24:29 - Public vs. private equities

31:22 - Using multiple asset allocating strategies

38:06 - Their approach to selecting managers

41:15 - Evaluating quant strategies

45:51 - Behavioural biases in manager selection

50:27 - Return expectations setting for alts

55:42 - Mastering the role as a CIO

01:01:13 - Book recommendations and key advice for listeners

01:05:53 - Key takeaways from Niels

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