The State of Wisconsin Investment Board has been nominated by its peers for a pair of financial industry awards.
SWIB’s Funds Alpha Team has been named one of three finalists for Team of the Year by With Intelligence as part of its 2022 Allocator Prizes. With Intelligence connects investors and fund managers to people and data needed to raise and allocate assets.
SWIB’s Funds Alpha Team was nominated for the investment strategy and risk management of its top-performing and innovative hedge fund and long-only programs.
SWIB’s Head of Funds Alpha Derek Drummond and his team are part of the Private Markets & Funds Alpha Division, which is led by Chief Investment Officer Anne-Marie Fink. The team allocates around $35 billion in assets to external managers in an effort to generate alpha or outperformance relative to the broader markets. Highly skilled external managers can supplement SWIB’s internal investment capabilities in specialized strategies or hard-to-access markets, such as emerging markets. Finding alpha in this challenging market environment is important to keeping the Wisconsin Retirement System among the only fully funded public pension systems in the country.
Nominees for the awards were submitted by industry peers. A group of six investment industry leaders selected the finalists. Winners will be announced in October.
SWIB and LibreMax Capital have been nominated for Partnership of the Year by Institutional Investor for a multi-year partnership with SWIB’s Funds Alpha Team across several different asset classes, including general partner ownership. LibreMax Capital is a New York-based asset management firm specializing in structured products across both public and private markets. Strategic partnerships like this one give SWIB an industry edge through the ability to move quickly on investment opportunities, reduce costs, gain access to unique and best ideas, and provide SWIB’s internal teams with the resources and tools to make sound investment decisions.
The Allocators' Choice Awards are given annually by Institutional Investor -- a leading international financial publication -- to recognize industry leaders. The awards were created as a way for asset allocators to choose peers deserving recognition for their work in different categories. Finalists were selected based on nominations submitted over the summer and were vetted by Institutional Investor's editorial team.
In 2021, SWIB accepted the Partnership of the Year award on behalf of the Global Peer Financing Association. The GPFA is a nonprofit partnership of 20 global investors with nearly $9 trillion in assets launched by SWIB and three other public pension funds that seeks to increase and support peer-to-peer securities financing trading activity.
You can learn more about SWIB’s Funds Alpha Team by listening to Episode 8 of The SWIB Podcast. Hear Derek Drummond talk about the team and how it supports SWIB’s overall investment strategy. Drummond also talks about how the Funds Alpha Team uses technology to help make investment decisions in Episode 15 of the podcast.