About

Carmen is a dedicated Chief Investment Officer / Director of Investments with a successful track record that includes:

Delivering excellent risk-adjusted returns for global multi-asset class billion-dollar portfolios.

Assets managed include micro-cap through large-cap equities, fixed income, hedge funds and hedge fund-of-funds, infrastructure, private equity/venture capital, real assets within large institutional pools, and real estate.
Clients include donor advised funds, foundations, high net worth individuals/families, and institutional assets.

Growing high performance teams demonstrating best practices that cut costs and inefficiencies.

Generating measurable above benchmark returns in traditional investing AND in social impact investing.

For example, as Director of Investments for one of the largest U.S. philanthropic foundations, W.K. Kellogg Foundation (WKKF), Carmen ran their $400M Foundation investment portfolio and coordinated with the $8B WKKF Trust investment portfolio team. Additionally, she oversaw and enhanced their diverse manager and impact investing portfolio, which consists of mission driven investments (MDI), program related investments (PRI), and a grant portfolio.

Carmen worked closely with WKKF's Board, leading Investment Committee meetings and providing advice to Board Directors routinely, in addition to presenting annually at Board of Trustees' meetings. She managed four direct investment professionals, 25 indirect cross-functional reports, 15 consultants, and 60 external investment managers with a $2.2M budget. Of note, Carmen:

Invested in 24 MDI direct and fund investments comprised of 13 private equity funds, four direct private equity, four liquidity, three fixed income, and one secondary - met return objectives.

Managed 33 diversified Foundation portfolio funds (26 managers) comprised of global buyouts, distressed, venture capital, hedge funds, real assets, fixed income, global equity, and liquidity - outperformed weighted 1-year and 3-year benchmark.

In three months, closed over 20 PRI, MDI, grants, and Foundation investments as a result of restructuring/cutting the approval process time in half while improving external managers' diversity and communication, coordination, and collaboration of all.

More than doubled the pipeline of potential investment opportunities by streamlining processes to improve collaboration and communication between Impact Investing team and Programming.

Made initial $5M investment with a private equity firm offering a first time fund and team that aligned with WKKF's Narrative change strategy, which closed in 2017 as a PRI with expected 20%+ return.

Introduced Truth and Racial Healing and Transformation national initiative to WKKF investment managers and private equity investment fund that started a dialogue and expanded WKKF's investment stream of activities/engagement/client pool.

Transformed two committees into one Impact Investing committee: identified and included key decision makers; established fast-track approval through Committee, and upgraded external voting members' profiles and other processes. Changes saved 80% of research time into investments deemed not aligned to mission and doubled investment opportunities of interest.

Previously Carmen was the Chief Investment officer for Chicago Teachers Pension Fund (CTPF) where she managed an $11B investment portfolio through 91 external investment managers with a $45M budget.

Again, Carmen worked closely with the Board, leading investment management discussions at Board of Trustees' monthly meetings and at additional monthly meetings with the Board of Trustees, investment personnel, and external investment consultants. She represented CTPF at the annual public hearings of the Illinois Senate Pensions and Investments Committee. Of note, Carmen:

Saved approximately 5% of costs to budget by partnering with investment service providers to raise operational efficiencies.

Exceeded Minority Women and Persons with a Disability Business Enterprise (MWDBE) by 50% by determining asset allocation that would meet liquidity needs and then optimizing the risk/return profile accordingly.

Rebuilt the entire investment team; in fact, the person that was personally hired by Carmen is now their current CIO.

Designed strategic investment plan that resulted in above benchmark returns while keeping liquidity to meet monthly benefits payments. To achieve these objectives, Carmen invested in: 40 alternatives managers: private equity (global buyouts, venture capital, mezzanine, distressed, secondaries, direct, and special situations), infrastructure, REITs, real estate, hedge funds, and funds of funds; and 19 domestic equity managers, 22 managers in international equity, and 10 fixed income managers.

Carmen earned her International MBA in Finance, Accounting, and Business Economics from The University of Chicago Booth School of Business, her undergraduate degree in International Management and Marketing from Georgetown University, and is a CFA Charterholder. In addition to several nonprofit Board Director positions, she currently is a Board of Directors Member and Chair, Nominating and Governance Committee for two mutual funds: Catholic United Investment Trust and PFM Multi -Manager Series Trust.