Place your vote
Nominations are now open. Finalists will be announced this summer.
Nominations for the 2024 Allocator Prizes are now closed. Stay tuned for the nominees announcement soon!
A Practical Guide to Nominations
Allocator Categories
For in-house investment teams or individuals at nonprofits, pension & retirement systems, sovereign wealth funds, family offices, & other institutions. OCIOs qualify. Service providers & other partners to an allocator could be nominated as part of team behind Fiduciary, Idea, or Operations of the Year.
Investment Consultant Category
For non-discretionary advisors to institutional allocators.
Asset Manager/Service Provider Categories
For fee-earning firms & individuals who provide a service of any kind to an institutional client base, except for non-discretionary advice, which has its own category. Some firms will qualify for both, e.g. Cambridge Associates consultants have been nominated for Advisor of the Year and its benchmarking & manager database business for Partner of the Year.
Examples from last year's winners...
The Randy Kim Prize for Fiduciary of the Year
For extraordinary actions in service the institutional mission & stakeholders. Often requires bravery and career risk.
2023 Winner: Jeanmarie Grisi, CIO, Nokia
For “getting the corporate board(s) to approve freezing retirees’ benefits through three mergers. Jean convinced them to protect the retirees, and has done so several times,” judges raved. How? “She earned their respect” in the boardroom navigating assets and plans through massively complex M&A deals. Clearly, Grisi has earned the respect of her brightest peers, as well.
Idea of the Year (organization or individual)
For an innovative, unusual, potentially influential idea from an allocator or institution.
2023 Winner: Steven Wilson, Director of Public Markets at Teacher Retirement System of Texas
For the creative, fun, and shockingly effective Pitch Perfect competition, now in its 10th year of attracting Texas’s best start-up asset managers for a shot at pitching star-studded judging panels. Wilson spearheads the novel manager-sourcing strategy. The event flexes TRS’s gravitas (i.e. $160B) and his personal charm (more Steve Harvey than Simon Cowell) to promote Texas talent, seed the giant pension fund’s nursery of fledging managers, and inject a little fun into allocating retirement assets. Pitch Perfect just recently graduated its first manager from pitch contestant to TRS seedling and into the Grown-Up Portfolio. Proof of concept.
Best Citizen (individual)
For someone trusted and admired by their allocator partners; a good person who does more than their business interests demand in support of mission-driven investing and of their community. Probably pays their taxes without whining.
2023 Winner: Justin Reed, Co-CIO, Brown Brothers Harriman
For subtly, amiably making investments and relationships whirr. Those who work with Reed as a colleague, client, manager, or peer observe the same professional mastery. “I admire so much his management style, how he handles situations as they come up. When an issue arises, it can flare up into a bigger thing than it actually is, and he’s very good at just focusing in and solving the problems." A role model who’s active in DE&I and powerful in the C-suite, he’s also “the kinda guy I want to have a beer with,” a client says.
Best Partner (firm)
For an organization trusted and admired by their allocator partner, which goes beyond the call of duty to support mission-driven investing.
2023 Winner: BlackRock
For helping investors with portfolio heavy lifting or a quick gut check, time and again. Clients praise BlackRock’s proprietary portfolio management software Aladdin for unifying risk and management across public and private markets, allowing allocators to focus on doing what they do best. And BlackRock, meanwhile, keeps focusing on whatever allocators ask them to.