Alternative investments think tank’s 21st Annual Investors’ Meeting in New York City brings over 250 leading academics, CIOs, and industry professionals from multiple continents for key discussions
NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–AIF Global (www.aifglobal.org), an independent economic think tank focusing on the exchange of best ideas, practices, and information among the world’s largest asset owners, launched its third decade of programming at its Annual Investors’ Meeting this month at the Metropolitan Club in New York City.
Against a backdrop of geopolitical tensions and macroeconomic uncertainty, AIF convened over 250 chief investment officers (CIOs), executives, and other academic and investment leaders from organizations spanning multiple continents, including investment officers of the U.S.’s five largest pension systems, totaling more than $3 trillion USD in assets.
Leadership and Expansion in the APAC Region
A major component of AIF’s agenda for the year will be expansion of its efforts in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region. AIF’s Head of APAC and Yonsei University Professor of Finance Sam Chung, Ph.D. announced the initiatives to the global audience of investors, including regional representatives from Korea’s two largest pension funds, National Pension Service of Korea and Korea Post, and its national sovereign wealth fund, Korea Investment Corporation.
AIF Launches Center for Private Wealth Investing
AIF launched its highly anticipated fifth Center of Excellence, the Center for Private Wealth Investing with a Future of Private Wealth panel that included Michael Ewens, Ph.D., Professor of Finance and Co-director of the Private Equity Program at Columbia Business School and the newest member of the AIF Academic Advisory Board. AIF will be holding the new Center’s inaugural Private Wealth Investing Symposium on March 3rd in New York City.
The Private Wealth Center was formed by AIF at the behest of the institutional asset owner community that AIF serves and many of the leading asset managers included in AIF’s membership.
According to AIF Founder and CEO Brant Maller, “AIF’s mission is to help the owners of the world’s largest pools of assets invest to meet their objectives. Once those pools grow large enough, they become systemically important and government owns or regulates them. Those pools used to be a three-legged stool of retirement systems, insurance companies and sovereign wealth funds. With the growth of the private wealth industry, the stool now has a fourth leg and looks more like a table. Private wealth competes with the first three legs for investment opportunities and affects the cost of their capital.”
AIF Future Leaders (AIFFL) Program
AIF hosted approximately 25 members of the AIFFL program in person and via the hybrid Board meeting. It heralded the expansion of the AIFFL program, which was created less than three years ago, and has grown to approximately 150 members. They are distributed across six continents and represent every major type of investor. The AIFFL program focuses on helping mid-career investment officers with leadership goals progress to the next level in their careers. It does so by providing leadership training by present and former CIOs, academic teach-ins by AIF’s distinguished Academic Board members, access to a robust global network of peer investors, and access to the same investor portal as AIF’s Investor Advisory Board members.
Columbia Business School Professor Michael Ewens Joins Academic Advisory Board
Professor Ewens joins AIF Advisory Board Chair and Harvard Business School Professor of Investment Banking , Josh Lerner, Ph.D., MIT Sloan School Finance Professor Andrew Lo, Ph.D., UNC Kenan-Flagler Professor of Finance and Director of the Institute for Private Capital, Gregory Brown, Ph.D., University of Oxford Professor of Finance, Tim Jenkinson, Ph.D., and 11 other leading finance professors on AIF’s Academic Advisory Board.
According to Ewens, “Finance is very fast moving. It’s important to be able to interact with investors and finance professionals to get a sense of what topics are important to them and what they are thinking. Many industry-academic events lean too far toward sales pitches or remain too academic. AIF has clearly found the right balance between education and genuine industry interaction. From my conversations with participants, I could tell people at the Annual Investors’ Meeting were excited to be there and getting real value from it.”
Ed Lewis Honored, Board and Fellows Announcements
Among the additional Advisory Board announcements at the Annual Investors’ Meeting were New Jersey State Division of Investment Director and CIO Shoaib Khan, who will co-chair AIF’s Investor Board, and TIAA CIO Emilia Wiener, who will co-chair the Insurance Board. Wiener succeeded outgoing Insurance Advisory Board Co-Chair and 2026 AIF Outstanding Leadership honoree Ed Lewis, who recently retired as Senior Managing Director and Head of Alternative Investments at CIGNA and was announced as one of three new AIF Fellows Program members.
New Jersey State Division of Investment Director and CIO Shoaib Khan noted, “Because such a big part of the objective of AIF is the focus on academics and its role as an economic think tank, there is tremendous knowledge sharing. Investors get a lot of value out of the content and programs and are very aware of AIF as an organization. The membership is a real who’s who of institutional investors.”
Khan continued on AIF’s Future Leaders’ program and the new Private Wealth Center, “We need to not only build the pipeline, but also find ways to support incoming CIOs and build community. It’s the same with private wealth, as retail investors are playing a larger role, and private wealth managers are doing more. AIF’s focus on education is important for both groups and is extremely positive for all of us.”
Along with Ed Lewis, Former New York City Retirement Systems CIO and Deputy Comptroller Steven Meier and Former Maryland State Retirement and Pension System CIO Andrew Palmer were introduced as new members of AIF’s Fellows Program and will be instrumental in the growth and work of AIF’s five Centers of Excellence.
AIF released its 2026 programming calendar, which is available at aifglobal.org/calendar.
About AIF Global and the AIF Institute
AIF Global is an independent economic think tank with the mission of fostering the exchange of best ideas, practices, and information among institutional asset owners globally to help them achieve their investment objectives. Since its inception, the AIF Institute has been a leader in providing customized education to institutional investors globally. https://aifglobal.org
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