Nik Bhatia, CFA, CMT
Financial Researcher & Adjunct Professor, Finance & Business Economics, USC Marshall School of Business
Nik Bhatia is a financial researcher and Adjunct Professor of Finance and Business Economics at the University of Southern California Marshall School of Business, where he teaches Applied Finance in Fixed Income Securities. He is author of the #1 bestseller Layered Money: From Gold and Dollars to Bitcoin and Central Bank Digital Currencies. He currently writes The Bitcoin Layer, a research publication on Substack. Previously, Nik worked on the US Treasuries trading desk for Payden & Rygel and has extensive trading experience in money markets and interest rate futures. He has a BA in Social Sciences from University of Southern California, a Master in Finance from IE Business School in Madrid, Spain, and is both a CFA and CMT charterholder. Nik lives in Los Angeles with his wife and daughter.
Laina Draeger, CFA
Senior Portfolio Manager, Los Angeles Capital Management
Ms. Draeger is a Senior Portfolio Manager, chairs the Firm’s Responsible Investing Solutions Group, and is a member of the Firm’s Investment Committee. As a Senior Portfolio Manager, Ms. Draeger works closely with clients globally to ensure their portfolios reflect the investment outlook of Los Angeles Capital’s quantitative model. She also collaborates with the Research team and CIO to help manage research projects, distills portfolio observations to the investment team and clients, and ensures optimal implementation of the Firm’s model in investment strategies. Additionally, she oversees the Firm’s ESG activities utilizing ESG criteria as a tool to improve investment returns, better manage risk and meet client’s unique investment objectives through customized ESG solutions. Ms. Draeger has helped to shape the Firm’s responsible investing, active ownership, and climate policies and leads the effort to thoughtfully integrate ESG within the Firm’s multi-factor framework. Ms. Draeger has served as a panelist on ESG at various investment industry conferences.
Prior to joining Los Angeles Capital, Ms. Draeger started her career as an Analyst in the Investment Management division of First Republic Bank. Ms. Draeger is a CFA charterholder, holds an MBA from the University of San Francisco and a BA from Boston College where she served as captain of the women’s soccer team.
Roger Mortimer
Portfolio Manager, KraneShares Advisors
Roger Mortimer joined KraneShares as Portfolio Manager in February 2022. Roger brings a wealth of experience and passion to our growing Climate Suite.
Roger has a distinguished career across the utilities, banking, and investment industries. As a public global equities project manager for over 20 years, he has been 5 Star Morningstar rated on three different mandates and has been extensively featured in media alongside his strategies, including some notable accolades. Today, he is completely immersed in climate strategy and shares our vision that climate (alongside China) is one of the largest themes for the next 25 years.
Roger holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from the University of Western Ontario and an M.B.A. from the Ivey Business School at the University of Western Ontario.
James P. Sarni, CFA
Managing Director, Payden & Rygel
James Sarni, CFA, is a Managing Director at Payden & Rygel and a member of the Managing Committee of the board of directors. Sarni is a member of the firm’s Investment Policy Committee. He helps oversee the firm’s US fixed-income strategies and serves as a senior portfolio manager advising pension funds, insurance companies, corporations, health care organizations, Taft-Hartley plans, universities and endowments. He is also a frequent speaker with financial media and is regularly quoted on topics related to investing and the economy. He has been quoted in leading publications such as the Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times and has been interviewed on CNBC, Bloomberg TV and Fox Business Network.
Prior to joining Payden & Rygel, Sarni was a vice president and senior portfolio manager at First Interstate Bank where he managed the trust department’s commingled bond funds as well as institutional client portfolios.
James Sarni serves on the Board of numerous charitable and educational organizations including the University of Southern California’s (USC) Marshall School of Business Board of Leaders, the Board of Advisors of USC’s Center for Investment Studies, Mount Saint Mary’s University Los Angeles, Holy Family Hospital of Bethlehem Foundation and Legatus International. He is past president of the Washington, DC-based Investment Adviser Association, Pasadena City College Foundation, CFA Society Los Angeles and St. Philip the Apostle School board of trustees.
Sarni holds the Chartered Financial Analyst and Chartered Investment Counselor designations. He earned an MBA with an emphasis in finance and a BS from the University of Southern California.
Elaine M. Stokes
Senior Portfolio Manager and Co-head of the Full Discretion Team, Loomis, Sayles & Company
Elaine Stokes is an executive vice president, portfolio manager and co-head of the full discretion team at Loomis, Sayles & Company. She is also a member of the firm’s Board of Directors. Elaine has 34 years of investment industry experience.
Elaine joined Loomis Sayles in 1988. Prior to becoming a portfolio manager in 2000, she worked in high yield, global and emerging markets as a senior fixed income trader and portfolio specialist. Elaine was promoted to co-head of the full discretion team in 2012. She earned a BS from St. Michael’s College.
Elaine is co-head and founder of the Loomis Sayles Women@Work network and an active participant in mentorship programs at Loomis Sayles and with external industry groups, including WOMEN Unlimited. She is a member of the Financial Services Women’s Executive Alliance (FSWE), a member of the St. Michael’s College board of trustees and board member emeritus for Strong Women, Strong Girls.
John F. Svolos
Managing Director & Head of Cryptocurrency Research, SkyBridge Capital
John F. Svolos is a Managing Director and Head of Cryptocurrency Research at SkyBridge Capital. He has extensive buy-side and sell-side experience with a focus on technology, having been a technology sector specialist at Merrill Lynch, an internet and technology analyst at Wells Capital Management, and most recently, a Managing Director at Oppenheimer, where he gained exposure to blockchain and crypto. Mr. Svolos has met with hundreds of private and public technology companies over the course of decades and made numerous visits to technology supply chain facilities globally. Mr. Svolos also has a legal background with experience in intellectual property and securities law. He is a graduate of Northwestern University and Harvard Law School, cum laude.
Karen Veraa, CFA
Managing Director: Fixed Income iShares Strategy, BlackRock Financial Management
Karen Veraa, CFA, Managing Director, is the Head of iShares US Fixed Income Strategy within BlackRock's Indexed Fixed Income & LDI organization. She is a subject matter expert on fixed income ETFs and leads the commercialization efforts with the US Wealth Advisory segment. As part of her role, she writes content on fixed income markets and ETFs. She has been interviewed on CNBC, Bloomberg TV and BNN. Ms. Veraa is a contributor the BlackRock Blog. She works with the iShares Product Innovation team on new fixed income ETF launches. Prior to joining BlackRock, she was an investment research analyst at Laird Norton Wealth Management, providing investment solutions for high net worth clients. Ms. Veraabegan her career as short-term funding trader in the treasury department of Washington Mutual Bank.
Ms. Veraa earned a Bachelors of Business Administration in Finance from The University of Texas at Austin and is a CFA Charterholder
Paul Veradittakit
Partner, Pantera Capital
Paul Veradittakit is a Partner at Pantera Capital and focuses on the firm’s venture capital and hedge fund investments. Pantera Capital is the earliest and largest institutional investor in digital currencies and blockchain technologies, formerly managing over $4B. Since joining in 2014, Paul has helped to launch the firm’s second venture fund and currency funds, executing over 100 investments. Paul also sits on the board of Staked, Blockfolio, and Alchemy, is a mentor at The House Fund, Boost VC, and Alchemist, and is an advisor to Orchid, Origin, and AI Foundation. Prior to joining Pantera, Paul worked at Strive Capital as an Associate focusing on investments in the mobile space, including an early stage investment in App Annie. Previously, Paul was at Hatch Consulting and LECG and performed partnerships and growth for Urban Spoils, an early stage startup in the daily deal space. Paul graduated from the University of California, Berkeley.
Anne B. Walsh, CFA, JD
Managing Partner, Chief Investment Officer, Fixed Income, Guggenheim
Anne Walsh is Chief Investment Officer for Fixed Income at Guggenheim Partners, where she is responsible for meeting the return and risk needs of the firm’s fixed income clients, including insurance companies, corporate and public pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, endowments and foundations, consultants, wealth managers, and high net worth investors. In her role she oversees all elements of portfolio design, strategy, sector allocation, and risk management of fixed income portfolios, as well as conveying Guggenheim’s macroeconomic outlook to portfolio managers and fixed income sector specialists. She also serves as head of the Portfolio Construction Group and Portfolio Management team. Walsh oversees more than $185 billion in fixed income investments. She has over 30 years of experience in investment management.
Recognized among the nation’s top performing female asset managers by Citywire, Walsh leads a team that manages mutual funds regularly carrying four and five star ratings from Morningstar and have won awards for excellence from Lipper, WealthManagement.com, HFM, and Creditflux . Walsh is also a sought after source for her industry expertise, frequently appears in media outlets including Barron’s, Bloomberg, CNBC, The New York Times, and Reuters, among others, and is a frequent contributor to Guggenheim’s award winning Thought Leadership.
Bonnie M. Wongtrakool, CFA
Global Head of ESG Investments/Portfolio Manager, Western Asset Management Company, LLC.
Bonnie Wongtrakool is the Global Head of ESG Investments and Portfolio Manager in Western Asset’s Pasadena office, which she joined in 2003. Bonnie leads the Firm’s ESG research, engagement, strategies and portfolios, which express Western Asset’s ESG capabilities across a wide range of fixed-income mandates. Bonnie is a member of the Firm’s US Broad Strategy Committee, which formulates domestic investment themes and strategies. She also Chairs the Firm’s ESG Strategic Steering Committee, which advances and monitors the Firm’s global ESG platform and initiatives, and represents the Investment Management Team on the Global Product Development Committee. Prior to her ESG leadership role, Bonnie was a Portfolio Manager on the MBS/ABS Team, where she managed the Firm’s dedicated mortgage funds and was responsible for mortgage allocations across the Firm’s multi-sector portfolios. She brings to her role broad experience across the financial services industry, having previously worked at Mercer Management Consulting in strategy consulting, at Orion Partners in private equity, and at Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette Securities in investment banking.
Bonnie graduated Phi Beta Kappa and magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Harvard College, where she received the Detur Prize and was awarded the John Harvard Scholarship for academic distinction. She subsequently received a law degree, cum laude, from Harvard Law School, and is a member (inactive) of the Massachusetts State Bar. Bonnie is also a CFA® charterholder, and serves on the Board of Trustees of Crestview Preparatory School.
