LEIA - Key Persons

Job Titles:

• Assistant Vice President
• Member of the Investment Team
• Senior Research Analyst

Job Titles:

• Member of the Client Team
• Member of the Management Team
• Senior Vice President, Marketing & Client Service

Antoinette joined Leading Edge Investment Advisors in July of 2020 as Senior Vice President and is responsible for marketing and client service for the firm. Antoinette champions the voice of the client across all business functions and leads client engagement which includes onboarding, reporting, client/product strategy, and new business development. Antoinette is a member of the Investment Committee and the Compliance Committee. Antoinette was the Director of Client Service & Marketing at Metis Global Partners where she managed client service, marketing, operations, and compliance. Prior to that, Antoinette served as the Director of Marketing and Client Services at Herndon Capital Management where she was responsible for the execution of long-term strategic growth initiatives. During her tenure, she led the marketing, client service and consultant relations efforts for the firm. Early in her career, Antoinette worked on the sell-side where she was responsible for institutional sales and trading, operations, and compliance. Antoinette earned an Executive Master of Business Administration with a concentration in Strategy and Leadership from the University of North Carolina, Kenan-Flagler Business School - Chapel Hill and a Bachelor of Business Administration in Finance from Saint Joseph's University. She has also passed the National Association of Securities Dealers Series, 24, 7, 55, 65 and 63 certification examinations. Antoinette serves on the Board of Directors for the National Association of Securities Professionals (NASP) and as the President of the Northern California Chapter. She also serves as a steering committee member for the Investment Diversity Advisory Council (IDAC).

Job Titles:

• PRESIDENT

"I have identified my own list of portfolio attributes that great investment managers often possess. This comes as a result of more than three market cycles and more than 1000 due diligence meetings with emerging and non-emerging firms."

Job Titles:

• Managing Director
• Member of the Client Team
• Member of the Investment Team
• Member of the Management Team
• Managing Director, Member of the Client Team and Investment Committee

Carolyn is a Managing Director, member of the client team and Investment Committee and serves as senior team leader for the Investment Research Team. Carolyn focuses on investment research for prospective and funded investment managers, leads team meetings, manages and conducts investment manager onsite due diligence, and represents the firm at conferences and other functions. She joined Leading Edge in 2010 as a Senior Vice President, and has over 38 years of institutional investment experience, working with public, corporate, endowment, foundation, and Taft-Hartley plans. Carolyn has experience conducting client policy, asset allocation and asset/liability modeling reviews, manager research and evaluation, portfolio risk modeling, construction and transitions, and custodial trustee and third-party administrator searches. Carolyn's institutional experience includes working as a Senior Investment Consultant at Milliman, Inc. where she provided a full range of consulting services across multiple asset classes. Previously, Carolyn was Risk Management & Institutional Research Manager at SunGard Advisor Technologies, where she helped develop and launch a web-enabled investment consulting service for large financial intermediaries, structured custom investment platforms utilizing third-party investment managers, conducted onsite due diligence, and served on the Due Diligence Committee. Carolyn worked as an Investment Officer for California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS), where she was responsible for oversight, recruitment, and research pertaining to external international equity managers with assets managed for CalPERS over $30 billion. Previously, Carolyn worked as a Principal and Senior Investment Consultant with R.V. Kuhns and Dorn Helliesen & Cottle, as a Consultant at Wyatt Asset Services, Senior Analyst and Portfolio Administrator at Callan Associates and Client Administrator/Analyst with A.G. Becker/SEI. Carolyn has a Bachelor of Science degree in Education from Lesley College, and completed graduate level financial and managerial accounting, advanced mathematics coursework at Golden Gate University. Carolyn has served as Affiliate Chair and as a member of the Executive and Program committees for the State Association of County Retirement Systems (SACRS) and as a speaker at investment conferences, including the National Association of Securities Professionals (NASP) for which she helped develop its first annual Financial Services conference.

Job Titles:

• Executive Vice President
• Member of the Client Team
• Member of the Investment Team
• Member of the Management Team
• Partner and Founding Team Member

Chris is a partner and founding team member. As Executive Vice President, his responsibilities include manager due diligence and evaluation, investment research, portfolio and risk management. Chris also oversees quantitative analytics and internal technology development. Chris has made significant contributions to the firm as the original engineer of our proprietary systems and technology platform. While at Northern Trust Global Advisors, he was a Vice President of Research, with responsibility for developing fund structures, executing manager due diligence, and manager database research. Chris is a member of the Investment Committee and Compliance Committee. Prior to his tenure with Northern Trust, he was Senior Vice President and Deputy Chief Investment Officer at Progress Investment Management Company. Many of the proprietary techniques employed by both firms can be attributed to his expertise. Chris began his investment career at Callan Associates where he held management positions in product development, database management, and asset-liability consulting. Chris earned his Master of Business Administration, Master of Science (Engineering), and Bachelor of Science degrees in Engineering from the University of California at Berkeley. He is a CFA Charterholder, and a member of the CFA Institute and the San Francisco Security Analysts' Society.

Job Titles:

• CEO
• President

Clayton founded Leading Edge Investment Advisors, LLC in 2005 to offer the breadth of his knowledge, experience and entrepreneurial spirit to our clients. As President and Chief Executive Officer, he has engaged and supervises a highly experienced team of valued professionals. Clayton leads the team that is responsible for defining the parameters and creating competitive investment portfolios. Clayton is a member of the Investment Committee and the Compliance Committee. Clayton has developed more than 40 emerging manager programs for large institutional investors and has provided early funding to numerous firms during a career of more than 36 years. Clayton managed a $3 billion emerging/minority manager program at Northern Trust Global Advisors. He was also a key member of the firm's Hedge Fund and Trust Investment Committees, which oversaw $25 billion in assets. The Manager-of-Managers arena is not a new concept to Clayton. In 1990, he was a co-founder of the first Manager-of-Managers firm to specialize in creating Minority and Emerging manager programs for institutional investors - Progress Investment Management Company. This strategy was utilized to allow institutional investors the opportunity to invest in entrepreneurial investment firms. Prior to his work at Progress, he was a Pension and Investment Consultant with Callan Associates. Clayton received a Master of Business Administration from the San Francisco State University Graduate School of Business and a double Bachelor of Arts from the University of California, Berkeley. He has been a CFA Charterholder since 1991 and is a member of the CFA Institute and the San Francisco Security Analysts' Society. He is a founding Board member of the Association of Asian American Investment Managers (AAAIM) and served as the Chair from 2010-2017.

Job Titles:

• Member of the Client Team
• Member of the Investment Team
• Member of the Management Team

Job Titles:

• Member of the Investment Team
• Senior Vice President
• Visiting Professor at Florida a & M University

Diallo joined Leading Edge Investment Advisors in July of 2014 as Senior Vice President. As a member of the manager research team, he conducts due diligence on both prospective and current investment managers. Diallo is responsible for the creation and management of the firm's proprietary portal for manager reporting. He has in excess of 26 years of financial experience with institutional investments. Diallo is a member of the Investment Committee. Prior to joining Leading Edge, Diallo worked as an independent investment consultant to emerging managers for both long only and alternative strategies. Diallo served as the Senior Vice President and Director of Manager Research with FIS Group. During his tenure, he created both the investment manager due diligence process and database platform for various product categories for both the emerging manager and consulting businesses. He was a voting member of the Investment Committee. As a visiting professor at Florida A&M University, Diallo taught investment analysis, portfolio management and corporate finance. Additionally, he worked as an independent consultant to an emerging hedge fund manager. Early in his career, Diallo spent several years working in the Commodities Department within the Executive Office at U.S. Sugar Corporation, a large vertically integrated bulk commodities producer. While there, he reported to four senior officers responsible for running the company's large sugar and orange juice businesses. He served as a member of the Commodity Risk Management Team that developed and executed trading strategies utilizing derivatives and physicals (several hundred million dollars) and as lead for mergers & acquisition of agribusiness targets. Diallo developed the original design of the company's internal ComTrax system (Commodity Tracking System), a digital integrated risk management solution that ran seamlessly between the front, middle and back offices. He earned his Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and a Master of Business Administration (Finance Concentration) from Florida A&M University.

Job Titles:

• Corporate Controller

Janet joined Leading Edge Investment Advisors in October 2019 as Corporate Controller. In this role, she has overall responsibility for the accounting, finance, and tax operations for the company. She oversees the production of financial reports and forecasts, manages tax and accounting compliance, and annual financial audits. Previously, she held Controller positions at financing companies focused on lending to venture capital-backed growth stage startup companies and equipment leasing. At these roles, she was responsible for fund accounting, technical accounting, finance, valuations, and audit and tax compliance. She brings a wealth of financial services and investment experience from her roles at ATEL, Wells Fargo, Charles Schwab and Fremont Group. Janet has a Bachelor of Science in Accounting and Finance from San Francisco State University, a Master of Business Administration from University of Phoenix and a Master of Science in Taxation from Golden Gate University. She is a licensed CPA in California.

Job Titles:

• Senior Programming Analyst

Job Titles:

• Member of the Investment Team
• Senior Advisor

Rick brings a unique combination of investment experience as well as talent expertise to Leading Edge. He provides coaching and focuses on organizational analysis and development of both the firm and our managers. He brings his proprietary global tools that enable people to discover their exceptional performance patterns to think and act more creatively. Prior to joining Leading Edge Investment Advisors, Rick worked and taught with friend and StrengthQuest® author Edward "Chip" Anderson on how talent contributes to excellence. He has taught college courses in investments, finance, and talents. He was a Managing Director at Progress Investment Management, where he spearheaded Client Relations, Research and Product Development, and contributed to Sub-Manager Research. He successfully managed a pension fund, established strategic and successful in-house portfolios (US and International Equity), as well as working as an investment manager. At Southern California Edison Company, where Rick was Manager of Investments and in-charge of a $4 billion Employee Benefits Assets and Pension Fund, a significant performance increase, from fourth quartile to first quartile, took effect under his direction. Rick earned a Master of Business Administration in finance from American University and earned his Bachelor of Science at Oregon State University. Rick was also a doctoral student at Azusa Pacific University where the late Chip Anderson was a doctoral professor. He co-authored the book The Uprising Experience.

Job Titles:

• Chief Compliance Officer
• Member of the Management Team
• Senior Vice President

One of our original team members, Susan serves as the Chief Compliance Officer with responsibility for the development, implementation and oversight of corporate compliance policies and procedures. She also manages regulatory filings, contract review, client compliance reporting, sub-manager compliance and operational due diligence, and manages fund transitions. She is the chairperson of the Compliance Committee and is a member of the Investment Committee. She spent nearly nine years as an Assistant Vice President with Progress Investment Management Company. She managed Fund Administration, back office operations, and sub-manager compliance. Susan was responsible for the oversight of all aspects of investment operations, including investment accounting, performance calculation, transition management, sub-manager contracts, and trading the compensating account for the Core Equity Fund. During her tenure, she successfully completed the implementation and maintenance of Progress' private equity fund accounting system and managed the annual audit process for their commingled funds. Susan began her career managing fund administration and trading for a woman-owned, high-net-worth investment advisor that primarily managed large-cap growth portfolios. In addition to her public equity background, she has significant experience in investment accounting, trading, performance calculation, as well as partnership accounting, having dealt with private equity, real estate, and oil and gas funds. Susan earned her Bachelor of Arts degree from Washington State University in Pullman, Washington.

Job Titles:

• Managing Director
• Member of the Client Team
• Member of the Investment Team

Tony joined Leading Edge Investment Advisors in April 2023. His focus is on portfolio management and manager research. He uses his experience to provide recommendations that serve client objectives. Tony is a member of the Investment Committee and client team. Tony served as Senior Vice President at Bivium Capital Management where he created the Fixed Income product and managed the underlying portfolios. This accounted for approximately $1 billion in total assets for the firm. He led the firm's efforts in capital markets research and economic insights. Tony worked with Progress Investment Management Company as Senior Vice President and Portfolio Manager. He was responsible for managing all fixed income products as well as select equity and multi-asset class portfolios. Tony directed manager sourcing, portfolio construction, and allocation. He was a voting member of the Investment Committee. Earlier experience includes serving as Senior Portfolio Manager at the San Francisco Employees' Retirement System (SFERS). He oversaw the organization's $10 billion public equity portfolio, supervised the underlying sub-manager relationships, and managed $2 billion in internal capital. During his time as an Investment Officer with the State Universities Retirement System of Illinois, he oversaw the emerging manager of managers program. His prior experience includes various asset management, research, and corporate finance roles with Citigroup, Silverado Capital and Citadel Investment Group. Tony earned his Master of Business Administration from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from the University of Chicago. Tony has been a member of the Association of Asian American Investment Managers since 2010. He served on the Board of the organization from 2017-2022.

Job Titles:

• Member of the Investment Team
• Senior Research Analyst
• Vice President

Vicky joined Leading Edge Investment Advisors at the inception of the firm in 2005. Vicky is actively involved in investment and manager research across different asset classes. Her responsibilities include identification and evaluation of managers and strategies, validation of managers' investment process, style and factor exposure analysis, portfolio construction and rebalancing, monitoring fund performance, and risk exposure. She also participates in initial and ongoing manager due diligence. Vicky is a member of the Investment Committee. While with Progress Investment Management Company, she spent six years as a research analyst and finance manager. In her role as a research analyst, Vicky evaluated manager investment processes, organizational structures, investment styles, risk controls, portfolio performance and attribution, and alpha drivers in different market environments. In her role as finance manager, Vicky supervised the accounting and finance functions, including budgeting forecasting, and the review of financial statements. Vicky earned her Master of Business Administration in Finance, and double Bachelor of Science degrees in Finance and Accounting from San Francisco State University. She is a CFA Charterholder, and a member of the CFA Institute and the San Francisco Security Analysts' Society.