Program Director

Hossein Kazemi, Ph.D., CFA

Dr. Hossein Kazemi, Ph.D., CFA, is the Program Director for the CAIA Association. He oversees the development, execution, and analysis of the CAIA program's curriculum and examinations. Dr. Kazemi has been involved in the CAIA Association since inception as a senior advisor and board member. In addition, he has worked with universities and industry organizations to introduce them to the CAIA program. Dr. Kazemi is on sabbatical leave as a Professor of Finance from the Isenberg School of Management at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Dr. Kazemi is currently an Associate Director of the Center for International Securities & Derivatives Markets, a nonprofit organization devoted to research in the area of alternative investments, a co-founder of the CAIA Association, and home to CISDM Hedge Fund/CTA Database. He was involved in the development of first investible hedge fund indices as well. He is an Associate Editor of The Journal of Alternative Investments and The Financial Review. His research has been in the areas of valuations of equity and fixed income securities, asset allocation for traditional and alternative asset classes, and evaluation and replication of active management investment products. He has a Ph.D. in finance from the University of Michigan. Dr. Kazemi lives in Northampton, MA, with his wife and son.

Director of Exams

Nelson Lacey, Ph.D., CFA

Nelson J. Lacey is a professor of finance at the Isenberg School of Management at the University of Massachusetts. He came to Amherst in 1985 after having earned his Ph.D. in finance from the Pennsylvania State University. At Penn State he studied corporate finance and fixed income markets, topics that would guide his research over the next twenty or so years. He also worked in modeling the state economy and designed a set of leading indicators for Pennsylvania. He earned an MBA from the Arizona State University in 1980 and became a CFA charterholder in 1999.

Professor Lacey joined CAIA at its inception. He has been active in working on the program's curriculum and examinations since 2003, and he became Director of Examinations in 2004. With the help of the CAIA Advisory Board and Curriculum and Examination Committee, he has been instrumental in designing the current CAIA exam format.

Professor Lacey also directs the CAIA grading sessions (or Grading Jamborees, as they've come to be known), when members of the Association come to Amherst to evaluate Level II candidate essay responses.

Professor Lacey's academic work has led to over 50 publications in finance and economics. His work in interest rate risk management and control led to the development of higher order closed form solutions for duration and convexity. His work in corporate finance examined Value Line stock ratings, the insurance liability crisis, and FDA decisions on the acceptance and rejection of new drugs. His corporate finance text book is now in its sixth edition. He has held adjunct teaching positions in places such as Poland, Greece, and Portugal.

In his off time, he can often be spotted running the roads and trails of Amherst. He has completed thirteen marathons, including the Boston Marathon six times.

Associate Director of Curriculum

Don Chambers, Ph.D., CAIA

Dr. Chambers assists in the areas of curriculum and examination. His primary contributions involve writing curriculum and reviewing exam items.

Dr. Chambers is the Walter E. Hanson KPMG Professor of Finance at Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania. He has published fifty articles and several books in investments, corporate finance and risk management. He received a Ph.D. in Finance from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a B.S. in Accounting from SUNY-Binghamton.

Dr. Chambers began at Lafayette College after serving at the University of Baltimore as the Frank Baker Research Chair in Finance. His prior academic positions were at Rochester Institute of Technology, Penn State University, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Dr. Chambers served at The Bank of New York on a consulting basis in risk management. He also served at Karpus Investment Management of Pittsford, NY in various roles including Director of Alternative Investments.

Dr. Chambers earned the CAIA charter in September 2003 as a member of the first group of candidates to complete the requirements. In his spare time, Dr. Chambers enjoys reading and exercising.

Associate Director of Curriculum

Keith Black, Ph.D., CAIA, CFA

Keith Black has over twenty years of financial market experience, serving approximately half of that time as an academic and half as a trader and consultant to institutional investors. He currently serves as Associate Director of Curriculum for the CAIA Association. During his most recent role at Ennis Knupp + Associates, Keith advised foundations, endowments and pension funds on their asset allocation and manager selection strategies in hedge funds, commodities and managed futures. Prior experience includes commodities derivatives trading at First Chicago Capital Markets, stock options research and CBOE market-making for Hull Trading Company, and building quantitative stock selection models for mutual funds and hedge funds for Chicago Investment Analytics. Dr. Black previously served as an assistant professor and senior lecturer at the Illinois Institute of Technology's Stuart school, where he taught courses in both traditional and alternative investments.

He contributes regularly to The CFA Digest, and has published in The Journal of Global Financial Markets, The Journal of Trading, The Journal of Financial Compliance and Regulation, The Journal of Investments, The Journal of Environmental Investing, and Derivatives Use Trading and Regulation. He is the author of the book "Managing a Hedge Fund." Dr. Black was named to Institutional Investor magazine's list of "Rising Stars of Hedge Funds" in 2010.

Dr. Black earned a BA from Whittier College, an MBA from Carnegie Mellon University, and a PhD from the Illinois Institute of Technology. He has earned the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation and was a member of the inaugural class of the Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA) candidates.

Senior Associate Director of Exams

Kristaps Licis

Kristaps works in all phases of the examination process including item development and analysis and exam design and delivery. He has been a consultant on the exam development team since the CAIA Association's inception, joining full-time in December 2008. He worked for a trend-following Commodity Trading Advisor (CTA) fund for a number of years, developing trading and reporting systems. As a Research Associate for the Center for International Derivatives and Securities Markets (CISDM), Kristaps developed and managed a risk management platform for a large portfolio of CTAs. He has a number of publications with the Journal of Alternative Investments. Kristaps has a BA in Economics from Riga Technical University in Latvia and an MBA from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Kristaps enjoys travel and photography. He lives in Amherst with his son.

Associate Director of Exam Administration

Kathy Champagne

As the Associate Director of Exam Administration, Kathy assists the Director of Exams in managing the development, construction, grading, and analysis of the CAIA examinations. She brings twenty years of experience in the assessment industry to her work at CAIA.

In her free time, Kathy enjoys yoga, dancing, walking, gardening, knitting, cooking, and photography.

Associate Director, Curriculum Project Manager

Jeanne Miller

Jeanne works with the Program Director and acts as a liaison between the Director and various committees, CAIA members, exam item developers, practitioners, academic experts and publishers, ensuring receipt of deliverables. She is also manages the process for reviewing and publishing curriculum materials.

Jeanne received a B.A. in Management from Western Michigan University. Jeanne enjoys all of the great New England nature - including the hiking, kayaking and skiing and all of the bears and spends whatever free time exploring New England.

Program Assistant

Andrew Tetreault

As Program Assistant, Andrew supports the strategic objective of managing the day-to-day developmental and administrative operations of the Curriculum processes. He works closely with members of the curriculum department to complete all projects and strives to maintain a wealth of knowledge and current readings for the curriculum library.

Andrew is a graduate of UMass-Amherst, where he received a bachelor’s degree in Applied Mathematics and Economics. He is also an eagle scout from the Boy Scouts of America. In his free time Andrew enjoys being outdoors, cooking, sports, and summer concerts.