“Completing the CAIA Charter program was an excellent way to increase my technical understanding of complex investments and trading strategies. I am a strong advocate for new professionals joining the industry to pursue the designation.”
In 2006, Travis joined a boutique firm in Seattle that specialized in hedge fund, private equity and oil and gas investments. The following year, the firm was acquired by BlackRock to create a new business unit - BlackRock Alternative Advisors (“BAA”). BAA became one of the largest allocators to hedge funds globally with more than $20 billion in AUM. Five years after the formation of BAA, he transferred from Seattle to work at BlackRock’s global headquarters in New York. In a client facing role with a focus on institutional investors, it was important to increase his technical understanding of complex investment strategies.
Travis became a CAIA Member in the fall of 2012 and immediately recognized the benefits. In particular, he found that the curriculum prepared him to more effectively propose alternative investment solutions and lead the creation of new products to help investors navigate the challenging environment. A few years later, he was promoted to oversee the North America East and Latin America client business for BAA. In this role, Travis managed a team that collaborated with pensions, endowments, insurance companies and other institutional investors to primarily structure customized portfolios of hedge funds across a range of strategies. In October 2016, he accepted a senior institutional business development role with Winton in New York. Headquartered in London, Winton is a global investment management and data technology company. Winton’s philosophy is based on the belief that profitable investment opportunities can be identified through the application of advanced statistical and pattern recognition techniques to large datasets.
Today, Winton has over US$30 billion in assets under advisement and more than 400 employees in nine locations around the world. In the new role, Travis is focusing on the firm’s institutional client relationships in the North East US & Canada, and Latin America. In addition to the CAIA Designation, he holds the Series 7, Series 63 and Series 24 securities licenses.