Ela Karahasanoglu, MBA, CFA, CAIA

Headshot of Ela Karahasanoglu

“I pursued the CAIA 10 years ago while working at a hedge fund. I wanted to have an advanced macro view of the alternatives industry and a complement to my CFA. Not only did I learn extensively through the exam process - which has served me well for the rest of my career, but I also became a very proud member of a select and growing community of very smart individuals with a diverse and amazing backgrounds in alternatives."

Ela Karahasanoglu shares her expertise and commitment to the alts industry by serving on CAIA Association’s Gender Diversity Advisory Board and as the Co-Head of CAIA’s Toronto Chapter.  She currently holds the position of Director, Total Fund Management (TFM) with BCI where she is the Head of the TFM team. With $153.4bn of managed assets, BCI is a leading provider of investment management services for British Columbia’s public sector.

Prior to joining BCI in September 2019, Ela was a Managing Director, Multi-Asset Strategies at Investment Management Corporation of Ontario and WSIB, where Ela oversaw the $8.5bn Multi-Asset Strategies portfolio and acted as the Deputy CIO leading the investment team that managed WSIB’s $35bn portfolio. Before WSIB, Ela was the Vice President of Currency and Asset Allocation team at CIBC Asset Management. Prior to that, she was a Principal and Senior Manager Research Consultant in the Alternatives team within Mercer, covering a broad set of absolute return and hedge fund strategies.

Ela was previously the Head of Research and Trading for six years at a New York-based quantitative macro hedge fund and worked in the areas of credit derivatives and asset management at Merrill Lynch, New York. Ela started out her career as a currency and bond trader in Turkey.

In June 2020, she was recognized by the Institutional Investor as a leading “Innovator” globally in institutional investing and received their Hedge Fund Rising Star Award in June 2018. Published in various media including CME Roundtable, Benefits Canada, Opalesque, Fortune (Turkey), The Economist (Turkey), Plans & Trust, Institutional Investor regarding institutional investing, AR, hedge funds, CTAs and currencies, Ela is frequently sought to speak at industry events globally.

Ela has over 20 years experience in the investment industry with over 13 years dedicated to research, trading, portfolio management and construction in the alternatives and absolute return space. She holds a Master of Business Administration from Georgetown University. Ela has been a CFA Charterholder since 2002 and a CAIA Charterholder since 2010.

Location
CAIA Canada