Shortly before the financial crisis of 2008, I received my CAIA Charter. My reasons for taking the tests and pursuing the designation might be similar to yours: To provide a well thought out structure to my knowledge of alternatives and to better understand what was relevant and what wasn't.
Not long thereafter, I had the wonderful experience of helping to grade the level II exam as part of CAIA’s member “Grading Jamboree.” Together with a group of very fun, very smart complete strangers, I spent 3 days volunteering for the cause and getting to know other members. Doing this alerted me to the reality that networking - interacting with directly relevant people - on topics of mutual interest is one of the key benefits of the CAIA designation. It was already paying off for me.
New York’s first Chapter Head, Robert O'Donnell invited me to join the chapter committee in 2010(ish). With fellow committee member Gregg Kaufman we worked collaboratively to create a robust calendar of programming that would be relevant to our members.
That goal remains my chief objective as the current Chapter Head, to structure events in NY that appeal to all of our members, that provide natural networking environments, and that reinforce the value of the designation.
The New York Chapter is both an easy and a challenging one. We are the biggest of CAIA’s 17+ chapters and could grow 10x while still not covering the majority of investors, asset managers and service providers that would benefit from the CAIA designation. However, as the hub of alternative investment activity, there is a surfeit of events that demand the attention of our members. In NY, one could easily go to an event every night. My challenge, along with other NY region chapter executives, is to position CAIA events in this competitive environment and deliver clear value for the designation.
Our strategy to achieve this is to be smarter, ask tougher questions, and be more educationally- driven rather than product marketing-driven. We embrace the expectation of our chapter that we lead by example and create methodologies that can be used as a template and scaled across CAIA’s global chapter network.
With the help of my committee members, we have drawn up a short list of topics which we will cover in the near term including Liquid Alternatives, Private Equity, and risk management to name a few. In addition, we’ll continue to have regular social networking events like the happy hour we held on Monday August 4 that drew 70 people.
We remain open to the input and ideas of our membership and look forward to a busy and productive time ahead. Feel free to share your thoughts with me or CAIA’s Chapter Relations Manager, Heather Morales.
Andrew Saunders
Managing Partner
Castle Hill Capital Partners, LLC
asaunders@castlehillcap.com
