2:30 – 3:30 – Distressed Assets: Finding Value In Troubled Companies


Susan Carter

Director

NC Department of State Treasurer

Ms. Carter is the Director of Real Estate Investments at the North Carolina Retirement System (NCRS), a $77 billion plan with a real estate allocation of 5.4% and a target of 6%.


 

Andrew B. Chacos

Chief Operating Officer

Silverback Asset Management, LLC

Mr. Chacos has 32 years of experience on Wall Street in a variety of roles serving institutional customers.  From September 2003, when he joined Silverback as COO, until the present, he has been a member of the Investment Policy Committee and had responsibility for the Firm’s daily business activities. This includes financing, investor relations, operations, legal, and technology. Prior to joining Silverback, Mr. Chacos had worked at Deutsche Bank since its merger in 1999 with Bankers Trust, where he started his financial services career in 1977.  At Deutsche Bank he was the Global Head of Sales & Marketing for Global Equity Prime Services.  As such, he was responsible for the marketing, new product development and client relationship management efforts of the salesforce worldwide with hedge funds.  In addition, he was responsible for coordinating the cross-selling of the broad array of value added products and services offered to the Bank’s customers in the alternative investments industry. 


Previously, Mr. Chacos was the Chief Operating Officer for Sales and Marketing across both Global Equity Derivatives and Global Equity Prime Services. Before that, he was responsible for the structuring and marketing of alternative asset class investments, which use a variety of financial tools to achieve a broad array of investment objectives, including principal protection, asset allocation, synthetic investment, yield enhancement, alpha transfer, hedging, and tax & accounting efficiency.  While at Bankers Trust, Mr. Chacos held a variety of positions.  From 1991 to 1999, he was head of the derivatives sales teams that covered US based equity and fixed income investment managers, as well as, pensions, endowments and foundations.  From 1985 to 1990 he was the head of the Los Angeles Office responsible for Bankers Trust’s Cash Securities & Derivatives Fixed Income business in the Western United States.  Prior to that Mr. Chacos held a number of positions in the World Corporate Department serving the financing needs of multinational clients headquartered in New York.


Mr. Chacos joined Bankers Trust Company after spending two years as a Special Agent in the United States Secret Service in New York. He graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a B.A. in Psychology in 1975.


 

Sallie Shuping Russell

Managing Director

BlackRock

Ms. Russell is a Managing Director at BlackRock.  Previously, Ms. Russell was with Quellos Group, LLC and provided investment management services including strategic asset allocation and alternative investment management.  Ms. Russell is a Trustee of The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  


 

Jeffrey C. Wheeler

Senior Vice President

Smith Breeden Associates, Inc.

Jeff Wheeler, CFA is a Senior Vice President and Portfolio Manager at Smith Breeden Associates, Inc. He is a senior member of the securitized asset team and focuses on the analysis and trading of asset-backed securities. Prior to joining the firm, Mr. Wheeler was a portfolio manager at Southwest Corporate Federal Credit Union in Dallas and an analyst at Fannie Mae in Washington DC. Before earning a Master of Business Administration at the University of North Carolina’s Kenan-Flagler Business School, Mr. Wheeler was an analyst at the firm’s Chapel Hill office. He also holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Appalachian State University in Boone, NC, where he graduated at the top of the Finance Department.


Moderated By:

Patrick G. Hartley

Senior Vice President

Raymond James & Associates, Inc.

Patrick Hartley teaches “Alternative Investments,” a portfolio management course focused on the management of institutional public/private portfolios, including pension funds and endowments. The required course for investment management students UNC Kenan-Flagler gives them broad exposure to the latest developments in the alternative investments sector and prepares them for future capital markets careers as portfolio managers, financial analysts, hedge fund managers, traders or service providers.


Mr. Hartley has served for several years as a member of the board of directors of UNC Kenan-Flagler’s “Applied Investment Management” program and its student-managed endowment funds. He has been a sponsor and judge of the Evergreen Investments Alpha Challenge, the international MBA investment competition organized by UNC Kenan-Flagler.


Mr. Hartley is a senior vice president with Raymond James & Associates, Inc., a global investment banking, brokerage and asset management firm.  As institutional sales professional, he works with the firm's institutional clients, including hedge funds, high yield/distressed money managers, financial institutions and private equity funds. Most recently, he has worked with clients in a variety of structured credit products, such as residential and commercial mortgage-backed securities and collateralized debt obligations (CDOs). In a new initiative, he will work directly with fund managers in the distressed debt and real estate sectors to identify and attract new institutional investors for their investment activities. 


Prior to joining Raymond James, Mr. Hartley was a participant in the capital markets industry with a number of securities firms and financial institutions.  His roles have spanned the areas of portfolio management, sales management, trading, investment banking and client relationship management.


He received an MBA from the George Washington University School of Business and his BSBA from UNC Kenan-Flagler. He attended executive management programs at Harvard Business School and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.