David Salem has been a pioneer, practitioner and student of institutional investing for the last forty years. David was the founding president and CIO of The Investment Fund for Foundations (TIFF), which he led for nearly two decades until 2010. Since then, he has managed a multi-family office, worked and wrote alongside Ben Hunt at Epsilon Theory, and now serves as the Managing Director of Capital Allocation at Hedgeye Risk Management. Along the way, David worked closely with and distilled lessons from David Swensen, Jack Meyer in his time at Harvard Management Company, Charley Ellis, Chuck Feeney from Atlantic Philanthropies, and many other leading CIOs and managers.
Our conversation covers David’s journey to investing, including sitting alongside Jeremy Grantham during GMO’s early growth stage and founding TIFF. We dive into manager selection, decision-making, investment committees, and risk management. We then turn to David’s views on China, Japan, private equity, and digital assets. Throughout our conversation, David shares his profound understanding of the unique pressures faced by institutional investors and the principles that guide successful investment strategies and leadership in complex environments.
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