Ellen Pao’s high-profile gender discrimination lawsuit against venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins left a “dramatic impact” on the industry – but it hasn’t changed male investors’ inclination for investing in companies founded by women, according to a new study from the National Bureau of Economic Research.

For two decades before the discrimination trial ended in 2015, the rate of hiring new female senior venture capital professionals in the U.S. hovered at a consistent 8 percent. In the years after the trial, however, the percentage of women hired in the venture capital industry increased by 50 percent, according to the study by Wharton School professor Sophie Calder-Wang and Harvard University’s Paul Gompers and Patrick Sweeney.

They found that the hiring rate for women increased steadily and incrementally over the last five years, landing at 17.7 percent in 2019. The researchers argued that the “high-profile” trial was a key component in...

In and around March 2018, there was a feeling at CNBC headquarters in Fort Lee, New Jersey, that if Larry Kudlow — a former CNBC anchor who had segued into being a roving on-air contributor  — joined the Trump administration as Donald Trump’s second National Economic Council director, no one was going to come out of the experience unscathed. 

Not CNBC. Not Kudlow. Not Trump. Not the American people. One former CNBC journalist tells me that around CNBC people were wondering about Kudlow, “Is he out of his fucking mind?” 

In an effort to dissuade Kudlow from taking the Trump job, someone came up with the clever idea of having him talk to Gary Cohn, the former Goldman Sachs president and chief operating officer who was Trump’s first chief economic adviser. Kudlow needed to hear from a Trump insider that going to work for the president would surely leave him bathed in the Trump Stink, as it had so many others, and might...

In and around March 2018, there was a feeling at CNBC headquarters in Fort Lee, New Jersey, that if Larry Kudlow — a former CNBC anchor who had segued into being a roving on-air contributor  — joined the Trump administration as Donald Trump’s second National Economic Council director, no one was going to come out of the experience unscathed. 

Not CNBC. Not Kudlow. Not Trump. Not the American people. One former CNBC journalist tells me that around CNBC people were wondering about Kudlow, “Is he out of his fucking mind?” 

In an effort to dissuade Kudlow from taking the Trump job, someone came up with the clever idea of having him talk to Gary Cohn, the former Goldman Sachs president and chief operating officer who was Trump’s first chief economic adviser. Kudlow needed to hear from a Trump insider that going to work for the president would surely leave him bathed in the Trump Stink, as it had so many others, and might...

In and around March 2018, there was a feeling at CNBC headquarters in Fort Lee, New Jersey, that if Larry Kudlow — a former CNBC anchor who had segued into being a roving on-air contributor  — joined the Trump administration as Donald Trump’s second National Economic Council director, no one was going to come out of the experience unscathed. 

Not CNBC. Not Kudlow. Not Trump. Not the American people. One former CNBC journalist tells me that around CNBC people were wondering about Kudlow, “Is he out of his fucking mind?” 

In an effort to dissuade Kudlow from taking the Trump job, someone came up with the clever idea of having him talk to Gary Cohn, the former Goldman Sachs president and chief operating officer who was Trump’s first chief economic adviser. Kudlow needed to hear from a Trump insider that going to work for the president would surely leave him bathed in the Trump Stink, as it had so many others, and might...

At this point in the pandemic, institutional investors are ready and willing to make additional investments in private markets, particularly through venture capital and growth equity investments, according to Eaton Partners.

The fund placement agent on Wednesday released its latest limited partner pulse survey, which questioned LPs about their views on alternative investments. When asked about how soaring public market valuations have impacted their opinions of private market investments, over half of participants reported that private markets look more attractive to them now. This figure indicates a shift from the firm’s September 2020 pulse survey, which found that nearly half of investors were not currently looking to make changes in their capital market allocations. 

According to the new survey, investors are increasingly looking to buyouts, growth equity, and venture capital above other private asset classes. Sixty-one percent of...

Some of the top asset managers in the U.S. on Wednesday joined hundreds of corporations, executives, and celebrities in releasing a statement in opposition to “any discriminatory legislation” that would restrict access to voting. 

T. Rowe Price, Vanguard, and BlackRock all signed on to the statement, which said, “Voting is the lifeblood of our democracy and we call upon all Americans to join us in taking a nonpartisan stand for this most basic and fundamental right of all Americans.”

Goldman Sachs, Bain, AIG, and Cambridge Associates also signed the statement, as well as private equity firms Warburg Pincus and Berkshire Partners and several venture capital firms. Capital Group CEO and Chairman Tim Armour also signed the statement, though his company was not a signatory. Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett was another signatory.

The statement appeared in print advertisements Wednesday in The New York Times,The Washington Post, and...

SPACs have gotten a lot of attention from investors. Now, regulators are watching, too.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is stepping up scrutiny of special-purpose acquisition companies, which exploded in popularity during the pandemic as a way for early-stage companies to go public without the regulatory scrutiny of a traditional IPO. But increased attention from the SEC may throw a wrench in the market. 

In the latest of a string of warnings issued by the SEC in recent weeks, the regulator said late Monday that some of the blank-check firms, called SPACs, may have failed to properly account for warrants sold or given to investors.

Warrants, which give some investors the right to buy more shares of the company at a preset price in the future, are a common instrument through which SPACs raise money, including from hedge funds and other early investors. SPACs are shell companies that trade on a stock exchange before...

Raytheon Technologies’ corporate pension fund is the latest of a bevy of retirement plans to sue Allianz over alleged mismanagement of certain structured product investments.  

Raytheon's complaint, filed on Friday, alleges that it lost about 75 percent of its $375 million investment with Allianz — losses that “far exceed” what it would have lost if Allianz “prudently” managed the investment strategy.  

Raytheon joins several other pension funds that have already sued Allianz over the alleged mismanagement, including the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association National Employee Benefits Committee, the Teamster Members Retirement Plan, and Lehigh University, among several others.  

“As we set out at the time, the Structured Alpha portfolio sustained losses during the severe market rout in late February and March,” an Allianz spokesperson said via email Tuesday. “While the losses were disappointing, the...

Consulting firm NEPC is opening up about the work it still needs to do on diversity and inclusion.

The Boston-based investment consultant on Tuesday published its first annual Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Progress Report, grading its progress on publicly-stated DEI goals such as increasing staff diversity and working with more women- and minority-led asset managers.

While gender diversity has advanced in the firm’s upper-level positions, NEPC revealed it still struggles with low rates of career advancement and high turnover numbers for minority employees.

“We’re going to tell you the good, the bad, and the ugly,” Sam Austin, chair of NEPC’s diversity and inclusion board, said in a phone interview. “We’re going to be honest about holding a mirror up to ourselves and putting in place policies that will help us to improve that.” 

The liquidation of Bill Hwang’s Archegos Capital family office last month is inadvertently shedding new light on the secretive hedge fund family of Tiger Cubs, Seeds and Grandcubs to which he belongs.

Hwang may have shut down his hedge fund, Tiger Asia, after he settled insider trading charges from the Securities and Exchange Commission in 2012, but he wasn’t banished from the club of former acolytes of Tiger Management’s Julian Robertson.

In fact, Hwang invested at least $65 million in more than 20 other hedge funds with ties to Tiger Management, according to tax filings of the Grace and Mercy Foundation, Hwang’s charity, which had amassed over $470 million as of 2018. The filings show investments made between 2007 and 2017, the latest data available. 

“This cross-Tiger fund investing goes on all the time,” said one individual familiar with the hedge fund family. “They use it as a way to access idea flow.”

Teng Yue Partners, the hedge fund founded by former Bill Hwang protégé Tao Li, lost 29 percent in March as it fell victim to the liquidation of at least one of the stocks held by Hwang’s Archegos Capital, according to an investor.

Li runs an aggressive hedge fund that places its stock bets via highly levered equity swaps, much like Hwang’s Archegos family office. Neither Teng Yue nor Archegos have made quarterly 13F filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Using swaps, both were levered long GSX Techedu, the Chinese online education company that short sellers say is a fraud and part of a short squeeze that began last summer, as Institutional Investor previously reported. The stock went as high as $149.05 per share in January during the short squeeze of Melvin Capital. (In addition to GameStop, Melvin was also short GSX.) 

GSX shares have been falling heavily since mid-March, beginning with news that the SEC would soon...

After falling as much as 30% during COVID lockdowns, global oil demand is now back to about 95% of its pre-pandemic highsTensions with China and a new wave of European lockdowns continue to threaten a recovery in U.S. crude oil exports

It’s hard to imagine that private equity firms would have stayed out of the booming business of special-purpose acquisition companies. But private-equity-sponsored SPACs could lead to conflicts of interest with the firms’ other funds, according to PitchBook.

Investors are raising questions about how private equity firms that sponsor SPACs and traditional funds will manage the natural conflicts between the two, including deciding where to put the most attractive deals, PitchBook said in its first quarter report on U.S. private equity.

SPACs raise money in public markets, then go out and make deals to buy private companies — similar to private equity funds. Almost 300 SPACs were launched in the U.S. last year. So far in 2021, SPACs have already raised $47.2 billion, according to the report.

The first quarter report also covers private equity fundraising, which bounced back in the first quarter after a lukewarm 2020, as well as private...

The United Kingdom has opened an investigation into the now-insolvent finance firm Greensill Capital, which suddenly collapsed last month in a financial blow-up that hit institutions including Credit Suisse’s asset management arm.

The investigation, announced on Monday, follows reports that former prime minister David Cameron had lobbied U.K. ministers on Greensill’s behalf.

Lex Greensill, the founder and CEO of Greensill Capital, in 2011 began serving as a government advisor to Cameron, who was prime minister from 2010 to 2016. Cameron then became an advisor for Greensill Capital in 2018.

According to recent news reports, Cameron directly contacted ministers and organized at least one private meeting with a lawmaker to lobby them on Greensill’s behalf, prompting criticism that the former prime minister may have used unofficial channels to curry favor and secure government contracts for the company. 

Hedge fund managers are feeling optimistic about their economic prospects over the next 12 months.

In a recent survey, 90 percent of hedge funds reported a positive outlook for their firms’ futures, according to the Hedge Fund Confidence Index, a global index produced by the Alternative Investment Management Association with law firms Simmons & Simmons and Seward & Kissel. 

The HFCI was based on a poll over 300 hedge funds across the globe, accounting for approximately $1 trillion in assets, during the first quarter of 2021. Respondents were asked to rate their economic confidence levels on scale of -50 to +50, with +50 indicating the highest level of confidence. Based on responses, the average measure of confidence was +18 percent, a nearly 40 percent increase from the confidence levels reported last quarter. 

“Hedge funds appear to be riding a wave of optimism sweeping the globe as it moves closer to exiting the...

In 2018, the Los Angeles County Employees Retirement Association began asking prospective asset managers about diversity.  

The questionnaire — given to managers that responded to LACERA’s requests for proposals — asks for details on who implements firm diversity policies, how many confidential settlements or non-disclosure agreements are related to workplace sexual harassment or discrimination, and whether firms conduct a pay disparity analysis.  

LACERA is not the only asset allocator to make diversity and inclusion questions an explicit part of the request for proposal and search process. For instance, in current requests for proposals both the Illinois State Universities Retirement System and the Ohio Public Employees Retirement System included questions on diversity.  

“We want to influence practices and measure progress over time because we believe that diverse and inclusive teams...

Months after Smith College announced plans to establish its own in-house investment office, the endowment has hired its first chief investment officer.  

Lisa Howie, who is currently a director at the Yale Investment Office, will begin her new role as Smith’s CIO on June 28, according to a Monday announcement from Smith.  

In a statement, Howie said she is “thrilled” to join Smith, adding that it’s a “fantastic opportunity to build a team and a portfolio in service of Smith’s mission of educating and empowering women.” 

Smith had been outsourcing its investments to outsourced CIO firm Investure since 2004, Institutional Investor previously reported. The $2 billion endowment made the decision to set up its own investment office in December, noting that most other university endowments its size already manage their own assets.