Bloomberg Presents: 5th Annual Diversity Drives Returns

Peter T. Grauer joined Bloomberg, the global financial technology company that was founded in 1981, full time as chairman, president and CEO in March 2002.  He was a member of the Bloomberg Board of Directors since October 1996 and was named chairman of the board in March 2001, succeeding Michael R. Bloomberg.

Prior to joining Bloomberg, Grauer was a managing director of Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette from 1992 to 2000 when DLJ was acquired by Credit Suisse First Boston. He is a founder of DLJ Merchant Banking Partners and DLJ Investment Partners and also served as a managing director and senior partner of CSFB Private Equity. Grauer graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the Harvard University Graduate School of Business, Program for Management Development.

He serves on the World Economic Forum’s Media, Entertainment and Information, Financial Services and Gender Parity Board of Governors. He is founding Chairman of the Community of Chairmen at the World Economic Forum. Grauer is also a member of the British American Business International Advisory Board.

Grauer is the President of the Board of Trustees of the Inner City Scholarship Fund in New York City and a member of the Partnership for Inner City Education Board of Directors. He serves as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Wildlife Conservation Society and the The WNET Group.

He is founding Chairman of the U.S. 30% Club. Grauer is a member of the Board of the Prostate Cancer Foundation and is Chairman of the College Advising Corps. He is a trustee of The Economic Club of New York and Rockefeller University.

Grauer served as lead director of DaVita, Inc. (NYSE: DVA), a healthcare services company based in Colorado.  Grauer was the Senior Independent Director and Chairman of the Nominations and Audit Committees of Glencore. He is former Independent Director and member of the Audit Committee of Blackstone (NYSE:BX). He is a former member of the Business Council, McKinsey Advisory Council, International Business Council of the World Economic Forum, the Asia Business Council and Out Leadership’s Global Advisory Board. Grauer is Emeritus board member of Room to Read and the Board of the USA Cycling Development Foundation. He is a former member of the Board of Trustees of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and several UNC entities.  He is the Chairman Emeritus of the Board of Directors of The Big Apple Circus, former member of Jazz at Lincoln Center and a former President of the Pomfret School Board of Trustees.

He is a recipient of the Peterson Business Award, the William Richardson Davie Award, the Dean’s Award for Distinguished Service to the College of Arts and Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the Papal Order of Merit. Grauer was also inducted into the North Carolina Media & Journalism Hall of Fame.

Fatima Shama is the head of diversity and inclusion (D&I) for the Americas at Bloomberg. Fatima oversees the diversity, equity and inclusion strategy and delivers programs and initiatives that advance diverse representation and drive change across the organization. Fatima and her team bring inclusive and equitable practices that enhance culture, the workplace and overall business excellence through accountability frameworks, talent management strategies, programming and partnerships.

Fatima has over 25 years of working on innovative strategies that respond to the needs of diverse communities at the intersection of health care access, educational equity, youth development and advocating and supporting immigrants and communities of color. Her work has focused on engaging, lifting and supporting diverse talents, voices and perspectives to ensure inclusive and equitable opportunities and outcomes. Prior to joining Bloomberg, Fatima was the CEO and executive director of The Fresh Air Fund. Before that, Fatima served in Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s administration as the commissioner of the NYC Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs and his senior policy advisor on education.

Fatima serves as a Trustee for the Pinkerton Foundation and is on the boards of New City Parks, the New York Immigration Coalition, Coro Leadership New York and National Summer Learning Association.

As President & CEO of AltFinance, Marcus Shaw leverages his 20+ years of experience in investment management, technology, and nonprofit leadership to develop strategies for growing diversity in the alternative investment industry through mentorship, partnerships, and financial support. He has led AltFinance since its inception and has overseen the growth of the AltFinance Fellowship to more than 100 students to date, the disbursement of more than $5.4 million in scholarships HBCU students and in institutional giving to support HBCU programs, and the launch of the AltFinance Institute, a partnership with the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania to bring top-tier financial curriculum, alternative investing training, and professional networking to all HBCU students and faculty across the country.

David A. Thomas, Ph.D., is the 12th president of Morehouse College. Since his installment in January 2018, he has led dynamic, purpose-driven advancement in Morehouse’s strategic and operational effectiveness, programmatic reach, and pedagogical innovation. Among other transformational successes, Dr. Thomas has overseen a fundraising acceleration which has generated more than $200 million since his arrival—a giving total during his tenure that is higher than during any other presidential tenure in the history of the college and has accelerated through a $500 million comprehensive capital campaign. Under his leadership, Morehouse has extended its reach by launching its first online degree programs and has amplified its positioning as a center of intellectual discourse and social engagement in areas such as global leadership, professional equity, social justice, and innovation.

David Wilson, Ed.D., the 10th president of Morgan State University, has a long record of accomplishments and more than 30 years of experience in higher education administration. Dr. Wilson holds four academic degrees: a B.S. in political science and an M.S. in education from Tuskegee University; an Ed.M. in educational planning and administration from Harvard University; and an Ed.D. in administration, planning and social policy, also from Harvard.

David came to Morgan from the University of Wisconsin, where he was chancellor of both the University of Wisconsin Colleges and the University of Wisconsin–Extension. Before that, he held numerous other administrative posts in academia, including vice president for University Outreach and associate provost at Auburn University, and associate provost of Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey.

J.Dennis Jean-Jacques serves as Founder and Chief Investment Officer at Ocean Park Investments LP. He is an accomplished and seasoned investor having invested approximately more than $3.2 billion of client capital in the US and European public markets during various market cycles over 20 years. For a decade, prior to Ocean Park, Mr. Jean-Jacques was a portfolio manager and Managing Director at alternative platforms including Verition Fund and Basso Capital. Prior to running absolute return alternative strategies, Mr. Jean-Jacques was the Vice President of Public Equities at Olayan Investment Group and apprenticed with a legendary investor at Mutual Shares focusing on companies undergoing or likely to undergo significant change and other unique special situations with a strategy and asset mix consisting of domestic and foreign equities, arbitrage positions, shareholder activism and bankruptcy positions. He began his investment career as a Fidelity Investments equity research associate in 1993. Mr. Jean-Jacques received a BSSE from Boston University College of Engineering and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Christopher James is the Chief Operating Officer of Blackstone’s Tactical Opportunities group (Tac Opps). Mr. James is a member of the Investment Committee for the Tac Opps and Blackstone Growth funds.

Prior to launching Tactical Opportunities in 2012, Mr. James previously managed a number of the firm’s business development efforts and strategic initiatives across asset classes and investment products.  Since joining Blackstone in 2006, Mr. James has led the organization of a number of new Blackstone investment products as well as the execution of the firm’s initial public offering and the firm’s investments in GSO, Pátria Investimentos and Strategic Partners.

Mr. James received a BS from Duke University and a JD from Harvard Law School. He currently serves on the Board of Trustees of Prep for Prep and Riverdale Country School. He has served on the boards of various Blackstone portfolio companies.

Based in New York, Scarlet Fu is an anchor for Bloomberg’s streaming news network, Quicktake, with a focus on diversity and inclusion coverage. She is also Bloomberg Television’s Senior Editor of the Markets Desk. In addition, she moderates discussion panels, including the monthly CornellTech@Bloomberg speaker series with tech luminaries and entrepreneurs.

Previously, Fu co-anchored “Bloomberg Markets: The Close” and “What’d You Miss?” daily, “Bloomberg ETF IQ,” the first program to focus solely on exchange-traded products, and “The Fed Decides,” Bloomberg’s special coverage of the Federal Reserve’s policy decisions.

Before joining Bloomberg Television in 2007, Fu was a U.S. stocks editor for Bloomberg News. Prior to that, she oversaw Bloomberg News coverage of Asian equities, and reported on the handover of Hong Kong to Chinese rule in 1997. Fu began her journalism career at CNBC Asia in Hong Kong.

Fu graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Cornell University with a bachelor’s degree in history and concentration in Asian American Studies. She has also studied Mandarin at Peking and National Taiwan Normal Universities.

Leena Bhutta is the chief investment officer for the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. In this capacity, Bhutta oversees the foundation’s investments team, strategy and processes.

Before joining the foundation, Bhutta served as director of alternative investments at the Hollyhock Foundation. In that role she created the investment program for the foundation and initiated investments in external fund managers across various strategies. Prior to that role, Bhutta was an investment professional at Joho Capital, an Asia-focused hedge fund, where she invested in public companies across the region. She started her career in investment banking at Goldman Sachs.

Bhutta earned her Master of Business Administration from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business and a Bachelor of Arts in economics from Wellesley College.

Ya Tung is the Chief Investment Officer of the Jefferies Family Office which provides senior Jefferies employee-partners with opportunities and services to invest, build and preserve their capital. Prior to joining Jefferies in 2022, Ya spent over a decade at Goldman Sachs and GCM Grosvenor investing in alternatives.  Most recently Ya was a Managing Director in the private equity group at GCM Grosvenor where she shared leadership responsibilities for overseeing GCM’s primaries business and team, including shaping investment strategy and portfolio construction and management. Prior to GCM Grosvenor, she was a member of the investment team and the Strategy lead for U.S. middle market in AIMS (Alternatives Investments and Manager Selection Group) of the IMD (Investment Management Division) at Goldman Sachs. Prior to Goldman Sachs, Ya worked in key corporate functions that focused on cost control, operating efficiencies, and production. Ya graduated with a BS in Industrial Engineering and an MBA in Finance and Economics from Columbia University.

Alifia Doriwala is a Managing Director at RockCreek, responsible for OCIO and Multi-Asset Class portfolios. She focuses on sourcing, directing, and managing relationships with public and private investments, as well as portfolio management, asset allocation, and investment decisions.

Alifia graduated from Georgetown University, magna cum laude, with a B.A. in Economics and English and holds an MBA in Finance and Marketing from New York University’s Stern School of Business. She is a board member of the Georgetown University Global Business Initiative Advisory Board and a former Trustee and Chair of the Investment Committee at The Langley School. She is board member for the Teach for America-DC Region and Chair of the Teach for America Stewardship Committee.

Breanne Dougherty is Bloomberg Intelligence’s Head of Thematic Strategy, a category building research product that brings a precision approach to macro perspectives and the equities landscape, available on the Bloomberg Professional service at BI THEME <GO>.

Before joining Bloomberg, Breanne was in a Global Narratives and Thought Leadership role at BlackRock, where she leveraged her 15 years in commodities and equities research to articulate issues at the nexus of market and investment trends. Breanne’s prior experience includes research leadership positions within the global energy groups of IHS Markit, Societe Generale and Wood Mackenzie.

Breanne holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from McGill University in Montreal, Canada.

Gaurav Patankar is an investment and fintech executive with a track record of leading and transforming investment organizations, portfolios and products building important institutional relationships globally. Over his 22-year career, Gaurav has invested and allocated capital globally and across multiple asset classes including equities, alternatives, fixed income, infrastructure and real/operating assets. Presently, he serves as the Global Head of Emerging Market Strategy, Alternatives & OCIO Solutions at Bloomberg Intelligence with a keen focus on building and triangulating Bloomberg’s value proposition within pensions, endowments, foundations, family offices and asset managers. Gaurav previously served as the OCIO of a multi-billion family office – Atharva A&C. Prior to his OCIO journey, Gaurav was a Managing Director and Portfolio Manager at Mellon Investment Management where he managed the global emerging markets research and portfolio teams across multiple strategies. He also led key strategic dialogues with UHNW, SWF and Endowment & Foundation clients as the thought leader on emerging markets.

Prior to Mellon, Gaurav was a Portfolio manager of Global absolute-return strategies at the Lockheed Martin Investment Management Co (Pension Plan) where he successfully turned around the firm’s alternative portfolio and built out the firm’s managed account platform. Before that, he served as a Vice President and Sector Head of Emerging-Markets and Global Financials at Millennium Management, LLC, as an equity research analyst at SuNova Capital and Citigroup Investment Research covering large and mid-cap banks.

Gaurav has earned a Bachelor’s degree in Electronics and Telecommunications Engineering from the University of Mumbai, an M.B.A. in Finance and Strategy from the State University of New York at Buffalo as a Berkshire-M&T Fellow. He also earned his Ph.D. in Social Economics and Governance in 2011.