CIFM Professional Speaker Series – Fall 2023

The Center for Investors & Financial Markets (CIFM) at the McIntire School of Commerce hosts a Professional Speaker Series each semester to feature industry experts and practitioners, many of whom are UVA alumni, to engage with students and faculty around important topics and policies.

On Tuesday, September 19, 2023, the Center hosted Katrina (Katy) Sherrerd (McIntire ’79; MIT M.S. ’83; Darden Ph.D. ’87), Vice Chair and member of the Executive Committee of the board of Research Affiliates. Ms. Sherrerd joined Research Affiliates in 2006 as a managing director responsible for strategic planning and affiliate relations, and served as the CEO, president, and COO before becoming the vice chair. She spoke to the audience about lessons she has learned to be successful in the asset management industry.

In a joint talk with the Blue Ridge Center on October 3, 2023, Ken Seiff, Managing Partner at Blockchange Ventures, joined CIFM’s Professional Speaker Series to discuss venture capital investing in early stage blockchain technology companies. Mr. Seiff is General Partner of Blockchange Ventures, a venture capital firm investing exclusively in early stage blockchain companies, protocols and applications that are trying to make a dent in the universe. He first entered venture capital by founding Beanstalk Ventures, a NY-based venture fund focused on revolutionizing the retail industry through its investments in innovative technology companies. Prior to that, Mr. Seiff founded Bluefly.com, co-founded both Poppin and Simply Gum. Ken has also consulted for Amazon and served on Google’s Retail Advisory Council.

Finally, the fall 2023 series concluded on November 6, 2023, with a special event co-hosted with the White Ruffin Byron Center for Real Estate as part of the McIntire School’s Fall Forum on AI.  This talk featured Jamey Thompson (BSE UVA ’00), Founder/Portfolio Manager at Jocassee Quantitative, who discussed opportunities and challenges in quantitative investing including the roles of predictive modeling, machine learning, and AI. Jocassee Quantitative is a quantitative investment firm founded by an experienced team and defined by its commitment to a rigorous quantitative research process and an innovative investment approach. Jocassee has offices in Charlottesville, VA and New York, NY.