ACG NY VIP LP Allocator Series | Roundtable 1: Family Offices as Fund & Co-Investors

Clark Cheng, CFA, FRM, CAIA joined Merrimac in 2014 and is the Chief Executive Officer and Chief Investment Officer. Merrimac is a large single family office with investments in hedge funds, private equity, venture capital and real estate. Prior to Merrimac, he was responsible for leading the alternative investment team in the Americas for HSBC’s Alternative Investment Group which had $60B in assets at its peak. Before joining HSBC, he performed hedge fund research at Guggenheim Partners and Morgan Stanley between 2002 and 2005.  Prior to that, he spent six years building and establishing West Coast Economics. Mr. Cheng holds the Chartered Financial Analyst, Financial Risk Manager and Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst designations. He holds a Masters Degree in Business Administration from Duke University and a Bachelors of Arts Degree in Business/Economics and Psychology from UCLA. He has also completed his coursework towards his Masters Degree in Psychology from California State University, Los Angeles.

Mr. Peter Costa is the Chief Financial Officer at Health Catalyst Capital. He has 30 years of experience in health care research & investment. Prior to joining HCC, Peter spent over 10 years at Wells Fargo Securities as a Managing Director where he worked in primary equity research covering health insurance, pharmacy, pharmacy benefit management, hospitals, and other health care IT and services companies.

Prior to Wells Fargo, Peter was the director of all equity research, while also covering health care services equities, at FTN Midwest Securities and Leerink Swann, and was the Global Head of Healthcare / Pharmaceutical Research at ABN AMRO. In addition, Peter also worked in finance and budgeting at Morgan Stanley, was a systems consultant for what is now Accenture, and provided operations effectiveness analytics for Hewlett-Packard’s Medical Products Group.

Peter graduated with a B.S. in Industrial and Management Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and received his M.B.A. from Dartmouth College’s Amos Tuck School of Business.

Gary manages the private equity/venture capital portfolios of Andina clients through independent operations known as The K Fund, LP and The K Fund II, LP. He also participates in Andina’s new client development efforts and in the initial introductions and evaluations of potential investment managers for Andina across a wide spectrum of asset classes. Gary has over 25 years of experience in private and public company investing, management, and corporate finance. At McKinsey and Company, he advised and represented well-known family-controlled European businesses seeking minority investments in US operating companies and later represented a group of offshore families in US private equity investing at Ambient, Ltd.

Gary has also held senior positions with several investment banking companies including Drexel Burnham Lambert, Kidder Peabody, Houlihan Lokey Howard & Zukin and Ambient Capital, a broker-dealer firm he co-founded. In addition, he has served as CEO, COO and board member at several private and public companies.

Gary has an AB from Stanford University and an MBA from UCLA.

Alexa Rachlin is a Principal and member of Declaration’s private equity investment team, which she joined at its founding in 2017. Ms. Rachlin has over 14 years of investment experience, most recently serving as an Investment Director at Cambridge Associates in the firm’s Private Practice where she worked with family offices on asset allocation and manager selection. Previously she worked at Goldman Sachs in Private Wealth Management advising clients across asset classes. Ms. Rachlin started her career at Morgan Stanley in real estate investment banking. She attended Harvard College (AB, 2007) and Harvard Business School (MBA, 2015). Alexa currently serves as a board member of Lively and Vault, both Redesign Health portfolio companies.

Abilash Jaikumar is a Co-Founder and Managing Director of TresVista, the leading provider of high-end outsourced support for asset managers, investment banks, research firms, and corporates. TresVista client’s operate across geographies, industries, asset classes, and deal sizes. Their asset management clients collectively have AUM in excess of $400 billion. TresVista supports its clients broadly in three areas (1) research and valuation, (2) FP&A, and (3) data analytics.

Previously, Abilash has worked in both the investment banking and private equity industries and has been involved in more than $20 billion of financing and M&A activity.  Abilash graduated with Honors from Georgetown University with a B.S.B.A in Finance and Accounting and minors in Philosophy and Economics and currently serves as the Chairman of Georgetown's Alumni Admissions Program in India. He is also on the board of Beyond Capital Fund, a non-profit impact investment fund that invests in for-profit social enterprises throughout India and East Africa. He is also a member of the Board of ACG New York.