2004 Reports

Investing in hedge funds and private equity: Viewpoints of U.S. and Japanese institutional investors

Continuing its series examining Japanese institutional investments in alternative assets in comparative perspective, the Program on Alternative Investments at Columbia Business School's Center on Japanese Economy and Business organized a symposium titled "Investing in Hedge Funds and Private Equity: Viewpoints of U.S. and Japanese Institutional Investors." The event, held in midtown Manhattan on March 31, 2004, attracted a capacity audience of 125 people drawn mainly from the New York academic and practitioner communities. The symposium was organized into two panel discussions followed by a keynote address. The first panel focused on U.S. versus Japanese institutional investments in private equity. Hideya Sadanaga, Senior Vice President of Nippon Life Insurance Company, and Sheryl Schwartz, Managing Director of TIAA-CREF, made initial presentations on their respective institutions' views on and participation in private equity investing. Kazuo Seki, CEO of AI Capital, and Narv Narvekar, CEO of the Columbia University Investment Management Company, then offered comments as representatives of a Japanese financial intermediary and a U.S. university endowment. The second panel examined investments in hedge funds. Kazuki Nakamoto, Managing Director of Daido Life Insurance Company, and Lawrence Kochard, Managing Director of the Virginia Retirement System, discussed participation in hedge funds from the viewpoints of a Japanese life insurance company and a U.S. public pension fund. Their presentations were followed by comments from Franklin Edwards, Professor of Finance at Columbia Business School, and Robert Discolo, Managing Director of AIG Global Investment Corporation. David Russ, Treasurer of the University of California, concluded the symposium with a keynote address outlining his views on the overall rationale for alternative investments in an institutional portfolio together with the specific activities of his institution in this field. This report covers the presentations and discussion of the panel on hedge funds. Although the private equity panel and the keynote address proved equally enlightening, the related symposium proceedings were unfortunately lost due to technical difficulties with the recording equipment.