Michael Niemtzow, New Orleans Redevelopment Fund
New Orleans Redevelopment Fund
Michael Niemtzow
Michael Niemtzow (Mike “Nimzo”) is Co-Founder and Managing Member of New Orleans Redevelopment Fund (NORF). A serial entrepreneur, Mike is constantly looking for ways to reinvent and bring a new perspective to the things we do and see in our everyday lives. This focus and passion has led to his success with companies across real estate, fashion, and healthcare. Born to a Parisian mother and having spent much of his childhood between France and the U.S., Mike gained an early appreciation for beauty and architecture. As an adult, Mike harnessed his desire to help the community and love of old buildings to take on the challenge of blight in New Orleans post-Hurricane Katrina.
The New Orleans Redevelopment Fund is one of Louisiana’s leading private developers revitalizing blighted neighborhoods while specializing in the adaptive re-use of historic buildings and urban infill. Founded in 2013, NORF has redeveloped more than 200,000 SQFT of blighted property, reflecting $37 million of investment into New Orleans, and bringing back 200 residential units into commerce.
Originally from Maryland, Mike attended Tulane University and graduated cum laude. After four years serving as an officer in the U.S. Navy with two deployments to the Middle East, he attended NYU’s Stern School of Business and earned an MBA. After 7 years working on Wall Street as an investment banker, he is now an investor in and operator of NORF and other exciting companies.
Richard Oberuc, Chapoquoit Dynamic Portfolios
Chapoquoit Dynamic Portfolios
Richard Oberuc, Chapoquoit Dynamic Portfolios (Separately Managed Accounts)
Richard Oberuc is responsible for the development of the investment techniques employed by Chapoquoit Dynamic Portfolios. These techniques employ macroeconomic and market factors to control allocation changes to a portfolio of ETFs using a rigorous quantitative approach. The objective of this procedure is to alter asset allocations in such a way that portfolio losses are as low as possible while seeking to achieve an acceptable return, a true downside risk approach.
Richard spent the last 30 years developing investment models and asset allocation software for the financial community. As president and owner of Burlington Hall Asset Management, Inc., a software development company, he designed and oversaw the development and sales of two software packages, The LaPorte Asset Allocation System and the DynaPorte Dynamic Asset Allocation System. These packages are used by investment professions to create optimized portfolios of mutual funds, hedge funds, ETFs and commodity trading advisors. In other endeavors, he has operated as a Commodity Trading Advisor at Burlington Hall Asset Management, a Commodity Research Director for M&M/Mars and an Operations Research Director for Uncle Ben’s Rice. He also worked at NASA in Houston developing flight simulators for McDonnell Douglas and TRW Systems.
Richard holds an MS in Operations Research from the University of Houston and a BS in Physics from Loyola University in Chicago. From 1995-2007, he was Chairman of the Foundation of Managed Derivatives Research, a charitable foundation that gives grants to financial academics to do research on managed derivatives products such as hedge funds.
Alicia Ogawa, Columbia University Business School
Columbia University Business School
Alicia Ogawa
Alicia Ogawa is the director of the Project on Japanese Corporate Governance and Stewardship at Columbia Business School’s Center on Japanese Economy and Business, and an assistant adjunct Professor at Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs. Since 2008, she has been a consultant to one of the largest U.S.-based activist hedge funds. Until 2006, she was managing director at Lehman Brothers, where she was responsible for managing the firm’s global equity research product. Prior to joining Lehman Brothers, Professor Ogawa spent 15 years in Tokyo, where she was a top-rated bank analyst and director of research for Nikko Salomon Smith Barneys.
She is currently a member of the board of directors of the Maureen and Mike Mansfield Foundation; a member of the board of directors of Pure Earth; an independent director at Tokyo-based Questhub; and a member of the President’s Circle of the All Stars Project, a development program for inner city young people. Ogawa has been inducted into the Academy of Women Achievers, and now is a non-executive director at Tokyo-based Misaki Capital funds as well as at the London-based Nippon Active Value Fund. She is a member of the International Corporate Governance Network. She graduated from Barnard College and earned a master’s degree in international affairs at SIPA.
Maxwell Osborne
Permal Group
Maxwell Osborne is Senior Vice President and Head of US Domestic Distribution at Permal Group. He joined Permal Group in April 2012 focusing on the management and development of the US-focused retail team, as well as development and launch of new products, specifically targeting the US market. Additionally, he is responsible for broadening the distribution of Permal’s registered funds and custom hedge fund platform through direct investment and broker dealer relationships.
Max has 15 years industry experience with the last 9 focused on U.S. ultra high net worth focused on custom solutions and the development of 40 act daily liquid alternatives . Max is a two time Ironman finisher and graduate of Ancel School of Business at WCSU.