Emory Center for Alternative Investments

The Emory Center for Alternative Investments is an academic research and education institution housed within the Goizueta Business School at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. It was established after Goizueta Business School received a $10 million gift in 2007, and Klaas Baks was appointed its executive director the following spring. Rather than operating as an investment manager or a commercial financial-services company, the center serves as a platform for research, teaching, practitioner engagement, and professional networking in alternative investments. The center’s work addresses the needs of institutional investors evaluating investment strategies outside traditional public stocks and bonds. Its principal areas of interest include hedge funds, private equity, venture capital, and real estate. Research topics described in connection with the center include valuation, expected returns, fundraising, governance, control rights, risk, investor alignment, public policy, market practices, and the perception of alternative investments. The center also seeks to maintain an independent research perspective while working with asset managers and other market participants. A central part of its model is the combination of academic analysis and industry interaction. The center provides research papers and white papers, organizes conferences and seminars, supports executive education, and creates opportunities for students and practitioners to meet. Its teaching activities have included courses and related instruction in venture capital and private equity, distressed investing, deal-making, illiquid investments, applied investment management, investment banking, corporate governance and restructuring, securities analysis, portfolio management, managerial finance, fixed-income securities, and derivatives. Student engagement is organized in part through the Alternative Investments Group, a Goizueta Business School student organization sponsored by the center. The group brings industry speakers to campus and runs case competitions covering hedge funds, venture capital, and private equity. These competitions allow students to develop trading or investment theses, evaluate entrepreneurs, structure buyouts, and present recommendations to practitioners working in the relevant sectors. The center has also supported the Alternative Investments Network, an alumni and practitioner community linking Emory alumni, students, and colleagues active in or interested in private equity, hedge funds, venture capital, and real estate. The network has maintained activity in Atlanta and New York and is intended to extend the center’s educational and professional relationships beyond the university campus. The center’s identity is therefore that of a university-based alternative-investment knowledge institution. Its offerings are research publications, courses, events, competitions, executive education, and professional networks rather than financial products sold to retail customers. Publicly available reference material identifies leadership and affiliated faculty, but does not provide a complete current staff roster, a standalone website URL, or detailed information about its present operating structure.

The Emory Center for Alternative Investments was created within Emory University’s Goizueta Business School after the school received a $10 million philanthropic gift in 2007. Its formation reflected the growing importance of alternative assets to pension funds, endowments, foundations, family offices, and other institutional investors, as well as the need for independent research and specialized education in markets that differ from conventional public-equity and fixed-income investing. In the spring of 2008, Klaas Baks became the center’s executive director. The center was conceived not simply as an academic unit producing papers, but also as a meeting place for researchers, students, institutional investors, asset managers, and other professionals. Its stated objective has been to investigate the principal challenges confronting institutional investors in alternative investments, including investment practice, industry structure, policy questions, valuation, risk, governance, and the public image of the sector. The center’s research agenda has covered hedge funds, private equity, venture capital, and real estate. Topics represented in its publications and working papers include the valuation of venture-capital and private-equity securities, the decision to take companies private, limits on control benefits in brokerage and venture-capital fundraising, professional and educational networks within organizations, and the relationship between market prices, risk, and expected returns in private equity. Its white-paper themes have included alignment of interests in private equity and the development of a research agenda from a limited partner’s perspective. Education has been another major part of the center’s activity. Its course-related offerings have addressed venture capital and private equity, distressed investing, private-equity transactions, illiquid investment frontiers, applied investment management, investment banking, corporate governance and restructuring, securities analysis and portfolio management, advanced managerial finance, fixed-income securities, and derivatives. These subjects connect the center’s alternative-investment focus with the broader finance curriculum at Goizueta Business School. The center has also encouraged experiential learning through the Alternative Investments Group, a student organization for juniors and seniors interested in alternative-investment careers. The group has organized industry-speaker events and competitions in hedge funds, venture capital, and private equity. The hedge-fund competition involves developing and implementing an investment approach over a defined trading period; the venture-capital competition simulates evaluating and investing in an entrepreneurial company; and the private-equity competition asks participants to design and present a buyout of a public company. Practitioners serve as judges and provide feedback. Beyond students, the Alternative Investments Network has extended the center’s community to Emory alumni, current students, and professionals. The network has connected participants in fields including private equity, hedge funds, venture capital, and real estate, with activity reported in Atlanta and New York. Through events and networking, it has sought to reinforce relationships among academic, alumni, and industry communities. Public reference material identifies faculty advisors, a real-estate-program director, affiliated faculty, and Baks as executive director in the center’s early period. It does not establish a complete current leadership list or provide enough information to document later organizational changes. The center is best understood as an academic research and engagement institution rather than an asset manager, fund sponsor, or standalone publicly traded financial company.

• 2008

  Klaas Baks appointed executive director

  [1]Emory Center for Alternative Investmentsen.wikipedia.org

  Klaas Baks assumed the executive-director role in the spring after the center was established.

• 2007

  Center established through major gift

  [1]Emory Center for Alternative Investmentsen.wikipedia.org

  Goizueta Business School received a $10 million gift to create the Emory Center for Alternative Investments.

A university-based, research-led center connecting institutional-investor research, alternative-investment education, student development, and practitioner engagement.

• Research publications · 2007

  Alternative-investment research

  The center produces and supports research addressing institutional-investor questions in hedge funds, private equity, venture capital, and real estate. Reported subjects include valuation, expected returns, fundraising, governance, control rights, risk, organizational networks, public policy, and alignment between investors and managers.

• Academic and executive education

  Alternative-investment courses

  Course offerings associated with the center cover venture capital and private equity, distressed investing, private-equity transactions, illiquid investments, applied investment management, investment banking, governance and restructuring, securities analysis, portfolio management, fixed income, managerial finance, and derivatives.

• Student organization and competitions

  Alternative Investments Group

  The sponsored student group engages Goizueta Business School students through industry speakers and competitions focused on hedge-fund strategy, venture-capital investing, and private-equity buyouts. Industry professionals judge the events and provide practical feedback.

• Alumni and professional network

  Alternative Investments Network

  This extended Emory community connects alumni, students, and practitioners interested in private equity, hedge funds, venture capital, and real estate. Its activities include networking and continuing events, with a reported presence in Atlanta and New York.

1. 1Emory Center for Alternative Investmentsen.wikipedia.org