Pioneers of Progress

The Toigo Institute gratefully acknowledges these Pioneers of Progress—a select group of senior finance leaders committed to the advancement of women and the launch of Groundbreakers.

Pioneers

Please click the names below for more information.

Sue Toigo, Founder and Board Member | Robert Toigo Foundation
Sue Toigo, Chairman of Fitzgibbon Toigo Associates, has over 20 years of experience building relationships with plan sponsors, consultants, and investment managers. Sue was a founder and Chairman of The Institute for Fiduciary Education (IFE). Since 1985, IFE has provided both educational seminars and informational services to large institutional investors worldwide. The leading pension fund consultants have also participated, and sponsorship has been provided by the world’s premier investment managers. Sue has developed strong relationships with many of the more than 3000 IFE seminar participants from around the world, including Australia, Belgium, Canada, Finland, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, The United Kingdom, and the United States. She is also a founder and Board member of the Robert Toigo Foundation, which supports 120 minority students each year in the nation’s top business schools and has over 1,000 alumni in the financial services industry globally. Her work with the Foundation gives her significant industry presence.

A graduate with honors from the University of California at Berkeley, she has been inducted into the Berkeley Women’s Hall of Fame.

Valerie Lancaster Beal, Senior Vice President, Director of Investment Banking Operations & Strategic Planning
M.R. Beal & Company
Valerie Lancaster Beal is responsible for the day-to-day administration of the investment banking operations of the firm. Valerie monitors the development and implementation of the bankers’ business development plans, the orderly conduct of the structuring and execution of the department’s financing initiatives and the training and development of analyst and associates. She also manages certain client relationships. Additionally, Valerie is also responsible for oversight of the firm’s quarterly strategic review and planning process.

Valerie has of 30+ years of experience as an investment banker. After a successful career at Citicorp Investment Bank and Drexel Burnham Lambert, she joined M.R. Beal & Company in its initial months after its founding in 1988. She has been engaged in several leadership roles at the firm including financial operations, the Financial Advisory Group and her current roll in investment banking and strategic planning. As an executive on loan to the Thurgood Marshall Academy in Harlem, Valerie developed strategies to use data to inform instruction. Additionally, she managed the college readiness and planning office at the school. Valerie is a Trustee of the City University of New York (CUNY) and a past member of the Board of Regents of Georgetown University.

Valerie holds a BA in Economics from Georgetown University and an MBA from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School Of Business.

Solange F. Brooks, Portfolio Manager, Investments Executive Unit | California State Teachers’ Retirement System
Mrs. Brooks is a Portfolio Manager within the Investments Executive Unit, where she manages the Private Equity Proactive Portfolio and the Home Loan Program. She joined the second largest pension fund in the nation on July of 2004. Reporting directly to the Chief Investment Officer and with responsibilities across all asset classes of the $154 billion (as of June 30, 2010) California State Teachers’ Retirement System, Mrs. Brooks is part of a team of eight directors and a support staff of 109, which manage the following divisions: Private Equity, Global Equities, Corporate Governance, Fixed Income, Innovation & Risk, Operations and Real Estate.

Mrs. Brooks serves as Chair of the Advisory Board of the Robert Toigo Foundation. She also serves on the Advisory

Committee of the Plan Sponsor and Minority Manager Annual Consortiums, and on the Altura Capital Advisory Board. In October 2008, Mrs. Brooks was honored by the National Association of Investment Companies (NAIC) Board of Directors with the Award of Excellence.

Prior to joining CalSTRS, Mrs. Brooks has served in various leadership position within California state government - including posts as Deputy Director of the Governor’s Office of Community Relations; Chief Deputy Inspector General; Assistant Agency Secretary, Policy and Planning; and, Executive Director for the California Commission on Correctional Peace Officer Standards and Training _ thus, providing her with a unique macro perspective. She is a U.S. Air Force veteran and has served as an adjunct professor at Sacramento City College. Her undergraduate education is in international business and economics, and has earned a Master in Business Administration from the California State University, Sacramento.

Virginia (‘Ginny’) Clarke, President & CEO | Talent Optimization Partners
Ginny Clarke is a consultant, diversity recruiting specialist and career management expert. Ginny leads Talent Optimization Partners, LLC, a talent management consulting firm serving corporations, fast-growing companies and government entities in areas of leadership assessment, talent acquisition and retention, diversity recruiting and executive coaching services.

Prior to launching Talent Optimization, Ginny was a partner at Spencer Stuart. She co-founded and led Spencer Stuart’s Diversity Practice working with global clients to customize diversity recruitment and retention strategies. She also oversaw the global executive search firm’s efforts to provide clients with diverse slates of candidates by embedding diversity and inclusion into the firm’s culture and infrastructure.

Ginny started her career in banking at First National Bank of Chicago (now Chase). After a short stint, she spent the next 10 years in the institutional real estate business with Jones Lang LaSalle and Prudential Real Estate Investors. Her responsibilities included asset management, portfolio management, capital raising and client servicing.

She earned her BA from the University of California at Davis and her MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School. She is a member of the board of the Chicago Sinfonietta, and a member of the Economic Club of Chicago. Ginny is the author “Career Mapping: Charting Your Course in the New World of Work”.

Raudline Etienne, Senior Director | Albright Stonebridge Group
Etienne joined the Albright Stonebridge Group in October 2011 to focus on expanding the global strategy firm’s ability to respond to market dynamics and opportunities in the investment sector.

In her previous employment, Etienne served as Chief Investment Officer (CIO) for the New York State Common Retirement Fund (CRF). Selected by the New York State Comptroller, the Honorable Thomas DiNapoli, to become his Deputy Comptroller for Pension Investment and Cash Management in March 2008, Etienne managed the nation’s third largest public pension fund with assets of approximately $140 billion. In her capacity as CIO, Ms. Etienne had decision-making responsibilities on all aspects of the CRF’s investment strategy and operations. These responsibilities included asset allocation, investment policy and governance, partner selection, and risk management. Her management responsibilities included the oversight of 60 professionals responsible for the daily management of a portfolio invested across the globe, and inclusive of equity, fixed income, hedge funds, real estate, and private equity. She also had oversight responsibility for CRF investment operations, including internal portfolio management, custodial services, and securities lending, as well as management of external investment managers, and investment consultants. Her team was also responsible for the College Savings Program with assets of $8 billion, and the State’s short-term investment pool of $9 billion that consists largely of tax-revenue collections and federal aid.

Prior to the CRF, Etienne was a Managing Director at Rogerscasey in Darien, Connecticut, responsible for investment consulting for a series of both large and small public retirement systems. During her more than 11 year tenure with Rogerscasey, she developed broad experience in a wide variety of asset classes and investment strategies. Etienne has a Bachelors of Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and also holds an MBA in finance from the University of California at Berkeley where she was a Robert A. Toigo Foundation Fellow, and President of the Black Business Student Association.

Etienne was instrumental in the creation of the Connecticut Hedge Fund Association where she formerly served as a board member, as well as the Robert A. Toigo Alumni Endowment Board where she was elected the first president and is a former board member. Ms. Etienne was also appointed to the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) and the US Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB)’s “Financial Crisis Advisory Group (FCAG)” which was created to consider how improvements in financial reporting could help enhance investor confidence in financial markets.

Carla Harris, Managing Director | Morgan Stanley Investment Management
Carla Harris is a Managing Director and heads the Emerging Manager Platform at Morgan Stanley Investment Management where she also provides investment advice to corporations, public pension plans, foundations and endowments. Prior to this role, she led Morgan Stanley’s equity capital markets effort for the consumer and retail industries and was responsible for equity private placements. Carla has extensive industry experiences in the technology, media, retail, telecommunications, transportation, industrial, and healthcare sectors.

For more than a decade, Carla was a senior member of the equity syndicate desk and executed such transactions as initial public offerings for UPS, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, Ariba, Redback, the General Motors sub-IPO of Delphi

Automotive, and the $3.2 Billion common stock transaction for Immunex Corporation, one of the largest biotechnology common stock transactions in U.S. history.

Carla was recently named to Fortune Magazine’s list of “The 50 Most Powerful Black Executives in Corporate America”, U. S. Bankers Top 25 Most Powerful Women in Non-Bank Finance (2009), Black Enterprise’s Top 75 Most Powerful Women in Business (2010), to Black Enterprise Magazine’s “Top 50 African Americans on Wall Street”, and to Essence Magazine’s list of “The 50 Women Who are Shaping the World”, Ebony’s list of “15 Corporate Women at the Top” and was named “Woman of the Year 2004” by the Harvard Black Men’s Forum. She is also the author Expect to Win and a new CD entitled “Unceasing Praise”.

Carla began her career with Morgan Stanley in the Mergers & Acquisitions department in 1987. She holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and AB in economics (Magna Cum Laude) from Harvard University. Carla has received Honorary Doctorates of laws, humanities and business from Marymount Manhattan College, Bloomfield College and Jacksonville University, respectively.

Sandra Horbach, Managing Director and Head of Global Consumer and Retail Group | The Carlyle Group
Sandra Horbach is a Global Partner and Managing Director at The Carlyle Group where she serves as the Head of the Consumer and Retail group. The Carlyle Group is a global alternative asset management firm with approximately $153 billion under management. The firm invests in management-led buyouts, strategic minority equity investments, equity private placements, consolidations and buildups, and growth capital financings.

Ms. Horbach is involved in all of Carlyle’s consumer investments and currently serves on the Board of Directors of Dunkin’ Brands, NBTY and CVC.

Ms. Horbach serves on the Board of Trustees at The Rockefeller University and The Chapin School in New York. In addition, she serves as a member of the Stanford Business School Advisory Council.

Prior to joining Carlyle, Ms. Horbach served as a General Partner at Forstmann Little, a private investment firm. She received an MBA from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business and a Bachelor of Arts from Wellesley College, where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.

Ginger Lew, Senior Counselor to the White House National Economic Council and the SBA Administrator
Ms. Lew is Senior Counselor to the White House National Economic Council and the SBA Administrator. She provides economic policy advice on a broad range of matters that impact small businesses, innovation and entrepreneurship. She co-chairs the White House Interagency Group on Innovation and Entrepreneurship, the White House Interagency Cluster Group, and the White House Interagency Commercialization/Tech Transfer Group. In addition, Ms Lew successfully led the White House efforts to include women’s economic issues as part of the 21 nations Leaders Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit negotiations.

Ms. Lew brings extensive financial experience to her position. Prior to joining the Obama Administration, Ms. Lew was

the managing partner of a communications venture capital fund, TDF, and a venture advisor to Amplifier Venture Partners. From 1999 to 2009, Ms. Lew was a board member and chairman of an investment fund, SAEF, based in Europe. She also was a member and Co-Chair of the NASDAQ Listing Council. She served on the boards of publicly traded companies, private companies and not for profit organizations. She was also the co-founder of the Association of Asian American Investment Managers.

Under the Clinton Administration, Ms. Lew was the Deputy Administrator and Chief Operating Officer of the U.S. Small Business Administration where she provided day to day management and operational oversight of a $42 billion loan portfolio. Before joining SBA, Ms. Lew was the General Counsel at the U.S. Department of Commerce where she specialized in international trade issues. Ms. Lew was unanimously confirmed by the United States Senate for both positions.

The Honorable Denise L. Nappier, Treasurer | State of Connecticut
Denise Lynn Nappier, the 82nd Treasurer of the State of Connecticut, is the first African-American woman elected to serve as a State Treasurer in the United States and the first African-American woman elected to a statewide office in Connecticut. Elected in 1998 and re-elected in 2002 and 2006, Treasurer Nappier is the only woman to be elected Treasurer in Connecticut history.

As Connecticut’s chief elected financial officer, she is principal fiduciary of the $20 billion Connecticut Retirement Plans and Trust Funds (CRPTF), and oversees the state’s $16 billion debt management program and $5 billion Short-Term Investment Fund. Treasurer Nappier is the architect of wide-ranging reforms to Connecticut’s system of pension fund

governance; her high standards and financial expertise brought integrity back to the Treasurer’s office and professionalism to the management of state resources, resulting in record growth of the state’s investment funds.

Treasurer Nappier is one of the nation’s leading institutional investors working for corporate reform on issues including executive compensation, independence and diversity of board members, financial reporting and auditing, and disclosure of financial risks of climate change.

A strong advocate for diversity and expanding economic opportunity Treasurer Nappier has used the financial clout of the Treasury to bring more diverse players to the Wall Street table. She established the $800 million Connecticut Horizon Fund investment program aimed at increasing opportunities for women- and minority-owned, and emerging firms in the financial industry. During the Nappier administration, the number of minority-owned and women-owned investment banking and financial advisory firms doing business with the Treasurer’s office has dramatically increased.

Widely respected by her peers, Treasurer Nappier was re-elected as Treasurer of the National Association of State Treasurers and is a board member of the CT Chapter of the National Association of Corporate Directors, the first public fund investor to serve in that capacity.

In addition to more than ten years as State Treasurer, Denise Nappier previously served as Hartford City Treasurer for nearly ten years. She has received the Good Housekeeping Award for Women in Government, was named one of the nation’s “100 Most Influential People in Finance” by Treasury & Risk Management Magazine and one of the “50 Most Powerful Black Women in Business” by Black Enterprise.

Elizabeth Smith, Senior Managing Director—Public Funds | AllianceBernstein
Elizabeth Smith is Senior Managing Director of Public Funds at AllianceBernstein. She joined the firm in 1986 and was initially responsible for advertising, public relations and marketing for Alliance Mutual Funds. Liz moved to the institutional division in 1990 to work with public retirement systems. She was previously VP of investor relations at J & W Seligman & Co. and director of corporate communications at the Lionel Corp.

Liz is on the Foundation Board of the National Association of Security Professionals (NASP) and is an associate board member of the National Association of State Retirement Administrators (NASRA). She earned a BA from the University of California, Los Angeles, and completed courses in finance and economics at the New York University Graduate School

of Business Administration.

Shelley Smith, President & General Counsel | GrayShell Consulting
Shelley Smith is President and General Counsel of GrayShell Consulting which offers strategic advisory services and training to institutional investors, with a special focus on infrastructure investing, corporate governance, and fiduciary education. Prior to launching GrayShell, Shelley served as Chair of the Los Angeles City Employees Retirement System (LACERS). She served as an elected trustee on the LACERS Board for 15 years and as Chair of the City’s Defined Contribution Plan Board for 20 years. She additionally served as a senior legal advisor to the City of Los Angeles, holding the title of Assistant City Attorney, where her responsibilities included service as General Counsel to the City’s Department of Transportation, Board of Public Works, Personnel Department, Civil Service Commission, and Employee Relations Board.

Shelly served as President of the Los Angeles City Attorneys Association and re-elected to successive terms in that position for 20 years. She continues to serve on the Executive Committee of the Los Angeles County Bar Association's Labor & Employee Law Section. Shelley was elected to the Board of Directors of the Council of Institutional Investors in 2002, and served in that capacity for seven years. She has also been a member of the Pacific Pension Institute's Board of Directors for ten years. More recently, she was appointed to the Governing Board of the Robert Toigo Foundation and to the Board of Directors of the Exceptional Children’s Foundation.

Shelley is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of California at Los Angeles. She received her JD from the UCLA School of Law and holds an Investment Management Certification from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania and a Board Director Certification from the UCLA Anderson School of Management, NASDAQ, and Institutional Shareholder Services.

Anne Stausboll, CEO | California Public Employees’ Retirement System
Anne Stausboll was named CEO of the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) in January 2009. She is the eighth CEO and first woman to head the pension fund.

As CEO, Ann oversees 2,300 employees, a budget of more than $332 million, and programs spanning investments,
health and retirement benefits administration, actuarial and employer services, supplemental retirement programs, government affairs, stakeholder relations, and numerous support functions. She served as the CalPERS Chief Operating Investment Officer from 2004 – 2008, and during that period served twice as the CalPERS Interim Chief Investment
Officer.

Before coming to CalPERS, Ann was Chief Deputy Treasurer to the California State Treasurer, beginning in July 2000, and worked for six years in the CalPERS Legal Office, including two years as Deputy General Counsel.

Ann serves as the co-chair of the Ceres Board, the nation’s largest coalition of investors, environmental groups and nonprofit organizations working with companies to address sustainability challenges such as global climate change. She also serves on the Toigo Foundation Advisory Board.

Ann was named one of the Top 25 Nonbank Women in Finance, part of U.S. Banker Magazine’s 25 Most Powerful Women in Banking for 2007, 2008 and 2009. She received her BA in English from Oberlin College and her JD (Order of the Coif) from the University of California, Davis School of Law.

Maeley L. Tom, President | Tom & Associates
Maeley L. Tom of Sacramento is currently the President of the California State Personnel Board which oversees the state civil service system for over 250,000 state employees. Ms. Tom was the former Senior Vice President of the Washington D.C. government affairs firm, Cassidy and Associates, which represents fortune 500 companies and international clients before the U.S. Congress. Currently she and her husband have their own government relations company Tom & Associates.

Ms. Tom spent 20 years in the California Legislature holding the unique distinction of serving in the highest staff level positions of both houses. In the State Assembly she served as the Chief Administrative Officer of the Assembly

under former Speaker Willie L. Brown, Jr. In the State Senate she served as Chief of Staff to the former Senate Pres. Pro Tem David Roberti.

During her tenure in the State Capitol, Ms. Tom used this opportunity, on her own time, to mobilize all the diverse Asian American groups (Chinese, Japanese, South Asians, Koreans, Filipinos, and Pacific Islanders) to speak as one voice so to empower Asian Americans politically in California.

She organized the historic national public forum inviting U.S. Presidential candidates to meet Asian American leaders to address their community issues for the first time in 1987. She was subsequently appointed to the Democratic National Committee Executive Board by the late Ron Brown and reappointed during the Clinton administration serving from 1989 – 1997. She also served as an API volunteer advisor to the Clinton/Gore campaigns.

Among her service on public boards and commissions, Ms. Tom served on the CalPERS board. During her tenure with CalPERS, she was the diversity advisor to the board and was instrumental in helping State Controller John Chiang launch his initiative on corporate board diversity.

She was a former appointee of President Reagan serving on the Women’s Small Business Ownership Commission and was appointed by President Clinton to serve on the U.S. Platform Committee to the UN Women’s World Conference in Beijing. Governor Gray Davis appointed her to be the first Asian American to serve on the State Personnel Board in 2003. She currently is also the co-founding Chair of the Association of Asian American Investment Managers (AAAIM) which serves as the national voice of Asian Americans in investment management.

She has been recognized by the Sacramento Magazine as one of the “Best and Brightest” community leaders of the city, named by the California Journal as one of the most influential staff members of the Legislature during her tenure in the State Capitol and named as one of the most influential Asian political leaders of this generation by Asian Week.

Kelly M. Williams, Managing Director and Head of Customized Fund Investment Group | Credit Suisse
Kelly is a Managing Director and Global Head of the Customized Fund Investment Group. CFIG manages over $27 billion of client commitments to private equity and venture capital funds, and specializes in designing tailored portfolios for investors. In addition, CFIG provides portfolio management services for over $90 billion of client commitments to private equity, including customized reporting and back office solutions. Ms. Williams was an Executive Director with Prudential’s private equity group where she co-founded CFIG in 1999. At Prudential, Ms. Williams was responsible for the management of the fund investment group as well as investing in private equity funds on behalf of Prudential and its clients. Ms. Williams was primarily responsible for product and business development, as well as legal support for the Private Equity Group from 1996 to 1999 during which time she was responsible for the development of eight global private equity funds. Ms. Williams joined Prudential in 1993 as counsel for a Prudential unit that specialized in providing private debt and equity for global infrastructure projects. Prior to joining Prudential, Ms. Williams was an associate with Milbank, Tweed, Hadley and McCloy, where she specialized in global project finance.

Ms. Williams graduated magna cum laude from Union College in 1986 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science and Mathematics and received her Juris Doctor degree from New York University School of Law in 1989. Kelly has served as a mentor to fellows of the Robert Toigo Foundation since 2006. Kelly was elected to the YWCA Academy of Women Leaders in 2007. She is also a member of the Metro Chapter of the Young Presidents Organization and serves on the Board of Trustees for Union College. She is also the founding board chair of the Private Equity Women Investor Network. She also serves on the Board of Directors of the Council of Urban Professionals and the Association of Asian American Investment Managers. She is also the chair of the LP Advisory Board to the Sponsors for Educational Opportunity.

Pioneers of Progress

Pioneers

Event Sponsors (To Date)

Contributing Sponsors (To Date)