2025 Elite ALTS Allocators, Part 3

Jacqueline Kerns is deputy director of alternative investments at the Office of the Illinois State Treasurer, where she helps manage a $1B portfolio across venture capital, private equity, private credit, real estate, and infrastructure strategies. Her work focuses on due diligence, stewardship, and expanding access to capital for diverse managers and underserved communities in Illinois.

Before joining the treasurer’s office in 2021, Kerns served as chief of staff at Green Cow Venture Capital, an early-stage fund focused on deep tech and underrepresented founders. She holds dual degrees from Northwestern University — a Bachelor of Music in vocal performance and a Bachelor of Arts in global history.

Harisha Koneru Haigh is a managing director on Northwestern University’s investment team, where she plays a key leadership role in asset allocation, endowment strategy, portfolio construction, risk management, and internal manager approvals as a member of the internal investment committee. She brings more than 25 years of investment experience, including nearly two decades in the endowment and foundation space.

Haigh spent more than 15 years leading Northwestern’s $7B private investments and real assets portfolio, overseeing venture capital, buyouts, real estate, natural resources, and commodities across global markets. Since 2021, she has served as a generalist allocator, helping guide the university’s broader investment strategy. During Northwestern’s period of transition to a new chief investment officer, she was part of a three-person leadership team that oversaw the endowment, managing liquidity needs, rebalancing exposures, and leading quarterly reporting to the investment committee.

Prior to joining Northwestern in 2005, Haigh was a principal at PPM America Capital Partners, the U.S. private equity affiliate of Prudential plc and Jackson National Life Insurance Co. She also spent time in London with Silverfleet, a PPM affiliate, where she focused on European middle-market buyouts. She began her career at ABN AMRO Clearing USA LLC in the investment banking division, working on mergers and acquisition transactions for small- and mid-sized companies.

Haigh holds a Bachelor of Science in business administration from Washington University in St. Louis and a Master of Business Administration degree from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. She also holds the Chartered Financial Analyst designation.

Currently, Haigh serves on the investment committees for the Franciscan Health system and the NorthSouth Foundation, and she sits on the leadership council of non-profit A Better Chicago. She is a member of the Limited Partners Advisory Council of SEO Alternative Investments, serves on the steering committee of the Allocators Collective, and hosts a monthly open house for young investors on behalf of non-profit Women’s Association of Venture and Equity.

Derek Walker is managing director and head of portfolio design and construction within the total fund management department at CPP Investments. He leads a team responsible for designing the Fund’s strategic and tactical asset allocations, setting targets for currency, leverage and liquidity, and incorporating emerging risks such as climate change into portfolio construction frameworks.

Walker has held several senior roles at CPP Investments, including head of active investment management and head of portfolio engineering. His experience spans total portfolio management, risk analytics, investment systems development, and multidisciplinary leadership across research, implementation, and portfolio strategy functions.

He previously worked at Barclays Global Investors in London as a quantitative product manager and at Morgan Stanley Capital International in Geneva as a senior associate. Walker holds a Master of Business degree from INSEAD and is based in Toronto.

Amit Thanki is a senior investment officer at the San Bernardino County Employees’ Retirement Association (SBCERA), where he helps oversee the deployment of $3.5B across diversified credit, private equity, and venture capital strategies. He plays an integral role in shaping the fund’s asset allocation policy, building and fostering manager relationships, identifying co-investment opportunities, and monitoring portfolio liquidity.

Thanki brings more than 22 years of investment experience spanning public and private markets. Prior to joining SBCERA in 2012, he served as an investment analyst at the Orange County Employees’ Retirement System, where he helped develop the absolute return and hedge fund program. Earlier in his career, he was a senior associate at PIMCO, focused on marketing strategy and product development for emerging market debt, high-yield, and structured credit.

He holds a Master of Business Administration degree from the Paul Merage School of Business at the University of California, Irvine, and a Bachelor of Science in business management from Oklahoma State University. He is a Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA) charterholder and an active member of the CAIA Association. Thanki also serves as a committee member for the CAIA’s Southwest Chapter.

Elizabeth Govea is managing investment officer for private markets at the Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund (IMRF), a $56B public pension fund. She leads the private markets portfolio, overseeing investment strategy, portfolio construction, manager sourcing and selection, due diligence, and ongoing relationship management across private equity, private credit, real estate, and infrastructure.

Govea is responsible for ensuring the private markets portfolio aligns with IMRF’s investment policies, risk management guidelines, and regulatory requirements. She also drives new initiatives and growth strategies to optimize portfolio performance and support the fund’s long-term objectives. IMRF will likely be launching an infrastructure search and a credit search focused on asset-backed lending over the next 12 to 18 months.

Since joining IMRF in 2015, Govea has helped expand the private markets program from a nascent platform into a robust portfolio totaling $18B in commitments. Under her leadership, IMRF has deployed over $10B in capital across a diverse set of strategies and structures. The portfolio now includes more than 95 managers and 275 fund partnerships and co-investments, with approximately $2B in new commitments made annually.

Govea has also played a key role in advancing IMRF’s commitment to diversity, with nearly $15B invested across the total portfolio with minority- and women-owned firms, including more than $3B in private markets.

Before joining IMRF, Govea was part of the alternative investments team at Kemper Corporation, where she focused on private credit fund commitments and direct co-investments. She began her career as an analyst at Bank of America in the fund investment group, where she supported due diligence and valuation for the private equity portfolio.

She is a member of the Institutional Limited Partners Association, Accelerate Investors, Women Investment Professionals, Pension Real Estate Association, and Women in Private Credit.

Caixia Ziegler is managing director of real assets and sustainable investments at the MacArthur Foundation, where she leads strategy and implementation across global real estate, infrastructure, and sustainability-focused investments. She is currently building a global sustainable investment portfolio from the ground up, investing across venture, growth equity, private equity, and value-add infrastructure.

Ziegler has more than 20 years of institutional investment experience and a track record of building and repositioning portfolios. Since joining the MacArthur Foundation in 2017, she has led a successful turnaround of legacy real estate and private energy assets and developed new strategies that have driven strong outperformance. She also played a key role in constructing the foundation’s sustainable investment program, integrating financial and mission-aligned goals across the risk-return spectrum.

Prior to joining MacArthur, Ziegler served as head of real estate at the Ford Foundation, where she helped grow a high-performing global portfolio. Previously, she was director of global real assets at the National Railroad Retirement Investment Trust, where she developed and managed a global platform spanning real estate, natural resources, and digital infrastructure. Earlier in her career, she held investment roles at United Technologies and built out more than $5B in allocations across public equities.

Ziegler holds an MBA from Wake Forest University and a bachelor’s degree from Xiamen University. She is a CFA charterholder and active member of industry organizations, including the National Association of Corporate Directors, Women Corporate Directors, and Women in Private Credit.

Janelle Woodward is senior managing director and head of the multi-asset group at Allstate Investments. She leads capital allocation and active investment strategies across asset classes, working closely with business partners to align portfolio design with broader enterprise objectives.

Before joining Allstate in 2023, Woodward served as president and head of investment management at MacKay Shields, where she was responsible for overseeing various investment teams managing $160B in assets. Her leadership contributed to expanding the firm’s product capabilities and deepening its investment platform.

Previously, she spent more than 10 years at BMO Financial Group, where she advanced through a series of leadership roles and ultimately served as global head of fixed income. In that position, she managed five specialized investment teams with responsibility for $50B in fixed income assets.

Woodward earned a bachelor’s degree in business systems from Taylor University and an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. She holds the Chartered Financial Analyst designation.

Kevin Fahey is managing director of private markets at the CAAT Pension Plan, where he oversees investments in private equity, infrastructure, and real estate. He brings more than two decades of experience in pension investing and plays a key role in shaping the fund’s long-term private markets strategy.

In addition to his role at CAAT, Fahey serves on the investment committee for the Teachers’ Pension Plan Corporation of Newfoundland and Labrador and is a member of the governance and nominations committee at CFA Society Toronto. He is the former chair of the Pension Investment Association of Canada and previously chaired the Salvation Army of Canada’s investment advisory committee.

Fahey holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from Queen’s University and a law degree from Osgoode Hall Law School at York University. He also holds the Chartered Financial Analyst designation.

Dmitriy Voronkov is general manager of pensions at Delta Air Lines Inc., where he oversees investment operations and leads manager selection across hedge funds and credit strategies. He brings more than two decades of experience in institutional investing, portfolio oversight, and consultant advisory services.

Voronkov began his career at Delta in 2000, conducting trade credit analysis within the airline’s finance group. From 2005 to 2008, he served as a senior investment analyst within Delta’s internal pension team, supporting oversight of traditional strategies and hedge fund-of-fund managers. He later joined Segal Rogerscasey Inc. as a consultant, advising institutional clients on asset allocation, investment structure design, and manager research.

In 2013, Voronkov returned to Delta to take on his current leadership role. He holds the Chartered Financial Analyst designation is a Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst charterholder. He earned his master’s degree in finance from Georgia State University.

Joe Fazzino is the deputy chief investment officer at RTX Corp., overseeing more than $100B in corporate pension plan assets. He brings a wealth of experience across asset classes and market environments, actively managing U.S. defined benefit plans through strategic asset allocation, liability modeling, and the selection and oversight of investment managers. His expertise includes global equities, fixed income, private credit, private equity, real estate, hedge funds, and other alternative asset classes.

In his role at RTX, Fazzino has led de-risking strategies designed to preserve the funded status of pension plans while mitigating corporate pension expense volatility and future cash contribution requirements. He has successfully managed pension assets through significant corporate events, including mergers (Goodrich, Rockwell Collins, Raytheon), divestitures (Sikorsky, Otis, and Carrier), pension risk transfers, and major funding initiatives. Fazzino also served as a board member of the Connecticut Retirement Security Authority from 2017 to 2022, where he played a pivotal role in developing a retirement savings program for private-sector employees in Connecticut.