In Memoriam: Mamak Shahbazi

It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Commonfund Board Member, Mamak Shahbazi. Mamak was a dedicated and talented board member and a great friend to the firm, its clients, and employees.  

She joined the Commonfund board in 2019 as a seasoned investment executive with a 35-year track record of raising assets, building and managing high-performance marketing and client service teams, developing business, maintaining key client and consultant relationships, overseeing and delivering impressive growth and ROI. A Founding Member of Colchester Global Investors, which provides a complete range of investment management services for global and emerging market bonds, Mamak was the company’s President, Director and Global Head of Marketing From 2001 to 2019. She was responsible for growing assets under management from $15 million to $43 billion since inception. Mamak brought those skills and more to her time on our board – she was always willing to provide advice and counsel to our marketing and sales teams. Sometimes, she even role played the “grumpy board member” so our marketing and client service teams could hone their presentation skills.  Through it all, she brought a keen determination to provide clients with optimal solutions to their investment needs, combined with a background in engineering and years of experience in fixed income research and analysis, which made Mamak extremely effective as a solution provider to institutional investors.   

Mamak was a frequent invited guest speaker at various prominent investment conferences and was a Founding Angel Member of 100 Women in Finance, a global network of investment professionals working to assist women at every stage of their careers. Prior to Colchester, Mamak built an impressive record in the investment community. She served as Director of Institutional Marketing at the hedge fund firm Zweig-DiMenna Associates, where she was responsible for building the institutional marketing and client services effort. She raised over $500 million in assets under management despite stressed market conditions and performance. Before Zweig-DiMenna, Mamak served as Director of Global Bond Marketing and Client Service at Delaware Investment Advisors. She was responsible for building the Global Bond marketing effort for the Delaware International Advisors subsidiary. Starting with $50 million in assets, she built the enterprise to over $5.6 billion during her seven-year term. Prior to that, she served as Director/Vice President of Fixed Income Investments at Credit Suisse First Boston Corp. for eight years. She began her career at Arthur D. Little Valuation, Inc., as an Analyst, where, as an early technologist, she wrote Fortran-based computer programs to analyze bank and savings and loan institutions and assisted in writing mathematical formulas to ascertain market values of deposit accounts and loan books.   

In addition to serving on the Commonfund Board, she was Chairman of the Board of Colchester Global Investors, Inc., and a Member of the Board of Colchester Global Investors Limited, Mamak also served on other boards, including Freeman and Company’s Advisory Board and New York University College of Arts and Science’s Advisory Council. Previously, Mamak served as a Board Member of the Miller Howard High Income Equity Fund and as an Advisory Board Member of Proctor Investment Management. A graduate of the University of Maryland, Mamak held a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering with an emphasis in mathematics and computer science. Mamak leaves behind her loving husband, Bill, and two adult children. She will be missed greatly and remembered fondly by all of us in the Commonfund community.