Our Teams

Mark Anson is the Chief Executive Officer and Chief Investment Officer of the Commonfund and Chair of the Boards of CF Private Equity and Commonfund OCIO. Previously, he was the President and Chief Investment Officer for the Bass Family Office of Ft. Worth, Texas which was recognized as Family Office of the Year for 2014 & 2015. He was the President and Global Head of Investment Management at Nuveen Investments, a full-service asset management company with over $900 billion in assets under management. Prior to Nuveen, Mark served as the Chief Executive Officer and Chief Investment Officer for the British Telecom Pension Scheme (BTPS), the largest institutional investor in the UK with assets of £55 billion. In addition, Mark was the CEO of Hermes Pensions Management in London, a £60 billion asset management company that is wholly owned by the BTPS. Prior to joining BTPS, he served as the Chief Investment Officer of the California Public Employees' Retirement System, the largest institutional investor in the United States with over $250 billion in assets. Mark is currently the Chairman of the Investment Committee for the $60 billion UAW Medical Benefits Trust. He also serves on the Law Board of the Northwestern University School of Law, and the Board of the Toigo Foundation. He is the only person to serve on the Board of Governors for both the CFA Institute and the CAIA Association. He was an inaugural member of the SEC Investor Advisory Committee and the Chairman of the Board for the International Corporate Governance Network. Mark has published over 90 investment articles in professional journals and has won three Best Paper Awards. He is the author of five financial textbooks including the Handbook of Alternative Assets, which is the primary textbook used for the Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst program. Mark earned a B.A. in Economics and Chemistry from St. Olaf College, a Ph.D. and Masters in Finance from Columbia University Graduate School of Business, and a J.D. from Northwestern University School of Law, all with honors. He has also received several industry awards in recognition of his leadership in asset management including the Lifetime Achievement Award in Pension Fund Management from Plan Sponsor and the CAIA Leadership Award from the CAIA Association. Last, Mark has earned the Chartered Financial Analyst, Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst, Certified Public Accountant, and Chartered Global Management Accountant professional degrees, and he is a Member of the Law Bar of New York and Illinois.

Peter Burns is the CEO of CF Private Equity and is responsible for managing all aspects of Commonfund’s private equity investment business, which focuses on providing investment solutions in buyouts, growth equity, venture capital, and real assets and sustainability through primaries, secondaries and co-investments. He is a member of the Investment Committee and Senior Executive Group of CF Private Equity and a member of the Operating Committee of Commonfund Group. As CEO, he leads a team of 60 professionals that advise, build and monitor private equity investment programs for sophisticated investors. Since CF Private Equity’s founding in 1988, it has managed approximately $21 billion of private capital commitments from investors. As part of the firm’s management succession process, in the fall of 2022 Peter announced that he will retire from Commonfund on June 30, 2023 and that Mark Hoeing will become CEO at that time. Through June 30, 2023, Peter will remain a member of the Investment Committees of CF Private Equity and Commonfund OCIO and a member of the Operating Committee of Commonfund Group. Peter has over 30 years of investment, corporate finance, and lending experience. Prior to joining Commonfund in 1998, Peter worked as a Vice President of Taglich Brothers, a New York-based investment bank and brokerage firm. Prior to this, he was an Associate in the Leveraged Funding Group of Heller Financial. He is presently a member of the advisory boards of several private equity limited partnerships. Peter received a B.A. in Economics from St. Lawrence University and an M.B.A. in Finance and Marketing from Columbia Business School.

Kiyana Campbell is a member of the Commonfund Institute team and supports all Institute activities, including benchmarks studies, DEI initiatives, governance research in the nonprofit institutional investor space, and ESG. Prior to working at Commonfund, she was an Associate at G4 Capital Partners, a commercial real estate investment firm. Kiyana earned a B.A. in Philosophy from Herbert H. Lehman College.

Anita Hariton is President and CEO of Commonfund Securities, Inc. and Head of Client Engagement for Commonfund OCIO, providing oversight to the sales, service and RFP teams and processes. She is a member of the Commonfund OCIO Executive Group where she contributes to the overall strategic and operational direction of Commonfund’s OCIO business. Prior to joining Commonfund OCIO, Anita served as Head of Investor Services for CF Private Equity where her team was responsible for investor portfolio reviews, investor communications, client reporting, RFP responses, and special projects. Prior to moving into this role, she held a series of positions across the Commonfund organization, serving on the operations, treasury, and client relationship teams and leading clients through decisions on asset allocation, investment policy, treasury management and governance. Anita previously served eight years as a Trustee for Temple Israel, Westport, four as Executive Vice President. She has a B.M. from Susquehanna University and an M.B.A. with a concentration in Finance from Fairfield University. Anita is a member of the Private Equity Women’s Investor Network.

Amy Harlacker is Head of Investor Services and Fund Operations. She oversees the delivery of operational and investor services to outsourced CIO clients and fund investors which includes the management of valuations and financial and regulatory reporting for Commonfund funds. As a member of the Commonfund OCIO Executive Group, Amy is responsible for collaborating with members of the team to provide operational leadership, direction and support during the implementation of the organization’s strategic plans and initiatives. She has also held a series of roles within the Commonfund organization across the Financial Operations, Client Service and Information Technology groups. Prior to joining Commonfund, Amy was a business analyst at Energy East Corporation. She is a member of the Board of Directors of the Aspetuck Land Trust and holds an M.B.A. from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and a B.S. in Civil Engineering from Lehigh University.

Mark Hoeing is President of CF Private Equity, Head of the firm’s Buyout and Growth Equity investment practice, a member of the Investment Committee and Senior Executive Group of CF Private Equity and a member of the Operating Committee of Commonfund Group. It is anticipated that Mark will assume the title of CEO of the firm on June 30, 2023. As President, Mark’s responsibilities include the strategic direction of the firm and oversight of investment solutions in buyouts, growth equity, venture capital, and real assets and sustainability. As Head of Buyouts and Growth Equity investments, his responsibilities include managing due diligence, investment selection, portfolio construction, monitoring, and fundraising for the firm’s buyout and growth equity strategies that include primaries, secondaries and co-investments. Prior to joining CF Private Equity, his experience includes positions at Deutsche Bank, evaluating third-party managers in the private capital funds division, as well as direct private capital investing with DB Capital Partners, Deutsche Bank’s merchant banking subsidiary. Part of Mark’s work at Deutsche included the bank’s coverage of the Asia-Pacific basin. Mark began his career as a credit analyst and commercial lending officer with Citizens Financial Group. He is presently a member of the advisory boards of several private equity limited partnerships. Mark has a B.S. in Health Policy and Management and an M.B.A. from Providence College.

Allison Kaspriske develops and manages programs and research initiatives for Commonfund Institute, including the Commonfund Benchmarks Studies®, the Council on Foundations-Commonfund Study of Foundations® (CCSF) and is also involved in developing and maintaining strategic partnerships. She manages the Institute's educational initiatives such as Commonfund Institute Online and the Investment Stewardship Academy and is actively involved in all other educational programs that Commonfund provides. She earned a B.A. in English from the University of Connecticut, Storrs.

Kristofer Kwait formulates and communicates strategic market views, economic perspectives, and investment themes to clients and internal constituents for Commonfund OCIO. He serves on the Commonfund OCIO Executive Group and is a member of the Investment Committee and Commonfund Asset Allocation Committee. Prior to his current role, Kris was head of the Hedge Fund Strategies Group and previously served as head of hedge fund research with responsibility for overseeing the design and implementation of proprietary models for manager selection, portfolio construction, and risk management. Before joining Commonfund, Kris was a proprietary trader at both Andover L.L.C. and A.B. Watley, where he managed relative value equity strategies. Prior to his experiences as a trader, he was a stockbroker at Smith Barney. Kris attended pre-college at Juilliard School of Music, has a B.S. from Purdue University and an M.B.A. from the Yale School of Management.

Ethan Levine is Head of Real Assets and Sustainability, a member of the Investment Committee and Senior Executive Group of CF Private Equity. His primary responsibilities include due diligence, investment selection, portfolio construction, monitoring, and fundraising for the firm’s real assets and sustainability programs, which include mandates surrounding natural resources and environmental sustainability that are constructed with co-investments, direct operating platforms, secondaries and primaries. Additionally, he contributes to the firm’s buyouts, growth equity, and venture capital strategies. Ethan originally joined CF Private Equity in 2007 as a Senior Analyst in the CF Private Equity Associate Program. Prior to CF Private Equity, Ethan specialized in energy markets at Charles River Associates, an economic and litigation consulting firm in Boston, MA. At Charles River Associates, he advised power and utility clients with their damages litigation, regulatory approval and business strategy forecasting. While at business school, Ethan worked at Rockland Capital, a power generation focused private equity firm, headquartered in The Woodlands, TX, where he conducted due diligence on potential power generation asset acquisitions and helped manage existing portfolio investments. Ethan is a member of the advisory boards of several private equity limited partnerships. He is the treasurer and former chairperson of the Board for Hillel at Dartmouth College. Ethan received a B.A., B.E. and an M.E.M. from Dartmouth College and an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Cari Lodge is Head of Secondaries, a member of the Investment Committee and Senior Executive Group of CF Private Equity. She oversees the origination, evaluation, structuring and negotiation of secondaries transactions as well as the portfolio construction, monitoring and fundraising of the firm’s secondary funds. Additionally, Cari contributes to the firm’s buyout, growth equity, venture capital, and real assets and sustainability strategies. Cari has over 22 years of secondaries experience and has closed over 375 secondary transactions for approximately $2.8 billion in total exposure. She began her career at Donaldson, Lufkin and Jenrette (which merged with Credit Suisse in 2000) as an Associate in Investment Banking. She spent 12 years with Credit Suisse’s Secondary Team, Strategic Partners, since its founding in 2000, and served as a member of the Investment Committee. Prior to joining CF Private Equity, Cari was at Tulane University’s Investment Management Office where she was responsible for overseeing the private equity and private real assets investments for the endowment. She is presently a member of the advisory board of several private equity limited partnerships. Cari is also a member of the Investment Committee of her alma mater, The Hotchkiss School. In 2022, she was recognized by PEI as one of the top ten women of influence in private markets. Cari received an A.B. from Dartmouth College in both Economics and Government and an M.B.A. from Columbia Business School.

Paul McKiernan is Head of CF Private Equity Business Development and leads a team responsible for the management and development of private market mandates across endowments, foundations, healthcare organizations, family offices, insurance companies and pensions. Prior to rejoining CF Private Equity, Paul lead the Institutional Business Development and Consultant Relations effort at QS Investors, LLC. Prior to QS Investors, Paul had worked with Commonfund’s clients in the Midwest. Paul also served as a Vice President of Institutional Sales and Relationship Management at Deutsche Asset Management, a portfolio analyst at Nicholas Advisors and an assistant trader on Morgan Stanley’s fixed income proprietary trading desk. Paul received his B.A. from Catholic University.

Aaron Miller is Head of Global Venture Capital, a member of the Investment Committee and Senior Executive Group of CF Private Equity. His primary responsibilities include due diligence, investment selection, portfolio construction, monitoring and fundraising for the firm’s venture capital platform. In addition, Aaron oversees sourcing, screening, execution and monitoring of the venture growth direct investment practice. He also contributes to the firm’s buyout, growth equity, emerging markets, real assets and sustainability strategies. Aaron brings over 20 years of private equity, M&A, capital markets and management consulting experience. Prior to joining CF Private Equity, Aaron was a senior banker at Lazard Frères & Co. in the mergers and acquisitions department in New York. During his tenure at Lazard, he counseled companies and institutions in technology, media and telecom industries (TMT) advising on strategic, financial, takeover defense and capital structure matters. As an investment banker, he completed investments and executed transactions in North America, Asia, Europe and Latin America. Aaron also worked in the corporate finance department at Barclays Capital and Lehman Brothers. Prior to investment banking, Aaron began his career as a management consultant, where he advised a broad range of clients on strategy, sales force effectiveness and organizational design matters. Aaron serves on the advisory boards of several venture capital partnerships. Aaron earned a B.A. from University of Michigan and an M.B.A. from Yale University.

Elaine Mizer is responsible for executing Commonfund’s business and strategic plan from a human capital perspective. She leads Commonfund’s human resources practice to develop talent and leverage it effectively for consistency with our business strategy and plans for growth while overseeing all other human resources functions and facilities management. Elaine serves as Chair of the Commonfund Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Office and is also a member of the Commonfund Operating Committee. Prior to Commonfund, she was Head of Human Resources and Administration at Aquiline Capital Partners. Previously, Elaine held roles in Human Resources at Citigroup and Securitas Capital, and began her career in Human Resources at Smith Barney. She earned a B.A. degree in Human Resources from Western Connecticut State University.

Dana Moreau has firm-wide oversight and responsibility for risk management, investor services, information technology, operations, and human resources and oversees the financial management of Commonfund, creating and maintaining all financial policies and procedures for the firm. He has over 20 years’ experience in finance and operations and serves as a member of the Commonfund Operating Committee. Prior to joining Commonfund, Dana worked at State Street Bank & Trust where his primary responsibilities were portfolio accounting and administration for the bank’s hedge fund clients. He has a B.A. in Economics from Assumption College and an M.B.A. from Columbia University.

Amanda Novello is a member of the Commonfund Institute team and is responsible for thought leadership creation and data analysis across all Institute activities, including benchmarks studies, DEI initiatives, and ESG. Prior to working at Commonfund, she was an economic policy researcher for various nonprofit organizations, producing analyses of economic and labor market trends, and the distributional impacts of public policy. Amanda earned an M.A. in Economics from the New School for Social Research and a B.S. in Economics and Mathematics from the University of Southern California.

Sharad Samy serves as the General Counsel and Secretary of Commonfund. He has extensive transactional and litigation experience, having served as the general counsel of two prominent investment management firms; as a partner of the international law firm of Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP; and as counsel to both plaintiffs and defendants in complex civil litigation and arbitration matters. He has worked extensively in Connecticut, New York and the United Kingdom on matters involving jurisdictions in North America, South America, Europe, Africa and Asia. Sharad was a Judge Advocate for the U.S. Army Reserve from 1997 through 2008, having served in the Horn of Africa in connection with Operation Enduring Freedom, and he currently serves as a Major in the Connecticut Army National Guard. In addition to his professional activities, he is active in the veteran community, serving as a Trustee of the State of Connecticut Board of Veterans Affairs and as the Judge Advocate for Post 6933 of the Veterans of Foreign Wars. He is also active in the non-profit community, serving as a Director of the Karam Foundation, an aid organization supporting young Syrian refugees, as Treasurer of the Connecticut Bar Association, and as a director and pro bono volunteer for Lawyers for Children America. Sharad was awarded the Game Changer Award from the Connecticut Law Tribune in 2020, the Modern 100 Governance Award by Diligent in 2019 and the Outstanding Veteran Volunteer Award by the Stamford Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution in 2018. He is a graduate of Columbia College with an A.B. in Political Science and of Columbia University Law School with a J.D. He is admitted to practice law in the State of Connecticut and the State of New York and is a solicitor in England and Wales.

Miriam Schmitter is Head of Buyout and Growth Equity investments outside the United States, a member of the Investment Committee and Senior Executive Group of CF Private Equity. She is based in CF Private Equity’s London investment office. Miriam's primary responsibilities include due diligence, investment selection, portfolio construction, monitoring and fundraising for the firm’s buyout and growth equity programs that are constructed with primaries, secondaries and co- investments. She also contributes to the firm’s venture capital and real assets and sustainability strategies. Before joining CF Private Equity, she was with Cambridge Associates (“Cambridge”) where she served as Managing Director and Head of International Private Equity Research in London. Miriam was also a member of the internal Investment Committee at Cambridge. She started with Cambridge in Boston in 2005 and was responsible for due diligence on investment opportunities and research published by the firm on private equity funds which resulted in significant client commitments to private capital managers, overseeing consultants and associates in the Boston, London, and Singapore offices. Prior to 2005, she was an investment manager of private equity fund investments at APEP (Allianz Private Equity Partners), where she researched and selected private equity investment opportunities. Prior to that, Miriam was an investment professional at DB Capital Partners/ DB Investor, the direct private equity investment division of Deutsche Bank, where she evaluated buyout investment opportunities. She also worked as a consultant for Deloitte & Touche performing financial analysis and valuations and conducting financial due diligence for clients. She is presently a member of the advisory boards of several private equity limited partnerships. Miriam has a PhD from the University of Darmstadt and a Diplom-Kauffrau (an M.B.A.) from the University of Mannheim.

Deborah Spalding leads the Commonfund OCIO Investment team and oversees the design, tailoring, and implementation of custom investment solutions for clients. Deborah serves as a member of the Commonfund OCIO Executive Group and chairs the Investment Committee and the Commonfund Asset Allocation Committee. She also leads the firm’s sustainable development efforts. Prior to joining Commonfund, she was the Chief Investment Officer for the State of Connecticut’s $30 billion Retirement Plans and Trust Funds. Previously, she was a Managing Partner at Working Lands Investment Partners, LLC, an independent investment management firm that invests in rapidly growing environmental markets. Prior to that, she held several executive level positions including Executive Vice President and Head of International Investments for Schroders Investment Management N.A. and Managing Director and Head of International Institutional Investments at Scudder Kemper Investments. She began her career as an equity analyst at SKB & Associates in San Francisco. Deborah received a B.A. in International Relations and Asian Studies from Tufts University and holds graduate degrees from Harvard University, University of California Berkeley and Yale University. She is a past Board Chair and a member of the investment committee of the National Wildlife Federation, is an advisory board member of the Center for Business and the environment at Yale, and is a Lecturer in Forest and Ecosystem Finance at Yale.

George Suttles leads Commonfund’s educational, thought partnership, and professional development activities as Executive Director of Commonfund Institute. He serves on multiple advisory boards and steering committees, including Intentional Endowments Network’s (IEN) steering committee which provides strategic guidance to the network and chairs the steering committee for the Impact Finance Center’s Diverse Manager Initiative. Prior to joining Commonfund, George was a Program Officer at the John A. Hartford Foundation, an independent, national private foundation focused on improving care for older adults. Before joining the foundation, he was a Vice President, Senior Philanthropic Relationship Manager at U.S. Trust/Bank of America. In this role he worked with private and institutional clients on issues related to best practices in governance and strategic grantmaking. He is a member of numerous nonprofit boards including Laundromat Project (Chair) and the New York Foundation, where he serves as Treasurer and chair of the investment committee. George is frequently asked to speak on topics concerning fiduciary duty and stewardship, philanthropy, investment governance, Diversity Equity and Inclusion and values aligned investing, among other topics. Currently, he is on the Adjunct Faculty at the New York University (NYU) School of Professional Studies, teaching classes on private and corporate philanthropy. George received a B.A. from Wesleyan University, an M.A. in Philanthropic Studies from Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy (IUPUI) and an M.P.A. from Baruch CUNY School of Public Affairs.

Timothy T. Yates, Jr. heads Commonfund OCIO and is responsible for managing all aspects of Commonfund OCIO's business, which focuses exclusively on non-profit institutions. In this role, he leads a team of professionals that advise, implement and monitor custom investment solutions for institutions with total assets under management of more than $15 billion. Tim is a member of the Commonfund OCIO Executive Group and serves on both the Commonfund Asset Allocation and Operating Committees. Tim joined Commonfund as an associate in the CF Private Equity Associate Program. In 2003, he was a founding member of Commonfund's OCIO platform, where he was responsible for the design, tailoring and implementation of total portfolio solutions. Additionally, he held several roles with CF Private Equity including having responsibility for custom accounts and serving as a senior member of the firm’s emerging markets private equity portfolio leadership team with a focus on Latin America. Before joining Commonfund, Tim was an instructor of Spanish and Italian at Fordham Preparatory School in the Bronx, NY. He holds an M.B.A. in Finance with a designation in International Business from Fordham University and a B.A. in Modern Languages from Trinity College. Tim is a member of the investment committee for St. Paul’s Church in Fairfield, CT, the Advisory Board of Girls Who Invest, a member of the Trinity College Board of Fellows, and the Board of Directors of Caroline House—a non-profit in Bridgeport, CT, focused on enabling women and children to reach the fullness of their potential through education in English language and life skills.