| From October 2018 until April 2023 Mr. Baker was Senior Managing Director, Currency Management for Mesirow Financial, a Chicago-based financial services firm, working out of their London office. In September 2007 Mr. Baker joined London-based The Cambridge Strategy group as a senior managing partner, serving as Executive Chairman and a member of their board of directors. He played a significant role in growing The Cambridge Strategy into a successful, absolute return strategy business focused on currency hedge fund strategies, for which AUM's exceeded $2billion at their peak. In October 2018 he helped engineer an asset purchase and team lift-out with Mesirow Financial, and continued his focus on currency alpha strategies, risk management and research at Mesirow.
Until 2007, Mr. Baker was the Chief Investment Officer of Emerging Markets Growth Equities at AllianceBernstein in London, having joined the firm in 1995, then Alliance Capital. During his tenure at Alliance, he served as CIO of their Emerging Markets Growth Equity business and as CEO of their London office. He pioneered the development of one of the first models of corporate governance in emerging markets and the AUM's of the emerging markets strategy based on this model reached capacity, at $10billion in AUM's, by the time of his departure.
Prior to joining Alliance, Mr. Baker worked for Barra Inc., an investment technology firm. He joined Barra in 1978 as an early founding member, he initially worked in a research capacity and became Director of Marketing in 1986. Barra was a pioneer in risk management modelling and technology, having developed the financial industry's first fundamental multiple factor equity models.
He is currently a Trustee for the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute, serving as Chairman of the Board among other roles. He is also a trustee for the Berkeley Repertory Theatre and serves as Chairman of the Investment Committee for both organisations. Mr. Baker served as a Trustee for the UC Berkeley Foundation from 2007 to 2019. In conjunction with the Investments & Wealth Institute, he founded the Journal of Investment Consulting in 1998 as Editor in Chief and continues as a member of its editorial advisory board.
Mr. Baker earned an MS degree from the University of California at Berkeley, where he was a Regents Fellow and completed work there in PhD programs in both mathematics and finance. He is the recipient of the 2023 IWI Investment Consulting Impact Award, recognising his 30 years+ contribution to the investment consulting industry. He has published a variety of research papers in practitioner journals over his career, with an emphasis on ESG related and risk management topics.
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