SAIA Board

MEGHAN CHICOINE, IACCP®

CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER – SAPPHIRE STAR CAPITAL

Meghan serves as the Chief Operating Officer of Sapphire Star Capital, a Kirkland, Washington based federally registered investment advisor. She vigilantly oversees the firm’s operational, financial, investor relations and compliance activities.

Prior to joining Sapphire Star, Meghan was a Managing Director with Precedent Consulting, Inc. a Seattle based financial services consulting firm. During her tenure, she enhanced the firm’s consulting capabilities in operational due diligence, investment operations, and alternative investments.

Prior to her consulting role, Meghan worked for over a decade at Freestone Capital Management, a Seattle based wealth management and advisory firm with over $2 billion under management at the time of her departure. At Freestone, Meghan rose to the level of Managing Director and was entrusted with the development, implementation and management of the firm’s emerging manager platform, which entailed conducting operational due diligence, manager selection, and capital allocation. Additionally, Meghan oversaw the firm’s alternative investment operations, operational due diligence, structuring, and investor relations.

Meghan graduated from the University of Portland with a BS in Organizational Communications. She also holds the Investment Advisor Certified Compliance Professional (IAACP®) designation.

JANICE GREENE
PARTNER – PRECEDENT CONSULTING, INC.

Janice Greene is the President and Co-founder of Precedent Consulting, Inc., a Seattle based financial services consulting firm. She brings 30 years of broker-dealer and investment advisor experience to her consulting practice and is an expert in convoluted regulatory issues and, unusual for this industry, also brings significant people skills, including facility with managing major conflict, navigating competing priorities, and successfully completing large scale projects with limited resources.

In the eight years prior to founding Precedent, she served as Managing Director, Chief Compliance Officer, and Human Resources Director for Freestone Capital Management, which included Freestone Securities, a registered broker-dealer, and Freestone Investments, a registered investment advisor to Freestone’s hedge fund and fund of funds complex. Janice has a degree in Business Economics from Colorado State University.

IGNACIO GRIEGO
PARTNER – BDO

Ignacio is an audit partner based in BDO’s San Francisco office, possessing deep expertise in the asset management industry with a strong focus in alternative investments. Ignacio leads BDO’s western region audit hedge fund practice and his work with funds spans the spectrum from small local startup funds to global multi-billion dollar, institutional funds. Mr. Griego works with domestic and offshore hedge funds, fund of funds, venture capital funds, private equity funds, investment advisors, and broker-dealers. In addition to discussing fund structuring, investment valuation, financial statement disclosure requirements, and partner allocations with his clients, Ignacio utilizes his experience to consult with clients on their tax, operational, and regulatory needs. He also provides consultation on management company and portfolio company audit, tax and operational issues.

Ignacio has held key role roles in several prominent West coast professional organizations, serving as a lead organizer of the Bay Area Hedge Fund Roundtable (BAHR) and the director of membership for the San Francisco chapter of the Association of Latino Professionals in Finance and Accounting (ALPFA). Mr. Griego speaks regularly at local colleges regarding the alternative investment industry, valuation, and the accounting profession. Ignacio graduated from UC Berkeley, earning a BS in Business Administration from the Walter A. Haas School of Business and a BA in Economics.

CHRIS HUGO
PARTNER, PNW ASSET MANAGEMENT TAX – PWC

Chris leads the Asset Management tax team in the PwC Seattle office. Chris has been dedicated to the financial services industry since 1995 and spends 100% of his time serving hedge funds, fund of funds, private equity & venture capital funds and a variety of investment advisors. Chris’s practice focuses on federal, state, and international aspects of financial product transactions and investor reporting. Chris’s clients include funds with a wide variety of actively traded strategies, including equity and debt strategies, special opportunities, hybrid private equity structures, emerging managers, lending transactions, real estate, and derivatives across a wide spectrum of assets. Chris currently serves clients in Seattle, New York, Connecticut, and California. He holds a Bachelors and MPAcc Tax degrees from the University of Washington.

LAUREN LAURITSEN – SAIA EVENTS COORDINATOR
RELATIONSHIP MANAGER – UNITED FINANCIAL ADVISERS

Lauren is a Relationship Manager for United Capital Financial Advisers Seattle office. She assists the Managing Directors with new business presentations and client meetings, event planning, fee billing and managing the account review process. She earned a Bachelor’s of Fine Arts degree in Interior Design from the Art Institute of Seattle and received a Certificate in Project Management from the University of Washington, Professional & Continuing Education. She also received a Certificate in Financial Planning from Boston University, Institute of Finance.

ROBIN WILLOUGHBY
TALSON CAPITAL MANAGEMENT

Robin joined Talson Capital Management in March of 2013. Her role at Talson is to manage custom portfolios for private clients and foundations and is actively involved in all aspects of manager vetting, due diligence and portfolio management of Talson’s commingled funds.

Robin’s experience building opportunistic portfolios for private clients goes back to 1994. Since 1994 Robin has managed large pools of investments on both advisory and discretionary bases primarily for private investors and single family offices. Prior to joining Talson, Robin was Portfolio Manager, Hedge Funds, at The Fisher Group, a large single family office and registered investment advisor. She managed the Fisher Fairway Funds for internal TFG clients (family members and foundations) and outside investors. Prior to her role at TFG, Robin was a managing partner, senior consultant, and director of hedge fund investments at CTC Consulting. She developed and advised on bespoke portfolios of for large families (whose total assets across asset classes ranged from $200mm to several billion dollars in size) and managed a number of discretionary portfolios during her time at CTC. Prior experience included PM roles at NY based funds of funds including Mezzacappa Partners and Bessemer Trust Company. She began her investment career in 1985 at Russell Investments (then called Frank Russell Company) in Tacoma Washington, where she worked for 13 years, primarily in the real estate and private client/hedge fund research groups.

ANN ZECH
VICE PRESIDENT, CLIENT SERVICE MANAGEMENT – BLACKROCK

Ann joined BlackRock in 2017 and serves as a member of the Client Service Management (CSM) Team within BlackRock’s Business Operations function. In partnership with the Client Businesses, she is responsible for the oversight of the Operational Servicing of the firm’s clients, including service delivery, developing service solutions and the enhancement of the client experience.

Prior to joining BlackRock, Ann served as Director of Fund Administration for Conifer Financial Services in San Francisco. At Conifer, she oversaw client services for private equity, venture capital and family office clients.

Previously, Ann served as Director of Investor Relations for Freestone Capital Management, where she was primarily responsible for Investor Relations, Marketing, and Investment Operations related to the firm’s alternative investment products. Ann began her career in financial services at CITCO Fund Services, Inc. in San Francisco, as an Investor Relations Associate. Ann earned a B.A. in economics from the University of Washington.

SAIA ASSOCIATE BOARD MEMBERS

IVAN INCHAUSTE

TRADER, RESEARCH ANALYST – SAPPHIRE STAR CAPITAL LLC

CAMERON LAMARCHE

PRINCIPAL – INVESTMENTS, THE CLARIUS GROUP