Role: Portfolio Management
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Ken Lester
Ken oversees NISA’s Derivatives Portfolio Management team and jointly oversees the Rates Portfolio Management team. Having been with NISA since its founding in 1994, he has more than 35 years of investment experience. Ken implements and evaluates hedging and absolute-return-focused strategies that utilize derivative instruments. He also provides executive oversight of the derivatives portfolio management…
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Anthony Pope, CFA
Anthony oversees NISA’s Fixed Income Credit Portfolio Management team and jointly oversees the Rates Portfolio Management team. Having spent his entire 30-plus-year career at NISA, he provides executive oversight of the fixed income portfolio management functions, including model portfolio construction, investment-grade and high-yield credit securities trading, rates trading and credit research. Anthony holds a BSBA…
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Israel Acosta
Israel provides corporate bond credit research support to the Fixed Income and Derivatives Portfolio Management Group. Prior to joining NISA in 2015, he worked at Reams Asset Management in various areas, including credit research, corporate bond trading and portfolio management. Israel holds a B.S. in finance from Indiana State University and an MBA from Indiana…
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Mohan Balachandran, Ph.D.
Mohan leads the team responsible for signal research and generation, signal selection and weighting, and portfolio construction for the quantitative equity portfolios. He returned to NISA in 2025 after departing in 2008 to join the Teacher Retirement System of Texas, where he led the successful development and launch of its Multi-Asset Strategies Group. In addition,…
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Biswajit Bhattacharya, CFA
Biswajit oversees daily strategy implementation and monitoring in fixed income accounts, and analyzes the relative value of individual securities. He is authorized to trade fixed income securities. Prior to joining NISA in 2003, Biswajit worked as a senior financial analyst at Outsourcing Solutions Inc., where he was responsible for corporate financial analyses for three business…
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John Choe
John joined NISA in 2002. He leads the group that analyzes credit markets to develop models and produce signals used to optimize portfolio construction and systematic trades within credit portfolios. John is authorized to trade fixed income and derivative instruments. He earned an A.B. in economics from Washington University in St. Louis.
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Gabe Crump, CFA
Gabe manages NISA’s Credit Research team within the Fixed Income and Derivatives Portfolio Management Group. He also conducts credit research on various industries and issuers. Prior to joining NISA in 2007, Gabe worked as a financial institution investment banker at Flagstone Securities and Stifel, Nicolaus and Company, Incorporated. He earned a BSBA in finance from…
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Stephen Douglass
Stephen analyzes the global economy, monetary and fiscal policy, as well as interest rate markets. He is a leading voice on economic, market and portfolio matters—engaging clients directly and more broadly publishing timely chief economist updates. Stephen is regularly interviewed and quoted in financial publications, including the Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times. Prior…
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Pat Foley
Pat joined NISA in 2006. He oversees the daily monitoring and management of fixed income and derivative portfolios, and special projects. Pat is authorized to trade fixed income and derivative instruments. He earned a B.A. in economics from Vanderbilt University and an A.M. in economics from Washington University in St. Louis.
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Pat Fuchs, CFA
Pat joined NISA in 2003. He oversees the daily monitoring and management of fixed income and derivative portfolios, with an emphasis on rates trading. Pat is authorized to trade fixed income and derivative instruments. He earned a B.S. in finance from Saint Louis University.