Helmsley’s Investment Committee provides oversight of the investment program, ensuring compliance and providing independent counsel to the Investments team on their strategy. The Investment Committee operates under delegated authority from Helmsley’s Trustees. Together, the Investment Committee and the Investments team steer the compounded growth of Helmsley’s assets to ensure perpetuity, consistent with Helmsley’s charter; in doing so Helmsley’s programmatic impact can grow exponentially over time.
In addition to Trustees David Panzirer and Sandor Frankel, the Investment Committee comprises:
Linda Strumpf, Chair
Linda Strumpf was the Chief Investment Officer of the Ford Foundation for 17 years, prior to her first retirement in 2009. She then became the first CIO of the Helmsley Charitable Trust and retired again in 2011. She currently chairs the Investment Committees at the Helmsley Charitable Trust and the Sidney E. Frank Foundation, sits on the finance and investment committee of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, and is a Trustee of Trickle Up, a nonprofit that helps the ultra-poor women in India, West Africa, and Central America to start businesses through training and grants. She also served as a director of the Met Series Funds, the variable annuity assets of Met Life. She earned her B.A. in Economics at Penn State, where she served as a Trustee until 2014, and earned her MBA in Finance at NYU. She is also a Chartered Financial Analyst.
Deborah L. Allinson, Vice Chair
Deborah Allinson now serves on the Investment Committees of Foundation and Endowments with assets in excess of $8.06 billion. Ms. Allinson is a retired Partner of Wellington Management Co., a leading global institutional asset manager. Her investment career of 33 years focused on investment research and portfolio management, with a particular emphasis on understanding global developments that impact capital markets.
The opening of many countries to the flow of ideas and capital in concert with the ability of technology to surpass geographic boundaries has shaped her views of the world since the early 1980s. She has served on multiple boards, nonprofit and corporate. She now serves as Trustee for three nonprofit institutions.
Meeting investment goals is the primary focus of her Investment Committee work, using expertise in asset allocation, global economic conditions, and portfolio construction. Manager selection and evaluation is a critical part of her ongoing responsibilities. She enjoys identifying and nurturing the talent needed for the long run sustainability of organizations.
Ms. Allinson serves on behalf of the Helmsley Charitable Trust, Historic New England, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, South Shore Conservatory, Olin College of Engineering, and Wheeler School. Ms. Allinson received her B.A. from Tufts University in Economics. She has attended Executive Education seminars at Oxford, Princeton, and Yale Universities.
Jeannine Caruso
Jeannine Caruso is a senior executive with extensive financial experience encompassing corporate finance, private equity, and endowment management across varied professional settings.
Ms. Caruso is currently a partner and senior managing director at New Providence Asset Management, an outsourced investment office managing customized portfolios across traditional and alternative asset classes on a discretionary basis for foundations, endowments, and family office clients. Ms. Caruso is a member of the firm’s senior investment team, serves as the portfolio manager for specific client accounts and leads the firm’s venture capital and private equity investment practice.
Prior to joining New Providence, Ms. Caruso was the CIO of the Dyson Foundation, where she was responsible for establishing both the structure as well as the strategy for this investment office along with its implementation. She began her career at Shearson Lehman Brothers as an analyst in the corporate finance department. Ms. Caruso then worked at the Dyson–Kissner–Moran Corporation, a middle–market private equity firm, where she participated in all facets of corporate buyouts while also serving on the board of directors for portfolio companies and serving as interim president of a global portfolio company, initiating and leading its operational turnaround.
Ms. Caruso also currently serves as an independent director for Tweedy, Browne Fund Inc., as well as serving on the finance and investment committee for the endowment of the Hole in the Wall Gang Camp, a children’s charity.
Ms. Caruso earned her M.B.A. from Harvard University and her Bachelor of Science from Brown University in Applied Mathematics and Economics, magna cum laude.
Roz Hewsenian
Roz Hewsenian joined the Helmsley Investment Committee in 2024, upon her retirement as the Helmsley Charitable Trust’s Chief Investment Officer. She served in that position for nearly 14 years and was responsible for the strategic direction of the Trust’s investment program and its implementation. Originally, Roz started at Helmsley in 2010 as the Deputy Chief Investment Officer.
Prior to her work at Helmsley, Roz was the Chief Executive Officer of Clay Finlay, LLC, a global equity firm with offices in New York, London and Hong Kong. Roz has spent the majority of her career at Wilshire Associates in Santa Monica, CA, as senior investment consultant serving governmental pension funds. She was the lead investment consultant to the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS). She also served on Wilshire’s Board of Directors and was an equity principal of the firm. Previously, Roz worked for money management firm, Dimensional Fund Advisors, and served as the Manager of Pensions and Investments at PepsiCo, Inc.
Roz received a Bachelor of Science from the State University of New York at Oneonta, an M.B.A. from Pace University, and a Doctorate of Humane Letters from the State University of New York. She currently serves on the Board of Directors of Partners Capital Investment Group in London.
Catherine Keating
Catherine Keating is the CEO of BNY Mellon’s Wealth Management and Investor Solutions divisions, and a member of BNY Mellon’s executive committee. She also serves as the President and a Board member of BNY Mellon, N.A., the company’s national bank subsidiary. For over two centuries, BNY Mellon has served wealthy families around the world, their businesses, family offices, endowments, and foundations. It was named “The Best Private Bank for Customer Service in the United States” in the 2019 Global Private Banking Awards. The Investor Solutions division is the company’s Multi-Asset Solutions/OCIO segment, serving institutional clients across the firm’s businesses.
Prior to joining BNY Mellon, Catherine was the Chief Executive Officer of Commonfund. Before Commonfund, Catherine held a variety of senior positions at J.P. Morgan over two decades, including Head of Investment Management Americas and CEO of the U.S. Private Bank, as well as serving on the firm’s Executive Committee. She is also a former board member of Santander Bank, and a former board member and chair of Villanova University.
Catherine is a frequent speaker on wealth and investment topics. She has been featured in interviews appearing in the Wall Street Journal, Barron’s, the Financial Times, Businessweek, and Institutional Investor, among others. Catherine has also appeared on CNBC, Fox, and Bloomberg TV. Featured in Barron’s inaugural list of the 100 Most Influential Women in U.S. Finance in 2020, she has also been named one of the Most Powerful Women in Finance and one of the Most Powerful Women in Banking by American Banker.
Hunter S. Reisner
Hunter S. Reisner has, since 2010, been the Chief Investment Officer of the YMCA Retirement Fund. In this role he leads a team of 15 investment professionals in managing over $8 billion of pension assets, serving over 120,000 YMCA employees nationwide.
Over his 35+ year career in the investment business, Mr. Reisner has led several investment teams and organizations. He has experience investing directly in – as well as selecting and managing portfolios of managers in – most asset classes, including domestic and international public and private equity, as well as public and private debt and many types of alternatives.
Mr. Reisner has invested on behalf of endowments, pension funds, insurance companies, and funds-of-funds, as well as family offices and high net worth individuals. Previously, Hunter founded and served as managing partner of Citigroup Private Equity (formerly Travelers Investment Group Alternative Investments) which grew to manage over $10 billion of proprietary and client capital in alternative investments, primarily private equity, from under $1 billion when he began. His prior affiliation also include Morgan Stanley, Butler Capital, ACI Capital, Salomon Brothers and Smith Barney.
Hunter has held seats on the investment committees, advisory boards, and boards of directors of over 20 investment funds and companies, including a foundation and two university-related endowments.
He earned a B.A. in Economics and Mathematics from Yale University, where he graduated summa cum laude, and an M.B.A. from Stanford University.