Ela Karahasanoglu

Ela is the chief executive officer at EKR Total Portfolio Advisory, providing advisory services to institutional investors and asset managers on alternative investments, risk mitigation and portfolio construction from a total portfolio perspective. EKR also advises on creation and implementation of diversity equality and inclusion (DEI) best practices focused on front office and investment related roles.

Ela has over 25 years of international investments and executive leadership experience with over 20 years dedicated to research, trading, portfolio management and construction in the alternatives and absolute return space.  Prior to EKR, Ela led the total fund management team at BCI. With over USD200bn of managed assets, BCI is a leading provider of investment management services for British Columbia’s public sector. Prior to joining BCI, Ela was a managing director, multi-asset strategies at Investment Management Corporation of Ontario and deputy CIO at WSIB. Before WSIB, Ela was the vice president of currency and asset allocation team at CIBC Asset Management.  Prior to that, she was a principal and senior manager research consultant in the alternatives team within Mercer, covering a broad set of absolute return and hedge fund strategies.

Ela writes monthly for various international economic money magazines, is a frequent speaker and a globally published investment thought leader in institutional asset management. She holds a Master of Business Administration from Georgetown University and has been a CFA Charterholder since 2002 and a CAIA Charterholder since 2010. Ela serves as the co-head for CAIA’s Toronto Chapter.