This week we chat with Tod Trabocco, Managing Director at Cambridge Associates LLC. Cambridge is a leading investment advisor to foundations, endowments, private wealth, and corporations worldwide. 

The Lead Left: For Lead Left readers who may not know Cambridge Associates, could you give a brief introduction of the firm and your role in it?

Tod Trabocco: Cambridge Associates is a leading global investment firm. We work with 1,100 institutional investors and private clients around the globe to help build portfolios that maximize returns based on each client’s unique risk expectations. We offer a spectrum of services to help clients meet their investment objectives, from acting as a fully outsourced investment office to providing stand-alone access to our world-class manager research platform.

I am a leader in the Credit Investment Group, which focuses on our credit manager coverage and provides specialized credit services to our clients. I specialize in private credit managers.

TLL: We know Cambridge is popular with a lot of our subscribers – direct lenders, mezz funds and CLOs, and other institutional investors.

TT: Those types of investors are at the core of our private credit research. We also research structured equity funds, distressed managers and specialty lenders, like those in the royalties or life settlement spaces, for example. But direct lenders of all stripes have really risen in prominence in the alternate investment universe. Private credit is emerging as its own asset class, with several distinct sub-strategies relevant to The Lead Left readers, including direct lending and mezzanine.