This video is another clip from a half hour program produced at KMVT in Silicon Valley. The clip is an interview with the former Executive Director of the City and County of San Francisco Retirement System, Clare Murphy; and Dr. Sam Savage from Stanford University.
The important thing to take away from my interview with Clare is the changes she introduced during her 25 year tenure as CEO. As the assets under management grew from $600 million to $16 billion the use of outside active managers grew from approximately 10 to 40 managers. This constituted about 80% of the AUM. This is contrary to the view that the more money one has the more you rely on passive indexes. Clare was on the cover of Institutional Investor Magazine in 2005 and was semi finalist for public fund of the year award.
Sam has written an excellent book titled, The Flaw of Averages. It is the best book on interpreting statistics I have read, and it is written for practitioners, not statisticians. Sam mentions the work of Bradley Efron who received the National Medal of Science award in 2007 for his bootstrap methodology. The National Medal of Science is an honor bestowed by the President of The United States on those who have made important contributions to the advancement of knowledge in the sciences.
Sam says, Efron is one of those rare individuals who straddle a technological divide. Schooled in classical statistics, he inspired a revolution that supplanted it. Efron’s work has been critical to my own. I believe it is a quantum leap forward from what currently passes for estimating “the shape of the future “ Sam describes and what I call the shape of uncertainty.
If you would like to see the complete video go to the KMVT Channel.