Maria Vassalou
Maria Vassalou
Professional Fellow
Areas of expertise: Asset Management
Dr Vassalou is Deputy CIO, Multi-Asset Solutions, at Goldman Sachs Asset Management.
Prior to joining Goldman, Dr. Maria Vassalou was the founder and CIO of Vassalou Capital Management LP., and before that a Partner and Portfolio Manager for the PWP Global Macro strategy. Dr. Vassalou joined Perella Weinberg Partners from MIO Partners, a subsidiary of McKinsey & Company, where as a Portfolio Manager she managed a similar global macro investment strategy in a dedicated legal entity, and as Head of Asset Allocation, she provided counsel on allocation for liquid assets within MIO’s portfolio.
Prior to joining MIO, Dr. Vassalou was a Global Macro Portfolio Manager at SAC Capital Advisors, LP. She joined SAC from Soros Fund Management where she was responsible for global quantitative research, as well as the development and management of global quantitative trading strategies.
Prior to her career in asset management, Dr. Vassalou was an Associate Professor of Finance at Columbia Business School, which she joined in 1995, and where she established many of the investment principles she employs today. Dr. Vassalou is a Past President of the European Finance Association and was the Chair of the 2008 European Finance Association Meetings. A Research Affiliate of the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) in London for many years, Dr. Vassalou is a past member of the Academic Advisory Board of the Vienna-based Guttmann Center of Competence in Portfolio Management. Her research focus has been on the interrelation of the macro-economy and financial markets with applications in hedge fund strategies.
A frequent speaker to both academic and practitioner-oriented seminars and conferences, Vassalou has published in leading academic journals, such as the Journal of Finance, Journal of Financial Economics, Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Journal of Business, Journal of International Money and Finance, and the Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control. While she was on the faculty of Columbia University, she also served as a consultant to many premier hedge funds, and asset management institutions in the U.S. and Europe. Dr. Vassalou serves on the Board of Directors for Tsakos Energy Navigation Ltd. (NYSE: TNP) and Titan Cement International SA (EBR: TITC), and is an Overseer of The Gennadius Library, American School of Classical Studies at Athens.
Dr. Vassalou received a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from the University of Athens and she holds a PhD in Financial Economics from London Business School.
