Susan Lau

Susan has been an institutional investor for over 25 years. Her experience includes asset allocation, investment selection and implementation, financial management, risk and operations for pension and defined contributions plans, and management of both public and private investment funds. This breadth of experience has given her a deep understanding of the institutional market ecosystem. 

As Chief Investment Officer of the Montgomery County Public Schools Retirement Systems (MCPS), Susan was responsible for asset allocation, portfolio risk management, investment strategy, manager due diligence, and service provider oversight for both the multi-billion pension and defined contribution plans. For the pension plan, she deployed $500m of capital across a range of investment vehicles, created an ESG framework, and constructed a systematic performance review process. In addition, she managed the consolidation of the DC plan which resulted in reduced costs to plan participants and a simplified investment menu. She was also instrumental in overseeing the 2020 IRS audit of the 403(b)/457(b) plans.

In 2021, Susan was named by Institutional Investor as one of its Allocator Intel Top 50 Women in Investment Management.  In 2018, she was named one of the Top 30 Pension Institutional Investors by Trusted Insights.

Most recently, Susan was the Chief Financial Officer at Clarendon Capital, a mid-market transportation and logistics-focused private equity firm. Previously, Susan was a co-portfolio manager at Rothschild Asset Management for its 130/30 fund. Prior to that, she was a senior investment analyst at Ampere Capital and Intrepid Capital, both technology-focused hedge funds. 

Susan graduated from Columbia University with a degree in industrial engineering. She began her career at Goldman Sachs as a telecommunication analyst before becoming a technology sector specialist on their sales and trading desk.