Could This Help Historically Black Colleges Fix Their Endowment Woes?
February 13, 2024
The endowments of Historically Black Colleges and Universities in the U.S. are woefully underfunded and under resourced.
About Us
Paradigm Institutional Investors is a premier Outsourced Chief Investment Officer (OCIO) firm, delivering discretionary, non-discretionary, and customized investment solutions to institutional investors. Serving retirement funds, endowments, foundations, and operating funds across both non-profit and for-profit sectors, Paradigm designs investment strategies that align with each client’s unique financial objectives, risk profile, and organizational values.
Paradigm operates with the philosophy of “meeting clients where they are,” crafting tailored portfolios that reflect specific preferences, risk tolerances, and mission-driven priorities. As the OCIO industry continues to evolve, institutions seek customization, alternative asset access, and high-touch service—Paradigm is structured to meet these demands.
At Paradigm Institutional Investors, we provide our clients with investment scale through access to a global network of top-tier investment managers, diverse asset classes, and unique opportunities. Our strategic approach helps institutional investors—ranging from retirement funds, endowments, and foundations to operating funds within both non-profit and for-profit organizations—optimize performance and meet fiduciary responsibilities with confidence.
Headquartered in Dallas, Texas, Paradigm operates as a fee-based Outsourced Chief Investment Officer (OCIO). We add value by navigating complex investment landscapes, identifying high-impact opportunities, and leveraging resources that position our clients for long-term success.
Our expertise lies in simplifying complexities while delivering tailored solutions. We support institutional clients through governance best practices, strategic asset allocation, in-depth investment research, customized portfolio design, and performance reporting—ensuring you’re prepared for both today’s challenges and tomorrow’s demands.
Ryan Bailey, an acknowledged graduate of Yale University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics, has made major contributions to the world of finance during his career. He began his journey at the equities research divisions of major companies such as Smith Barney, Deutsche Bank, and Credit Suisse First Boston, earning excellent experience in investment analysis and market research. Ryan’s drive to professional development is evident via his acquisition of various qualifications, including Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA), Financial Risk Manager (FRM), Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA), and Chartered Market Technician (CMT).
Currently, Ryan has prominent roles on the investing committees of recognized organizations, including the American Heart Association, Texas Employee Retirement System, Dallas Police and Fire, and Parkland Hospital. His experience is sought after as a director on the board of Blue Dolphin Energy (BDCO) and as a board member for the Texas Alternative Investment Association, Bridgeway Capital Management, STREAM Foundation, Portfolios with Purpose, and Dallas CFA Society. Ryan also serves as an Angel for the Texas Wall Street Women and functions as a Strategic Advisor for Carbonado Partners.
Prior to joining Paradigm, Ryan received distinction for his job as the Head of Investments at Children’s Health System of Texas, where he expertly managed assets totalling $1.8 billion across different portfolios, including the hospital’s pension, foundation, operational cash, and long-term pools. As the founding investment officer, Ryan played a vital role in creating the investment department, designing and executing systems, procedures, and governance structures to create a top-tier endowment office.
Ryan’s knowledge extends further to his position as the Investment Officer and Interim Chief Investment Officer (CIO) of the Meadows Foundation. In this capacity, he successfully drove the due diligence process, contributed to the formulation of strategic asset allocation, and designed and executed investment strategies to achieve competitive performance.
Ryan’s accomplishments have garnered him numerous honors and recognitions from major organizations such as Institutional Investor, Asset International – Chief Investment Officer Magazine (aiCIO), and Trusted Insight. These honors are a testament to his extraordinary contributions to the field of finance and investment management.
With his significant expertise and proven track record, Ryan Bailey offers a wealth of knowledge and strategic insights to the team at Paradigm, enhancing the firm’s capacity to create great investment solutions and drive superior outcomes for clients.
Ryan Quinn is a season investment operations and compliance professional with over 15 years of experience in custody, performance reporting, OCIO transitions, and operational due diligence. He has held senior roles at institutional consulting platforms, where he led multi-asset implementation and designed compliance protocols. At Paradigm Institutional Investors, he oversees all custodial coordination, compliance filings, vendor relationships, and client reporting systems.
Ryan’s investment experience includes roles at Texas Children’s Health, Southwestern Medical Foundation, Bank of New York Mellon, and State Street. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Financial Service Management from Johnson & Wales University and has earned the Certificate in Investment Performance Measurement (CIPM), Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA), and Chartered Due Diligence Analyst (CDDA) designations.
Martha Delgado serves as Chief Strategist and Managing Partner at Paradigm Institutional Investors, where she helps shape the firm’s long-term vision, investment philosophy, and institutional client engagement strategy. In this dual leadership role, she oversees client relationships and leads strategic partnerships, business development and growth initiatives—ensuring alignment between Paradigm’s solutions and the evolving needs of investors integrating mission with investment strategy.
Prior to joining Paradigm, Martha was Head of Business Development for Australia, New Zealand, and Latin America at Allspring Global Investments (formerly Wells Fargo Asset Management), where she established the firm’s presence in these markets from the ground up. She led new market entry, defined regional distribution strategy and cultivated deep institutional relationships in markets where the firm had no prior footprint. SHe also led the delivery of multi-asset solutions and strategic partnership initiatives—establishing strategic distribution partnerships with global financial institutional partners that enhanced the firm’s market reach and provided scalable platforms for growth.
Her career also includes senior roles at Tortoise Ecofin, State Street Global Advisors, and Salomon Smith Barney. Across these positions, Martha worked closely with investment teams to drive consistent long-term growth—translating complex investment strategies into actionable solutions for institutional investors.
Martha earned her MBA from Emory University’s Goizueta Business School and holds a B.S. in Economics and International Affairs from Florida State University. She is a CHA charterholder and is based in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Highly experienced and effective financial marketer and institutional business development professional with a 15 year track record of success raising capital and advising firms across a wide breadth of asset classes including U.S. equities, entertainment, private equity, retail, logistics and real estate. Specialized experience in coaching, rebranding and transforming primarily emerging, impact, women-owned and diverse investment firms from reliance on high net worth, individual clients into elite, institutional class firms ready and qualified for mandates from the real drivers of growth and stability in this
industry, including public defined benefit retirement plans, Taft-Hartley plans, endowments, foundations, large multifamily offices and institutional consultants.
Prior to officially beginning his institutional asset raising career, Adam spent 12 years as a founder and entrepreneur, operating 4 separate companies including a marketing agency, a private credit shop focused on the transportation sector, a publishing house of the first high-end, lifestyle magazine for South Texas and a small business consulting firm.
It was also during this period Adam began raising outside capital for outside projects and developed not only a passion for deal making, but also gained invaluable insight into what attributes make great companies and how to implement that knowledge in real world scenarios.
Shannon Zoller has over two decades of experience in the financial services industry, having started her career as a financial services lawyer. Ms. Zoller is currently the Founder and a Managing Partner of Tephra Advisors, a private capital fund advisory business, and is a Board member of WAVE (Women Association of Venture & Equity). After her legal career, she entered private equity joining middle-market private equity fund manager Sterling Partners in Chicago in 2005. In 2008 she became an Executive Director in the Private Funds Group at UBS, at that time one of the largest private capital funds advisory businesses in the industry and part of UBS’s global investment banking business. After UBS, Ms. Zoller was a founding team member and Managing Director of the Private Funds Group at GCA Savvian, formerly a publicly traded independent global investment bank which was acquired by Houlihan Lokey.
Ms. Zoller has a BA from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where she was a scholarship athlete and a JD from Chicago-Kent College of Law. She also is a board member of WAVE ( Women’s Association of Venture and Equity) and a Senior Advisor, to the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights.
Marvin J. Owens, Jr. currently serves as Senior Strategist in the Mayor’s Office, City of Cleveland. In this role he has overall responsibility for community and economic development, housing development repair and rehab, blight removal, and code enforcement, and catalytic redevelopment for the southeast side of Cleveland, Ohio. In this role, Mr. Owens reports directly to the mayor and leads the implementation of Mayor Justin Bibb’s Southeast Side Strategy. Prior to joining the Bibb Administration, Marvin served as Chief Engagement Officer for Impact Shares. In this role, Marvin had engagement responsibility for both fund managers and corporations, as well as cultivating and maintaining relationships with financial intermediaries with the goal of AUM growth. Marvin was also responsible for strategic relationships with our social advocacy partners, and lead the firm in broader Social Impact and advocacy conversations.
Marvin Owens also served as the firm’s lead in all ESG conversations, and the led the firm’s shareholder advocacy work. Prior to joining Impact Shares, Marvin served as Senior Director of Economic Programs for the NAACP. In this role, Mr. Owens was responsible for the NAACP’s national Economic Inclusion agenda which includes Asset and Wealth Creation programs with efforts that support financial education, homeownership, minority business development, franchising, workforce development and diversity; Advocacy and Sustainability with efforts around economic justice and social impact investing; and Research with ongoing efforts to track and report economic conditions, as well as recommended public policy changes. Mr. Owens led the NAACP’s corporate scorecards.
Prior to joining the NAACP, Mr. Owens served a consultant, lecturer, and technical assistance provider in the areas of Community and Economic Development, Small Business Development, and Community Organizing. Mr. Owens serves as an Advisory Board Member of the Stonehenge Capital NMTC fund, where he advises, recommends, and monitors fund investments for economic impact. Guest lecturer credits include Oxford University’s Saïd School of Business on the subjects “Responsible Leadership,” and “Economic Development in the Black Church.”
Prior to becoming an independent consultant, Mr. Owens served as Vice President for Economic Empowerment at the National Urban League (NUL) where he managed all aspects of NUL’s corporate, foundation, and government relationships with specific focus on affiliate economic development activities, small business development, and finance. Mr. Owens was responsible for implementing business and economic development efforts in more than 20 US cities. Mr. Owens oversaw implementation of the National Urban League’s Empowerment Fund, and was the lead staff in creating NUL’s current model of economic empowerment centers.
Ralph Ward is a seasoned financial professional with extensive experience in wealth management and investment consulting. As the CEO and Founding Partner at Ward Salient Capital in New York, NY, he has been providing expert consultation to ultra-high net worth families and institutional clients in the U.S. and Mexico since December 2019. Ward specializes in guiding clients on the intricacies of investment strategies, emphasizing the “how” rather than the “what” of investments. His role involves negotiating and renegotiating fees, commissions, and interest rates to optimize client returns.
Prior to founding Ward Salient Capital, Ralph Ward held key positions at renowned financial institutions. As a Senior Vice President at Morgan Stanley from April 2009 to December 2019, he served as a Financial Advisor and Private Banker, managing portfolios for high-net-worth families and institutional clients across the U.S., Argentina, and Mexico. Earlier in his career, as a Vice President at UBS AG, he oversaw over $200 million in client financial assets and provided investment advice to high-net-worth individuals.
Ward’s financial career began at JPMorgan in 1996, where he excelled as a Client Specialist, managing a diverse portfolio of clients and developing successful cross-selling initiatives. His journey also includes roles at Prudential Securities, Bankers Trust, and Barclays Bank, where he honed his financial acumen and analytical skills. Ralph graduated cum laude from Boston University in 1994 with Bachelor of Arts degrees in International Relations and Economics, along with minors in Spanish and French. He is fluent in Spanish, English, and French, and conversant in Italian.
Beyond finance, Ralph Ward is a multifaceted individual with interests ranging from film and music production to singing, acting, and writing. He is actively involved in private equity and asymmetric hedge fund investing, showcasing his diverse skill set and passion for the financial industry.
Somer Washington is a Managing Director in KPMG’s Dallas/Ft. Worth Asset Management practice, where she delivers specialized attestation services to private equity, hedge fund, and real estate managers.
With 19 years of experience in the investment management industry, Somer has honed her expertise in providing financial statement audits and attestation services. She focuses particularly on private equity clients, with a strong emphasis on senior secured lending and debt strategies. Her client base also includes hedge funds, private equity and credit funds, real estate funds, fund of funds, investment advisors and introducing broker dealers. In addition, Somer serves as a key technical resource for Multi-Firm engagements subject to the Cayman Private Funds and Mutual Funds laws.
Before joining KPMG, Somer began her career at Ryan, where she worked with Fortune 500 companies on sales and use tax audit defense. In 2006, she transitioned to Rothstein Kass, a renowned public accounting firm specializing in asset management, where she was responsible for both audit and tax services for a variety of entities within the industry. Somer became part of KPMG in July 2014 because of the KPMG’s acquisition of Rothstein Kass.
Somer is also deeply committed to giving back to her community. She actively participates in initiatives aimed at mentoring and supporting women in finance and accounting, advocating for diversity and inclusion within the industry. Somer is involved with several local organizations that focus on providing educational and career development opportunities for underserved youth, helping to create pathways for the next generation of leaders. Her commitment to service extends to volunteering with various nonprofit groups that focus on financial literacy, economic empowerment, and social responsibility.
Paradigm Institutional Investors is an investment advisor registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
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The endowments of Historically Black Colleges and Universities in the U.S. are woefully underfunded and under resourced.
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