Professionals

PCA prides itself in having assembled a highly knowledgeable and diverse team of senior consultants with over 20 years of financial industry experience, serving both business and governmental leaders. As a boutique firm, our consulting team is nimble and efficient in adapting to both changes in the current market and our client's specific needs. We also believe that we provide the most stable client service management, as PCA has enjoyed no consultant turnover in the general and alternative consulting divisions since its founding in 1988.

Our Professionals

Allan Emkin, Managing Director
Los Angeles, CA

Allan Emkin founded Pension Consulting Alliance, Inc. in 1988, with offices in Los Angeles, Chicago, New York City, and Portland, Oregon.

Long a member of the consulting community, Mr. Emkin has twenty five years of general consulting experience emphasizing public plan administration and investment policy, as well as international, global, and real estate investments. 

Mr. Emkin was a Vice President at Wilshire Associates before forming PCA in 1988. Prior to his work in the consulting field, Mr. Emkin worked in the California Governor’s office in the Pension Investment Unit.  Before joining the Brown administration, he was a registered lobbyist for ten years specializing in affordable housing and other matters affecting low-income families.

Mr. Emkin is a frequent speaker at various conferences and educational seminars and has long standing relationships with Liberty Hill Foundation in Santa Monica, California as well as The Labor and Worklife Program at Harvard University.

 

Neil Rue, CFA, Managing Director
Portland, OR

Mr. Rue joined PCA in 1991. Mr. Rue, based in Portland, has twenty three years experience as an investment consultant for various institutions. Prior to joining PCA, Mr. Rue spent seven years at the Frank Russell Company in several product development and research-oriented capacities.

Mr. Rue has been a speaker at SACRS, Guns & Hoses, and other industry conferences. The Money Management Letter recently recognized Mr. Rue as 2005 Consultant of the Year for Public Funds. Mr. Rue, a Chartered Financial Analyst, received his Bachelor's and MBA degrees from the University of Washington.

 

Mike Moy, Managing Director
Mission Viejo, CA

Michael Moy is a Managing Director with Pension Consulting Alliance, Inc. (PCA) since March 2005 where he specializes in private equity. He has conducted strategic reviews of the CalPERS and New York City Pension Plans private equity programs. He also works with PCA clients on investment policy development, portfolio structuring, manager due diligence and specialized research.

Previously, Mr. Moy was a Managing Director at Pacific Corporate Group, Inc. where he was a member of the Board of Directors and co-leader of the group responsible for evaluating, recommending and monitoring private equity investments for public institutional clients (CalPERS, Oregon PERS, Employee’s Retirement System of Rhode Island, and the Fire & Police Pension Association of Colorado). 

Mr. Moy is a certified public accountant (inactive) who spent twenty-nine years with KPMG LLP where he was the regional leader of an acquisition advisory practice and the managing partner of several offices. He has also been the acting CFO for several troubled private equity fund portfolio companies.

Mr. Moy received his Bachelor of Business Administration from St. John’s University.

 

Judy Chambers, Managing Director
New York, NY

Ms. Judy Chambers joined PCA in 2007 as a Managing Director. Previously, Ms. Chambers was a Principal at Caswell Capital Partners, a merchant bank formed to serve the needs of small and middle market media and entertainment companies. She focused on providing strategic and financial advisory services to clients as well as raising debt and equity financings for strategic investments.

Prior to joining Caswell Capital Partners, Ms. Chambers was a Vice President in Investment Banking at Lehman Brothers where she worked in the Leveraged Finance Group. She has extensive experience in analyzing capital structures and structuring complex transactions. At Lehman Brothers, Ms. Chambers originated and executed approximately $9 billion in high yield bonds, leveraged loans and bridge financings related to mergers and acquisitions, leveraged buyouts, recapitalizations and debt restructurings. Ms. Chambers’ completed transactions span various industries including media, financial institutions, natural resources, industrial and consumer services.  Prior to joining Lehman Brothers, Ms. Chambers was an Assistant Vice President in the Global Finance Group at NationsBank where she worked on foreign exchange and change implementation projects. 

Ms. Chambers serves as a trustee for the Community Service Society of New York and as a member of the Benefit Committee of the Jazz Foundation of America. Ms. Chambers holds a Bachelor of Arts from Duke University and a Masters of Business Administration from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

 

Tad Fergusson, CFA, Managing Director
Portland, OR

Mr. Fergusson joined PCA in 1996 and provides consulting services for PCA’s private equity consulting clients.  In this capacity, Mr. Fergusson provides the full spectrum of services from investment policy and guideline development, preparing strategic and structural reviews, conducting partnership due diligence and selection, as well as overseeing performance reporting and manager monitoring.  In addition, Mr. Fergusson conducts research on a spectrum of topics pertaining to the private equity asset class.

Mr. Fergusson oversees PCA’s private equity database examining almost 300 opportunities per year and has conducted due diligence on more than 50 partnerships resulting in the placement of over $1 billion in new commitments.  In addition to executing several private equity projects for some of PCA’s largest and most important clients, Mr. Fergusson is responsible, on a lead or co-lead basis, for several of PCA’s private equity retainer relationships. 

Mr. Fergusson has been involved in the pension industry for over thirteen years.  Previously, Mr. Fergusson provided administration services to 401(k) pension plans as a Defined Contributions Analyst with the firm Milliman & Robertson Inc.  Mr. Fergusson, a Chartered Financial Analyst, received his Bachelor's and MBA degrees from the University of Oregon.

 

Christy Fields, Managing Director, Real Estate
Portland, OR

Ms. Fields rejoined PCA in 2007 as Managing Director of Real Estate Consulting Services. Ms. Fields has fifteen years of experience as a real estate investment consultant, providing a wide array of clients with strategic planning, portfolio analysis, manager and fund due diligence, transaction structuring and analysis, performance measurement and attribution, and industry research. 

Previously, Ms. Fields spent four years at Westwood Consulting, Inc., as a real estate consultant dedicated primarily to the CalSTRS’ and CalPERS’ real estate portfolios. Prior to Westwood, Ms. Fields spent five years with PCA’s prior real estate consulting practice, working closely with clients. Earlier in her career, Ms. Fields was a Senior Consultant with PriceWaterhouse Coopers’ Real Estate Consulting Services Group where she specialized in real estate investment analysis, property appraisal, property-level acquisition due diligence, and master planning studies.

Ms. Fields received her Bachelor of Arts from Cornell University’s School of Hotel Administration and her Masters in Business Administration from Yale University’s School of Management.

 

John J. Burns, CFA, Managing Director
New York, NY

Mr. Burns joined PCA in 2008 as a Managing Director.  Previously, Mr. Burns was the Director of Public Equity for the North Carolina Retirement Systems in Raleigh, NC.  In that capacity he was responsible for equity portfolio structure, investment manager monitoring and due diligence, and equity portfolio transitions.

Prior to joining NCRS, Mr. Burns spent twenty-four years at the New York City Retirement Systems where he was responsible for overseeing the $85 billion publicly traded Equity and Fixed Income portfolios.  In addition, he developed and recommend asset allocation strategy and investment policies for the five NYC Pension Funds and four Variable Supplements Funds.

Mr. Burns, a Chartered Financial Analyst, received his BS Business Administration from Manhattan College and his Masters of Business Administration from Pace University’s Graduate School of Business Administration. 

 

David Glickman, Managing Director, Real Estate
Chicago, IL

Mr. Glickman joined PCA in 2009.  He has more than 36 years of institutional investing experience in the U.S. and Europe, with an emphasis on commercial real estate debt and equity for pension and retirement system clients.  He founded Ambassador Capital Management, Inc., a registered investment advisor in 1999, specializing in publicly traded real estate related securities.

From 2001-2005, he was a partner and investment committee member of Apollo Real Estate Advisors, a sponsor of opportunistic comingled funds.  From 1998-99, he was vice chairman of Advisory Research, Inc., a registered investment advisor specializing in small cap value equity stocks and taxable and tax-exempt fixed income securities.  From 1994-98, he was Chairman, CEO and CIO of Ambassador Apartments, Inc. (NYSE: AAH), a public, value-added REIT, whose IPO he led and which merged with AIMCO (NYSE:AIV) in 1998.  From 1972-92, he was Executive Vice President and Member of the Board of Directors and Investment Committee of Heitman Financial, and President of Heitman Advisory Corporation, a Registered Investment Advisor, specializing in core real estate asset management for institutional investors in separate accounts and comingled funds. 

Mr. Glickman is a Guest Lecturer in Real Estate at Kellogg Graduate School, Northwestern University.  He is an Illinois and Nevada licensed real estate broker, a former Director/Trustee of the National Multifamily Housing Council, Pension Real Estate Association, NAREIT, F.W. Parker School, Menomonee Boys and Girls Club, and is on the Advisory Board of Institutional Real Estate, Inc.

Mr. Glickman received his Bachelor of Arts in English from the University of Illinois-Chicago.

 

Paul Mouchakkaa, Managing Director, Real Estate
Folsom, CA

Mr. Mouchakkaa re-joined PCA in March 2009 as a Managing Director of Real Estate Consulting Services.

Prior to joining PCA, Mr. Mouchakkaa served as a Portfolio Manager for Real Estate at the California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS).  As a Portfolio Manager, Mr. Mouchakkaa oversaw the research, operations and analytics for CalPERS’ entire real estate portfolio.  While at CalPERS, Mr. Mouchakkaa served as a key member of senior management and oversaw fifteen members of CalPERS’ internal real estate staff.

From 2005-2007, Mr. Mouchakkaa served as a Vice President with PCA.  In this capacity, Mr. Mouchakkaa performed due diligence on real estate opportunities, conducted investment and market research and prepared strategic investment plans and policies for leading institutional investors.

Prior to that, Mr. Mouchakkaa served as a Senior Manager with RBC Financial Group in Toronto, Canada.  While there he had responsibility for approving the annual budget and monitoring expenses for all of RBC retail banking head office network.  In addition, Mr. Mouchakkaa was a key member in evaluating feasibility of strategic investment proposals pursued by the RBC Banking platform.

Mr. Mouchakkaa received a degree in Economics from Carleton University with Highest Honors and also holds a MBA from the University of Oregon.

 

Sarah Bernstein, Ph.D, Principal
Los Angeles, CA

Ms. Bernstein joined PCA in 2002 as a Principal and has assumed senior responsibilities across varying clients and consulting projects. For the previous six years, Ms. Bernstein was an equity analyst with several Wall Street firms including Kaufman Bros., First Union Capital Markets Corp., US Bancorp, and Piper Jaffray. In the July 2000 issue of "Wall Street Journal 1999 Best on the Street", Ms. Bernstein was named No. 1 for Estimate Accuracy and No. 3 for Stock Picking within the Enterprise Software sector.

Prior to her Wall Street experience, Ms. Bernstein was an Economic Affairs Officer at the United Nations Secretariat where she analyzed investment, productivity, growth, inflation, technological change and employment in developed market economies for internal UN discussion and publication. In addition, Ms. Bernstein was a Vice President with Mantis Holdings, a Project Director with the Ontario Investment Fund Initiative and a Senior Economist with the Cuomo Commission on Competitiveness.

Ms. Bernstein earned a BA in Politics at the University of California and a Ph. D. in Economics at the New School for Social Research in New York.

 

Jeremy Thiessen, Senior Vice President
Portland, OR

Mr. Thiessen joined PCA in 2002 and provides consulting services for PCA clients across all asset classes. For traditional asset classes, Mr. Thiessen’s services include risk budgeting, portfolio and manager attribution analysis, asset class structural reviews, investment manager searches, and performance monitoring.  Mr. Thiessen also assists with private equity and real estate manager due diligence.  Mr. Thiessen’s responsibilities include board meeting attendance for several PCA clients.

Previously, Mr. Thiessen served as Senior Asset Manager of Columbia Housing, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary and affordable housing syndicate of PNC Financial Services.  Mr. Thiessen was a member of the Special Assets Resolution Group and managed a portfolio of “watch list” assets.  His responsibilities included overseeing and analyzing a portfolio of 25 tax credit limited partnerships, creating solutions for troubled assets, and implementing solution strategies.

Prior to serving as a Senior Asset Manager for Columbia Housing, Inc., Mr. Thiessen was a Trust Officer for Farmers and Merchants Trust Company of Long Beach, California.  There he was responsible for a portfolio of 129 trust accounts, totaling $53 million in assets under management across the full spectrum of asset classes. 

Mr. Thiessen earned his MBA with an emphasis in finance from California State University, Long Beach.

 

David Sancewich, Vice President
Portland, OR

Mr. Sancewich joined PCA in 2004 and provides consulting services for PCA clients across all asset classes as well as specializing in hedge fund and absolute return strategy research.  Consulting services include risk budgeting, investment policy and guideline development, portfolio and manager attribution analysis, asset class structural reviews, investment manager searches, and performance monitoring.  Mr. Sancewich also conducts traditional and alternative manager due diligence.

Previously, Mr. Sancewich worked at Windermere Investment Consulting as an Analyst, where he focused on performance measurement analysis, traditional manager research, and day-to-day support of client specific issues.

Prior to that, Mr. Sancewich worked as an analyst for the Russell Investment Group, where he evaluated various US equity products for Russell’s manager research group.  Mr. Sancewich also advised large institutional clients on manager selection as well as Russell’s multi-manager funds business.  He also helped work on the structure of Russell’s equity, taxable, and alternative investment products.

Mr. Sancewich earned a MBA as well as a Bachelor of Arts degree in Business Management from Washington State University.

 

Kay Ceserani, Senior Analyst
Portland, OR

Ms. Ceserani joined PCA in 2008. Ms. Ceserani has worked in the investment consulting industry in various roles over the last 15 years. She has extensive experience in the development, execution and monitoring of investment programs for institutional clients, as well as expertise in performing due diligence on money management firms and their products.

Prior to PCA, Ms. Ceserani was a Consulting Project Manager at Yanni Partners in Pittsburgh, PA for six years. Her responsibilities included quarterly analysis of client portfolios, asset allocation studies, asset transitions, manager selection and monitoring and special research projects. Ms. Ceserani has also served as the Director of Operations at Greycourt & Co., Inc in Pittsburgh, PA, the Director of US Equity Research and Consulting Manager at Ennis, Knupp & Associates, in Chicago, IL. She also spent six years at R.V. Kuhns in Portland, OR.

Ms. Ceserani earned a BS in Political Science at the University of Oregon.

 

Lindsey Sugar, Senior Analyst, Real Estate
Portland, OR

Ms. Sugar joined PCA in 2008 as Senior Analyst of Real Estate Consulting Services.  Ms. Sugar has worked in the investment real estate industry for the past six years. 

Prior to PCA, Ms. Sugar was an Investment Associate at Arch Street Capital Advisors, a private equity company, in Greenwich, CT.  Her responsibilities included analyzing real estate portfolios and development opportunities for acquisitions, supervising due diligence, structuring transactions and modeling financials, and providing asset management services. 

Previously, Ms. Sugar worked as a Leasing Analyst for Foot Locker Realty, Inc., in New York City.  While at Foot Locker, Ms. Sugar oversaw the integration of recently purchased Footaction stores into the Foot Locker portfolio, negotiated leases with the three largest retail owners/managers in the U.S., and supervised special projects for the CFO. 

Ms. Sugar earned a MS in Real Estate Finance from New York University and a BA in Art History from the University of Chicago. 

 

Dillon Lorda, Senior Analyst, Real Estate
Portland, OR

Dillon Lorda joined PCA in 2008 and covers Real Estate. Mr. Lorda has acquisitions and investment experience covering all real estate asset classes in Mexico and the United States.

Prior to joining PCA Mr. Lorda worked as a development associate for Del Mar Development in Los Cabos, Mexico. He was responsible for all aspects of development including sourcing and underwriting new acquisitions, overseeing due diligence, preparing investment memorandums, sourcing and structuring debt and equity, negotiating JV agreements, coordinating design, as well as overseeing construction, marketing, and sales. Mr. Lorda covered hospitality, retail, urban infill, and master planned communities in the US and Mexico.  Prior to joining Del Mar Development, Mr. Lorda worked at Time Equities, Inc. on an acquisitions team with a focus on residential and retail properties in the New York metropolitan area.

Previously Mr. Lorda spent six years in international agricultural trading with Bunge Global Markets and ED & F Man. He was directly responsible for managing logistics operations in the Caribbean and Europe. Mr. Lorda traded in South America, Asia, and the Middle East.  Mr. Lorda earned a Bachelor of Arts from Hamilton College and a Masters of Real Estate Finance from New York University.

 

Ahman Dirks, Private Equity Analyst
Portland, OR

Mr. Dirks joined PCA in 2007 and provides analytical support for PCA’s private markets group.  These activities include, but are not limited to, performance reporting and monitoring, partnership due diligence, and special projects.

Prior to joining PCA, Mr. Dirks worked in the operations department for Smith Barney. Mr. Dirks holds a B.S. in Sociology and a B.A. in Business Administration from the University of Puget Sound and is currently pursuing a Post-Baccalaureate degree in Economics at Portland State University. Mr. Dirks serves as a board member for EduCongo, a non-profit organization that seeks to enhance and improve the quality of live and education of children in the Democratic Republic of Congo. 

 

Eric White, Analyst
Portland, OR

Mr. White joined PCA in 2009 as an analyst.  He provides portfolio performance measurements and analytics, general investment manager due diligence, and assistance on client specific projects.

Previously, Mr. White served as an intern at Merrill Lynch.  His responsibilities included asset allocation modeling and analyzing individual securities and investment products.  Prior to joining PCA, Mr. White graduated from the University of San Francisco with a Masters degree in Economics with an emphasis in finance.  His thesis topics included a history of recent financial crises and the role of the Federal Reserve, and the cause and effects of the Yen carry trade. 

Mr. White received his Bachelor of Science degree in Economics from the University of Oregon.

 

Yunna Gleyzer, Analyst
New York, NY

Ms. Yunna Gleyzer joined PCA in 2009 as an Analyst. Prior to PCA, Ms. Gleyzer was part of the Merrill Lynch & Co. Global Markets Analyst Program. There, she worked within the Global Structured Finance & Investments group, focusing on residential mortgage backed securities. After that, she joined the Structured Equity Finance & Trading group, focusing on marketing and execution of structured financing solutions for prime brokerage clients.

Ms. Gleyzer is a member of the Financial Women’s Association and the Wall Street & Financial Services Division of UJA Federation of New York. She holds a BBA in Finance & Investments from the Baruch College Zicklin School of Business, where she was a scholar of the William E. Macaulay Honors College.

 

Jason Willet, Systems Manager
Portland, OR

Mr. Willet joined PCA in 1998 as an Associate, but has spent most of his time as Systems Manager. He oversees all aspects of PCA's Information Technology infrastructure including servers, clients, communications, security, and office systems. He is also responsible for the oversight of all administrative functions and supervision at the Portland Office with secondary assistance provided company wide. This includes office manager, purchasing, and HR liaison to the Encino Office.

Mr. Willet has 14 years experience in information technology, office systems, purchasing, supervision, human resources, communications, reproduction and almost every aspect of office management. Prior to joining PCA, he was Production Manager for Jacobs Engineering Group, Inc., a global engineering firm designing silicon wafer facilities.

He holds a B.A. in Sociology from Hastings College in Hastings, Nebraska.

 

Laura Daye, Associate
Portland, OR

Ms. Daye joined PCA in 2005, providing editorial and quality control for all documents across all asset classes. In addition, she supplies performance measurement for client portfolios, responds to requests for proposals, and assists with various client and internal projects, including marketing.

Previously, Ms. Daye worked at Beyond Words Publishing. She assisted with acquisitions editing, market research, and developing marketing materials for books in production.

Presently, Ms. Daye is pursuing a JD at Northwestern School of Law, Lewis and Clark College. Previously, she earned MA degrees in English Literature and Publishing at Portland State University.  Prior to that, she earned a BA degree in English with Honors from Portland State University.

 

Rebecca Wei, Associate
Portland, OR

Ms. Wei joined PCA in 2002 as an administrative assistant and became an associate in 2005. She currently focuses on providing portfolio and investment level performance measurement to general investment consulting clients. Ms. Wei is also involved in custody and securities lending searches and marketing projects.

Before joining PCA, Ms. Wei worked as an executive secretary for the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. She holds a BA degree in World Arts and Culture/Dance from the University of California, Los Angeles.

 

Ashley Tamashiro, Administrative Assistant
Portland, OR

Ashley Tamashiro joined PCA in 2007 as Administrative Assistant.  Her responsibilities include organizational support, reception, report production, database maintenance, office procedures and compliance, and technical assistance. 

Previously, Ms. Tamashiro worked as an account manager and sales support specialist at Symantec Corporation.  At Symantec, Ms. Tamashiro held many responsibilities, including professional services project accounting, return merchandise authorizations, and was a specialist of the company’s tools and programs to support Symantec’s sales force in North America.  In 2006 Ms. Tamashiro received Symantec’s Director’s Award for her contributions to the company.

Ms. Tamashiro earned a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Portland and a Certificate in Human Resource Management at Portland State University.

 

Karla Beasley, Intern
Los Angeles, CA

Karla Beasley joined PCA in 2009 as an Intern. Karla will be primarily responsible for research on the Private Equity Clean Technology Market. Ms. Beasely earned her Bachelor of Arts in Communications Arts and Sciences from the University of Southern California and a Certificate, Interior and Environmental Design from University of California, Los Angeles, CA.