Jacob Walthour

Jacob Walthour is a member of the Investment Committee of Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies and founder of Blueprint. Prior to founding Blueprint, he served as Vice Chairman of Product and Business Development at the investment management division of Cowen & Company. He was responsible for developing the firm’s seeding and acceleration effort for emerging alternative investment organizations. He served on the firm’s Management Committee. Previously, he served as Managing Director of Cliffwater LLC, a leading provider of alternatives consulting. He served on the firm’s Investment Committee and was responsible for client consulting. Prior to joining Cliffwater, Jacob was a Partner and Managing Director at Citadel Investment Group where he managed the firm’s North American distribution effort. Before Citadel, he was Head of Advisory Services at Aksia LLC, where he oversaw business development, client consulting and portfolio management for the firm’s discretionary accounts.

In addition, Jacob has held senior roles at Morgan Stanley Asset Management, Quellos Group (subsumed by BlackRock Alternatives Management) and Moore Capital Management. Jacob started his career in 1990 at Lehman Brothers as an analyst in the investment banking division. Jacob received his BA cum laude from the Nelson Rockefeller School at the State University of New York at Albany. He has served as Trustee for the New York Foundation for the Arts and as a Director of New York Cares. He also served on the Investment Subcommittee of the Girl Scouts of the United States of America for six years and the Investment Committee of the University of Albany Alumni Foundation. He served as a Trustee of the ECLC School for children and adults with learning disabilities. Black Enterprise Magazine recognized him as one of the Most Influential Blacks on Wall Street. He has been a frequent speaker at pension and alternative investment conferences including events sponsored by SALT, Institutional Investor, Global ARC and Pensions and Investments. Jacob has been featured on CNBC and has contributed to a variety of articles in Vanity Fair, The Wall Street Journal, Institutional Investor Alpha and Bloomberg.