About
OUR STORY | ABOUT ANDREA | AII TEAM
Academy for Institutional Investors, LLC is a boutique, woman‑owned educational platform dedicated to elevating the dialogue within the institutional investment community. We create non‑commercial, high‑quality programs designed for senior investment decision‑makers who value meaningful connections, thoughtful content, and candid conversation.
We host two core experiences each year—our Fall & Spring Investment Forums—along with our signature Allocator Investment Huddles, intimate roundtable discussions built exclusively for asset owners. Our community includes leaders from endowments, foundations, pension funds, healthcare systems, insurance companies, single and multi‑family offices, OCIOs, consultants, asset management firms, and other financial institutions.
Our roots date back to 2008, when we launched as The Investment Institute (TII) to serve institutional investors across North Carolina and the Southeast. As our community grew, so did our reach. By 2016, we expanded nationally while maintaining the southeastern foundation that shaped our identity. In 2021, Founder & CEO Andrea Szigethy rebranded the organization as Academy for Institutional Investors, LLC, reflecting our broader mission and nationwide membership.
Today, the Academy brings together some of the most respected voices in the industry—asset owners, economists, policymakers, strategists, leadership experts, and top investment managers—for face‑to‑face dialogue in distinctive venues across the Southeast. Our programs explore the complex issues shaping global markets, offering deep insight into risk, opportunity, and long‑term strategy.
A defining hallmark of the Academy is our commitment to maintaining a high allocator‑to‑manager ratio, ensuring that every program fosters genuine peer‑to‑peer exchange and a collaborative, investor‑centric environment.
About Andrea
ANDREA SZIGETHY
FOUNDER & CEO
Andrea Szigethy is the Founder and CEO of the Academy for Institutional Investors (AII), where she has spent more than two decades bringing together some of the most sophisticated minds in the investment world. With over 26 years of experience designing educational programs for institutional allocators and managers, Andrea is known for creating environments where meaningful relationships, high‑quality content, and genuine community thrive.
Andrea discovered her passion for producing events early in her career while organizing pharmaceutical conferences. She quickly realized she loved connecting senior executives, building networks, and curating timely, relevant topics for discerning audiences. That passion carried into the investment industry, where she has since built a reputation for fostering trusted, long‑term relationships in a relaxed, non‑sales‑driven atmosphere.
At AII, Andrea’s mission is simple: combine high‑caliber investment education with a close‑knit community experience. Each event is intentionally designed to spark new ideas, deepen professional bonds, and create friendships that feel like an extended family. While the Academy welcomes new members at every gathering, Andrea remains committed to keeping the community intimate, sophisticated, and highly engaged — with a limited number of managers and service providers to preserve the quality of interaction.
Before founding AII, Andrea served as Principal and Director of Marketing and Branding at Morgan Creek Capital Management (2006–2016), where she led the firm’s branding, public relations, client education, events, and marketing strategy. She previously spent six years producing financial conferences and managing research, development, sales, and relationship management. Earlier in her career, Andrea worked at North Shore University Hospital in New York as a vocational rehabilitation job coach and began her professional journey at Computer Associates on Long Island.
Andrea serves on the Strategic Advisory Board for CFA Society North Carolina and is a founding member of the North Carolina chapter of 100 Women in Finance. She earned her Bachelor of Arts from the State University of New York at Albany and completed graduate coursework toward a Master of Arts in Social Work at Adelphi University.
Outside of work, Andrea loves spending time with her adult daughters and close friends. Andrea and her husband enjoy traveling, spending time at the NC beaches and playing golf and pickleball together. Andrea is a devoted music lover, she never misses a chance to see live concerts or Broadway shows of any kind.
AII TEAM
Carey Jaquez
Director of Event Operations
Carey joined the Academy for Institutional Investors (AII) in June of 2021. She was previously a Briefing Program Consultant at SAS in the Executive Briefing Center at the company headquarters in Cary, NC. Carey’s event planning experience began at the Umstead Hotel & Spa where she was the Senior Conference Services Manager (CSM) for 13+ years. As part of the hotel’s pre-opening team in 2006, Carey discovered her love of event management and making new connections. During her tenure at The Umstead Hotel & Spa she worked with high-profile companies in the investment business as well as other sectors as their point of contact for board meetings, client events, conferences, product launches, etc. Carey is a perfect fit as Director of Event Operations for (AII) as she worked with The Investment Institute (AII’s former firm name) as their CSM for many years with two of her favorite clients, Andrea Szigethy & Donna Holly! When Carey isn’t working, she enjoys quality time with her family and friends and traveling with her husband and two girls.
Anna Bickley
Director of Allocator Engagement
Anna Bickley joined the Academy for Institutional Investors (AII) as Director of Allocator Engagement in 2022. She was previously with a medical device start-up as Director of Business Operations where she managed the day-to-day customer support, marketing coordination and bookkeeping efforts of the firm. Ms. Bickley has spent most of her career in Client Service within the financial services industry, working at Morgan Creek Capital Management, Lehman Brothers and Deutsche Bank.
Laura Fisher
Chief Financial Officer
Laura Fisher joined the Academy for Institutional Investors (AII) as Chief Financial Officer in 2021. She worked previously as the Director of Finance and Accounting with The Investment Institute (AII’s former firm name) from 2016 to 2020. She manages the day-to-day finance and accounting as well as tax efforts of the firm. Ms. Fisher has spent most of her career in accounting within the financial services industry, working at Morgan Creek Capital Management. Prior to joining the financial service industry, she worked in public accounting for ten years performing non-profit audits as well as tax preparation for businesses and high net worth individuals. In her free time, she enjoys reading, traveling, and being at the beach with her husband and three children.
Our Story
Academy for Institutional Investors, LLC is a boutique, woman owned, non-commercial educational investment conference provider offering intimate roundtable discussions (Allocator Investment Huddles) and mid-sized member forums twice a year (Fall & Spring Forums) for senior investment decision-makers from leading endowments, foundations, pension funds, healthcare, insurance, single family offices (SFOs), multi-family offices (MFOs), OCIOs, consultants, asset management firms and other financial institutions. The Investment Institute (TII) was originally founded in 2008 specifically to educate institutional investors and managers in North Carolina as well as the surrounding southeastern states. In 2016, TII expanded to include allocators and managers from around the country, while still maintaining a strong emphasis on the southeast where our roots were formed. In March of 2021, Andrea Szigethy, Founder, CEO & President decided to re-brand TII to a new name Academy for Institutional Investors, LLC. The Academy features some of the most well-known experts, leading asset owners, as well as policy makers, economists, research strategists, leadership authorities, money managers and some of the most prominent institutional investors from around the country bringing them together for face-to-face conversations and debates in unique venues in the Southeast. The programs cover complex issues surrounding the financial industry and the speaker faculty analyzes risk while revealing many opportunities in the current market environment. A hallmark of the Academy is that the number of allocators who attend will always surpass the number of managers at each program.