Inefficiency and Innovation at CHOA

Muthu Muthiah is the Chief Investment Officer of Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta (CHOA), one of the largest pediatric clinical care providers in the U.S. Muthu stewards CHOA’s $6 billion long term pool of capital, arriving a year ago after stints across a range of allocator seats the past twenty years.

Our conversation covers Muthu’s mobile upbringing, path to finance, and lessons learned working for a range of asset owners. We discuss his first CIO seat at Inatai, where he oversaw a $2 billion portfolio starting with a clean sheet of paper, and his new seat at CHOA, including the portfolio framework, team structure, and aspiration to achieve concentration, search for inefficiency, and invest in innovation.

Show Notes
04:55 Background
10:00 Spider Management Company
12:50 Covariance Capital Management
14:16 Emory University
15:29 Becoming a Chief Investment Officer
17:01 Inatai Foundation
22:20 Investment frameworks & portfolio construction
30:11 Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta
33:59 Repositioning the portfolio
36:53 India
39:12 China
40:42 Healthcare & technology
45:03 Private investments & illiquidity
46:45 Real assets
48:05 Credit investments
49:46 Due diligence process
54:04 Enhancing internal capabilities
57:29 Fundless sponsors
59:35 Inefficiencies & innovation
1:02:30 Closing questions