What does it actually take for a deep reinforcement learning strategy to win over a skeptical institutional allocator?

In this episode of Against Consensus, host Angelo Calvello, co-founder of Blue Diamond Asset Management and Rosetta Analytics, sits down with Subhasis Das, Senior Portfolio Manager in Strategic Investments at the Florida State Board of Administration. Subhasis walks through how his team sources, vets, and constructs a portfolio spanning hedge funds, infrastructure, insurance-linked securities, and opportunistic strategies. He explains why star managers get more scrutiny, not less, where managers are actually using AI today, and what two decades of site visits have taught him about the "immeasurables" that ultimately drive long-term manager success.

Subhasis Das is a Senior Portfolio Manager in Strategic (Alternative) Investments at the State Board of Administration of Florida. He has over 15 years on the board, focusing on hedge fund, activist equity, and niche alternative investment strategies, particularly CTA and discretionary global macro strategies for portfolio diversification. Previously, Subhasis directed research in the Global Equity asset class, overseeing portfolio analysis, external active managers, quantitative equity strategy development, and risk analysis. Earlier career roles include economic and tax revenue forecasting for governmental and financial institutions. Subhasis holds a PhD in economics, an MS in Computer Science, and an MBA.

In This Episode:

(00:00) Intro and warm-up questions with Subhasis Das

(05:33) Overview of Florida SBA's strategic alternative investments portfolio

(08:30) Hedge fund manager selection criteria and risk objectives

(12:38) How the team sources, vets, and decides on new managers

(19:10) Consultants' role and how the team runs peer and reference checks

(23:43) A hypothetical fully autonomous AI black box strategy

(26:38) Where managers are using AI today, and the industry's biggest shift since 2002

(31:03) Site visits, team culture, and advice for younger allocators

(34:36) The worst pitch he's ever heard, and closing
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Dr. Angelo Calvello is a serial innovator and co-founder of multiple investment firms, including Rosetta Analytics and Blue Diamond Asset Management. He leverages his extensive professional network and reputation for authentic thought leadership to curate conversations with genuinely innovative allocators and thinkers.

As the "Dissident" columnist for Institutional Investor and former "Doctor Is In" columnist for Chief Investment Officer (winner of the 2016 Jesse H. Neal Award), Calvello has become a leading voice challenging conventional investment wisdom.

Beyond his professional pursuits, Calvello serves as Chairman of the Maryland State Retirement and Pension System's Climate Advisory Panel, Chairman of the Board of Outreach with Lacrosse and Schools (OWLS Lacrosse), a nonprofit organization creating opportunities for at-risk youths in Chicago, and trustee for a Chicago-area police pension fund. His career-long focus on leveraging innovation to deliver superior client outcomes makes him the ideal host for cutting-edge institutional investing conversations.

Resources:

Subhasis Das — LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/subhasis-das-050860a/

State Board of Administration of Florida https://www.sbafla.com/

Against Consensus

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