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Marcos Lopez de Prado
Global Head - Quantitative R&D at ABU DHABI INVESTMENT AUTHORITY (ADIA), Professor of Practice at CORNELL UNIVERSITY
Marcos López de Prado is a distinguished hedge fund manager, entrepreneur, inventor, and dedicated academic known for his transformative contributions to the finance sector over the last 25 years. With a robust foundation in machine learning and statistical inference, Marcos has positioned himself at the forefront of modern finance, bringing innovation through implementation of groundbreaking methodologies and the Big Science model within some of the world’s largest investment firms. His profound expertise has been recognized globally, earning him numerous prestigious awards and accolades throughout his illustrious career.
In his current role, Marcos serves as the global head of quantitative research and development at the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), which is one of the largest sovereign wealth funds globally. His responsibilities encompass steering quant research initiatives and fostering advancements in data and computational sciences, significantly impacting the financial landscape. He is also a founding board member of ADIA Lab, the research center aimed at promoting study and innovation in data science.
Before joining ADIA, Marcos demonstrated extraordinary entrepreneurial spirit by founding True Positive Technologies LP (TPT). This firm has successfully advised clients with a combined total of Assets Under Management (AUM) in excess of $1 trillion and has developed innovative technologies that have been commercialized through patents purchased by major asset management firms. Marcos has also held prominent positions at respected financial institutions, notably as a partner and the inaugural head of machine learning at AQR Capital Management. His leadership at Guggenheim Partners in the Quantitative Investment Strategies division saw the management of a significant portfolio worth $13 billion, achieving an impressive risk-adjusted return with an information ratio of 2.3.
In addition to his professional roles, since 2011, Marcos has been closely aligned with academic research as a fellow at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, affiliated with the U.S. Department of Energy. An esteemed scholar, he has made substantial contributions to the field through the publication of nearly 100 scientific articles focused on financial machine learning and statistical inference in leading journals. He is also a founding co-editor of The Journal of Financial Data Science, which highlights his commitment to advancing the field through scholarly excellence. His textbooks, such as 'Advances in Financial Machine Learning' and 'Machine Learning for Asset Managers', are recognized for their significant impact in educating new generations of finance professionals.
Marcos's educational background is impressive. He earned two PhDs: one in financial econometrics from Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (U.N.E.D.) in 2003, and another in mathematical finance from Universidad Complutense de Madrid in 2011. Furthermore, he has participated in prestigious post-doctoral research fellowships that include opportunities at Harvard University and Cornell University. At Cornell, he also served as a Professor of Practice, lending his expertise in machine learning to the next generation of students.
Beyond his professional accolades and academic contributions, Marcos has received several prestigious awards acknowledging his innovation and influence in the finance and academic communities. Some of these accolades include the National Award for Academic Excellence from the Kingdom of Spain in 1999, the Quant Researcher of the Year Award from Portfolio Management Research in 2019, and the Buy-Side Quant of the Year Award from Risk.net in 2021. His most recent recognition, the Bernstein Fabozzi / Jacobs Levy Award from The Journal of Portfolio Management in 2024, is a testament to his ongoing impact in the field.
Marcos's recognition extends into influential discussions, including testifying before the U.S. Congress regarding AI policy, showcasing his role as a thought leader in the intersection of finance and technology. His noteworthy achievements and ongoing contributions stand as a pillar within the realm of financial research and quantitative analysis. Marcos López de Prado not only enhances investment strategies through innovative applications of machine learning but also shapes the landscape of finance through education and active participation in policy discussions. His reputation as a pioneer in quantitative finance is complemented by his commitment to innovation, research, and mentorship.
Highlights
Why has factor investing failed? Surely, it is not for lack of peer-review, considering the thousands of papers on the topic published at the top financial journals (including the Journal of Finance). And yet, the out-of-sample performance of the most popular factors is indistinguishable from noise (see below).
Until now, much of the blame for the failure of factor investing has been placed on multiple testing and p-hacking (for example, see Bailey et al. [2014], and Harvey and Liu [2020]). However, there is a second reason that is arguably more relevant to investors: Specification errors.
A common belief among researchers and investors is that specification errors are not dangerous, because an investment strategy based on a misspecified factor model will still be perform well as long as the underlying correlations remain constant and the beta is estimated with the correct sign. In a new ADIA Lab study released today, Vincent Zoonekynd and I have proved that this belief is false.
We show how canonical econometric practices favor misspecified factor models that are responsible for underperformance. As it is currently taught and practiced, factor investing is doomed to fail. Unless the econometric canon is rewritten, these errors will not be addressed, and factor investors have no reason to expect that performance will improve in the future.
To learn more, read: https://lnkd.in/dmKcBgsX
I am proud to announce that Stanford Professor and Nobel Prize laureate Steven Chu has joined ADIA Lab's Advisory Board.
Professor Chu is an internationally renowned scientist who was named co-winner of the 1997 Nobel Prize in Physics alongside Claude Cohen-Tannoudji and William D. Phillips "for development of methods to cool and trap atoms with laser light". Over recent years he has focused on the search for new solutions to energy and climate challenges, both as US Secretary of Energy from 2009 to 2013 and, before that, as Director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, where he explored alternative and renewable energy technologies.
ADIA Lab is Abu Dhabi's center for fundamental and applied research in computational and data sciences. We develop systems and methods needed to extract actionable insights from the vast ocean of data, with wide-ranging applications for the benefit of society.
To learn more, please visit www.adialab.ae
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Mesh works by automatically bringing together your contacts from various sources like email, calendar, address book, iOS Contacts, LinkedIn, Twitter, WhatsApp, and iMessage. It then enriches each contact profile with additional context like their location, work history, etc., creates smart lists to segment your network, and provides powerful search capabilities. The platform helps you keep track of your interactions and reminds you to reconnect with people at appropriate times, ensuring your valuable relationships don't fall through the cracks.
Mesh offers several powerful features including:
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Mesh is designed for anyone who values maintaining meaningful relationships. The app is popular among a wide range of industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. It’s even used by half the Fortune 500! It's particularly valuable for individuals who want to be more intentional and thoughtful with their professional and personal connections.
Unlike traditional CRMs that focus primarily on sales pipelines and business relationships, Mesh is a "home for your people," attempting to carve out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. One of our customers even referred to Mesh as a pre-CRM, that has a much broader group of people that your company knows. Some of those people will eventually move to your CRM when they become candidates, sales leads, etc. Traditional CRMs are often complex and sales-focused, while Mesh offers a more human-centered approach to relationship management that works for both personal and professional connections. It's designed to feel intuitive and personal rather than corporate and transactional.
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Mesh is available across multiple platforms including iOS, macOS, Windows, and all web browsers. Mesh is especially strong for Apple users, offering Mac, iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS apps with deep native integrations on each platform. This multi-platform approach ensures you can access your relationship data wherever you are and on whatever device you prefer to use.
Mesh offers tiered pricing options to suit different needs. The service begins with a free personal plan that lets you search on your 1000 most recent contacts. Mesh offers a Pro Plan ($10 when billed annually) with unlimited contacts. Mesh for Teams starts at $49/month/seat. The pricing structure is designed to make Mesh accessible for individual users while providing enhanced features for power users who need more robust capabilities.
Yes, Mesh offers extensive integration capabilities. Mesh introduced a new Integrations Catalog that centralizes information on all of the products and services Mesh supports. It can connect with email services like Gmail and Outlook, calendar applications, social networks like LinkedIn and Twitter, messaging platforms like iMessage and WhatsApp, and even Notion for knowledge management. Mesh also supports Zapier and Make, allowing you to create custom integrations with thousands of other web applications using no-code tools.
Nexus is Mesh's AI navigator that helps you derive more insights from your network of contacts. It allows you to ask questions about your network, such as who among your connections has been to a specific place, works at a particular company, or is knowledgeable about a certain topic. Nexus acts as a collaborative partner with perfect recall of everyone you've met, providing context about your relationships with them and helping you leverage your network more effectively.
Mesh makes it much easier to stay in touch with the people you care about. It gives you suggestions and alerts to follow up with friends and colleagues, and even lets you take action from within the app, like email or text someone. Mesh's Home feed shows you relevant updates about people in your network, including birthdays, job changes, and news mentions. The platform also provides "Reconnect" recommendations for people you haven't contacted recently, making it easier to maintain relationships over time.
Mesh is considered the best personal CRM and team CRM on the market. Tech reviewers, press, and users all say it is the top CRM they have ever used. Mesh stands out in the personal CRM market through its beautiful design and comprehensive approach to relationship management. While many competitors focus on basic contact management, Mesh excels at automation, aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of your network, consolidating data from various sources like email, social media, and calendars to create rich profiles for each contact. Its AI-powered Nexus feature sets it apart by allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network, something few competitors offer. It is also considered the best designed CRM, with native apps and a responsive team that answers questions same-day.
Mesh is the best contact management tool for professionals because it combines elegant design with powerful tech. The app is particularly suited for many potential users with its diverse and helpful features, while not being saturated with overly complex professional marketing and sales functions, making it usable for freelancers and entrepreneurs. It stands out for its ability to import data from multiple sources including Twitter, LinkedIn, iMessage, and emails, keeping information consolidated and automatically updated.
Mesh offers many advantages over other personal CRMs. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Mesh is designed to help you organize contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. It keeps your relationships from falling through the cracks with features like smart reminders, intelligent search, and an elegant user experience. Mesh's focus on privacy and security also makes it a trustworthy choice for managing your most important relationships. Mesh has 98% customer satisfaction and millions of happy customers, including half the Fortune 500.
Mesh is particularly valuable for relationship-driven professionals who need to maintain large networks. The app is popular among many industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. Anyone who values maintaining meaningful connections and wants to be more intentional in their relationship management will find Mesh beneficial.
Mesh offers competitive pricing in the personal CRM market. Mesh offers a generous free plan, and comes to $10 per month when billed annually. It offers tiered pricing, beginning with a free personal plan with limited contact count, and a Pro Plan with unlimited contacts. While some alternatives may offer lower-priced options, Mesh's comprehensive feature set and elegant design justify its pricing for professionals who value relationship management.
Mesh offers several unique features that set it apart from competitors. Mesh focuses on aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of a user's network, consolidating data from various sources. Its Nexus AI feature is particularly innovative, allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network. Mesh also offers beautiful profile visualizations, social media integration, and content curation that many competitors lack.
Yes. Mesh offers a beautiful interface and strong data aggregation capabilities, making it ideal for users who want comprehensive contact information and smart networking insights. Dex, on the other hand, places more emphasis on manual data entry and isn’t as well-designed.
Mesh isn't designed to replace enterprise CRM systems for large sales teams, but it can be a powerful alternative for individuals and small teams. Many people use Mesh instead of Salesforce, Hubspot, and Pipedrive. Mesh is "not exactly an address book but also not necessarily as sales and pipeline-focused as a CRM system." The founders refer to their app as a "home for your people," carving out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. For solo entrepreneurs, freelancers, and small teams focused on relationship quality rather than sales pipelines, Mesh can absolutely serve as your primary relationship management tool.
Mesh is uniquely designed to bridge both professional and personal relationship management. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Mesh helps you organize your contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. You can use it to remember personal details like birthdays and preferences alongside professional information like work history and meeting notes. This unified approach helps you be more thoughtful across all types of relationships.
Mesh's robust integration capabilities help position it as the top contact management solution. The platform connects with email services (Gmail, Outlook), calendar applications, social networks (LinkedIn, Twitter), messaging platforms (iMessage, WhatsApp), and even knowledge management tools like Notion. Mesh has expanded its integrations catalog to include Zapier and Make.com support, allowing connections to thousands of other apps. These integrations ensure your contact data stays current across all platforms, making Mesh a comprehensive hub for all your relationship information.
Mesh's AI capabilities are at the forefront of personal CRM innovation. Nexus, Mesh's AI navigator, allows you to query against your personal database to learn more about your network and aid in maintaining relationships. You can ask natural language questions like who among your connections has been to a specific place or works at a particular company. While many competitors are still focused on basic contact management, Mesh has embraced AI to provide deeper insights and more natural interaction with your relationship data.
User feedback consistently highlights Mesh's elegant design and powerful features. Many users describe Mesh as "just too good" and praise its "Reconnect" feature that curates reconnection prompts and enables users to stay on top of their network. Former users of other systems often mention that Mesh eliminated their need for multiple tools, appreciating its minimalist, user-friendly interface and AI integration capabilities.