Robert (Rob) A. Gillam serves as McKinley Management, LLC’s Chief Executive Officer and Chief Investment Officer. In this role, Rob is responsible for developing the firm’s strategic objectives, establishing the firm’s mission and values, communicating with stakeholders including staff and clients, maintaining the firm’s fiscal health, and managing the investment teams of McKinley Capital and McKinley Alaska Private Investment. He is supported by a robust executive team, a governing Board of Directors, and an Advisory Board.
Rob has been with McKinley since 1994 in roles including sales, portfolio manager head of international investments, and Chief Investment Officer. He added Chief Executive Officer to his title when McKinley Capital founder and his father, Bob Gillam, passed away unexpectedly in 2018. Rob is the principal strategist behind McKinley Capital innovations including Non-U.S., Middle East, Africa, South Asia (MEASA), Global Healthcare Transformation, the Engineering and Solutions platform, private investment, and he established McKinley Capital’s Scientific Advisory Board chaired by Dr. Harry Markowitz, Ph.D., Nobel laureate and the author of Modern Portfolio Theory.
Under Rob’s leadership, McKinley Management was created in 2021 as the parent company of McKinley Capital, the newly created McKinley Alaska Private Investment, and the recently acquired McKinley Research Group (formerly known as McDowell Group), the state’s premier social, policy and economic research firm. In 2022, the firm acquired McKinley Alaska Growth Capital (Alaska Growth Capital BIDCO, Inc.) and now offers clients integrated investment, lending and research services umbrellaed under one firm.
Rob is an Advisory Board Member of the Jacobs Levy Equity Management Center for Quantitative Financial Research at the Wharton School. He is the Chairman of the Board of Microbion, Inc. and sits on the Rasmuson Foundation investment committee. Rob was instrumental in the sourcing of and investment in McKinley Alaska’s Na’-Nuk Investment Fund 1’s Peter Pan Seafood Company, LLC, and serves on Peter Pan’s board of directors. He also sits on the board of directors for Alaska Cargo & Cold Storage, a direct investment of McKinley Alaska.
Rob has written numerous pieces of research including Investing in Global Equity Markets with Particular Emphasis on Chinese Stocks co-authored with Dr. Harry Markowitz, Ph,D., Dr.John Guerard Jr., Ph.D., and Dr. Shijie Deng, Ph.D. A noted speaker, Rob has been featured on the Bloomberg Invest forum, at the Milken Institute Global Conference, and the Institute for Fiduciary Education.
Rob holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Finance from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, and is a Chartered Financial Analyst. Rob, his wife, and two sons reside in Anchorage, Alaska where he enjoys fly-fishing, hiking, and wilderness adventures. A third-generation Alaskan, Rob is passionate about his home state and the unique opportunities found in the Last Frontier.