Marcelo Assalin, CFA, Partner
Marcelo Assalin, CFA, partner, is the head of William Blair’s emerging markets debt team, on which he also serves as a portfolio manager. He is a member of William Blair Investment Management’s leadership team. Before joining William Blair, Assalin was head of EMD at NN Investment Partners, a role he began in 2015, and lead portfolio manager for blended debt portfolios. He received a B.A. in business administration and accounting from the University of São Paulo.
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Olga Bitel, Partner
Olga Bitel, partner, is a global strategist at William Blair Investment Management. She is responsible for economic research and analysis across all regions and sectors. Bitel distills macroeconomic and geopolitical developments into actionable insights for global equity portfolios within a multifaceted strategic framework. Before joining William Blair in 2009, Olga was a senior economist at the National Institute of Economic and Social Research in London. Olga received a B.A. from the University of Chicago and an M.Sc. in economics from the London School of Economics and Political Science.
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Clifford Chi-wai Lau, CFA
Clifford Lau is a hard- and local-currency portfolio manager on William Blair’s emerging markets debt team. Before joining William Blair, he was the head of fixed income, Asia-Pacific, and a senior portfolio manager at Columbia Threadneedle Investments, based in Singapore. Lau received a bachelor’s degree in finance from the University of Hong Kong.
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Todd McClone, CFA, Partner
Todd McClone, CFA, partner, is a portfolio manager for William Blair’s emerging markets strategies, including Emerging Markets Leaders, Emerging Markets Growth, Emerging Markets Small Cap Growth, and Emerging Markets ex China Growth. Before joining William Blair in 2000, he was a senior research analyst specializing in international equity for Strong Capital Management. McClone received a B.B.A. and B.A. from the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
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Vivian Lin Thurston, CFA, Partner
Vivian Lin Thurston, CFA, partner, is a portfolio manager for William Blair’s Emerging Markets Growth, China A-Shares Growth, China Growth, and Emerging Markets ex China Growth strategies. Previously, she was a global equity research analyst covering the China A-shares market and large-cap consumer companies. Before joining William Blair, Thurston was vice president and consumer sector head at Calamos Investments. She received a LL.B. in sociology from Peking University and an M.A. in sociology and M.S. in finance from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
