Alain Hung

Alain Hung is the Deputy Chief Investment Officer of the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF), the technology-transfer organization that patents and licenses University of Wisconsin–Madison discoveries and manages the sizable investment portfolio funded by those licensing and investment proceeds. Hung oversees this portfolio with the stated objective of "obtaining consistent long-term investment returns in a risk-controlled manner." The endowment he helps manage was reported at roughly $2.7 billion, and it returned 4.96% in the fiscal year ending June 30, 2018, ahead of its 4.33% benchmark, at a foundation that has ranked among the nation's top-performing over a 10-year period.

Hung brings more than 15 years of experience in asset allocation and investment management, with a track record across a diverse asset base that includes public equities, fixed income, and alternatives such as hedge funds, private equity, and venture capital. He has been a CFA charterholder since 2000.

Academically, Hung earned a B.B.A. in Finance and Accounting from Acadia University in Nova Scotia, Canada, and an M.A. in Applied Economics, also from Acadia University. When WARF's long-tenured CIO Carrie Thome departed in 2019 after 18 years, Hung stepped up to run the portfolio in an interim capacity, and he has continued in a senior leadership role on the investment team.

It is worth noting that WARF operates on two related tracks: the institutional investment office where Hung sits, and WARF Ventures, its direct-investment arm. WARF Ventures is one of the Midwest's most active institutional startup investors, having backed more than 50 UW–Madison spinouts over roughly two decades — companies that have collectively attracted over $1 billion in total investment — and currently works with more than 30 active portfolio companies.

• Manages a large institutional endowment for total return in a risk-controlled, long-horizon framework rather than as a single-stage venture fund.
• Allocates across a full multi-asset book: public equities, fixed income, hedge funds, private equity, and venture capital.
• Leverages WARF's structural advantage — proximity to and deal flow from UW–Madison, a top public research university — as a differentiated source of opportunity.
• On the direct-investing side, WARF Ventures provides seed-through-growth capital specifically to startups commercializing UW–Madison or Morgridge Institute technologies, and pairs capital with talent, advisors, and commercial partners.
• Sector interest (via WARF Ventures) skews toward deep-tech and life-science commercialization: AI-enabled software, cancer diagnostics, advanced materials for batteries, and vaccines.