Suzanne Bernard

Suzanne Bernard is the Not-for-Profit OCIO Practice Lead at Northern Trust Asset Management, based in Chicago. In this role she and her team work directly with foundations, endowments, and other nonprofit entities to design and run complex institutional investment programs, providing outsourced chief investment officer services within Northern Trust's multi-manager / asset management business.

Before joining Northern Trust, Bernard spent more than 25 years as a Partner at Aon Hewitt Investment Consulting and its predecessor organization, Ennis, Knupp + Associates — the source of the "ennisknupp.com" email in the original record. Over that career she advised a wide range of institutional clients, specializing in plans with sophisticated alternatives programs. She held several leadership roles at the firm, including leading its Not-for-Profit Practice and its Alternatives Investing Practice, which covered hedge funds, private equity, and real assets.

Bernard earned a Bachelor of Science in Finance from the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign and an MBA in Finance/Investments from the University of Chicago (Booth School of Business). She holds both the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA) designations.

It is worth flagging clearly: this Suzanne Bernard is an institutional investment consultant and OCIO practitioner, not a seed-stage or angel investor. A separate, unrelated Suzanne Bernard is associated with the Capital Angel Network in Canada; that individual is a different person and is not tied to the ennisknupp.com email in this record.

• Runs discretionary, multi-asset OCIO portfolios for nonprofits — foundations, endowments, and mission-driven institutions — rather than making direct company investments.
• Deep specialization in alternatives: hedge funds, private equity, private debt, and real assets; she previously led the Alternatives Investing Practice at Aon Hewitt / Ennis Knupp.
• Public commentary (2024–2025) has emphasized the growing role of private markets in institutional portfolios — why adoption has accelerated, how evergreen/semi-liquid structures address operational pain points, and the complementary roles of private debt and private equity.
• Focus on helping nonprofits build operationally sustainable, governance-appropriate programs that can access complex strategies without overburdening small investment staffs.