Eugene Flood

Partner, A Capella Partners

Eugene Flood is a highly accomplished executive-level business leader and expert in investment management, global macroeconomics and how finance informs business strategy. He consults regularly with leaders of large financial and private equity firms who are actively seeking new sources of strategic thought and creative ways to build better business models in a post-new normal environment. An Ivy League trained economist, Flood advises on issues such as globalization and business expansion with investment company executives, institutional investment limited partners, as well as executives running investment funds’ portfolio companies.

Flood is a Managing Member of Flood Mason Holdings, an early-stage team which will focus on impact investing, advice, and research in three main areas: Health and disease prevention, sustainable energy/water solutions, and the global wealth disparity. Flood also serves as the managing partner of A Cappella Partners (2013 to present), a family office that centers business, for profit and not-for-profit board activity, community service and philanthropic efforts.

Flood is a member of the Janus Henderson Group Board of Directors where he chairs the Board Risk Committee and is a member of the Audit Committee (January 2014 to present). He is a member of the Board of Directors of First Citizens Bancshares where he serves on the Risk Committee and the Trust Committee (January 2023 to present). He is a Senior Advisor at Selby Lane Digital which provides private and alternative investment solutions to institutions and individuals around the world (May 2022 to present). He is a member of the Board of Directors of Grubb Properties, an investment firm that develops, operates, and manages multifamily and mixed-use properties nationwide (May 2022).

He serves as chairman of the Advisory Board (2014 to present) for the University of North Carolina (UNC) Institute for Global Health and Infectious Diseases (IGHID), a world-renowned center focused on stopping the transmission of AIDS and infectious diseases as well as other health issues. He serves on the board of trustees of the Research Corporation for Science Advancement (March 2015 to present), a foundation that provides grants for outstanding early-career researchers in basic sciences and the Steering Board for the Eshelman Institute (September 2015 to present), an accelerator for transformative intellectual property ideas and products in health research and education, and healthcare. He is a member of the Advisory Council of the Milken Center for Advancing the American Dream focusing on expanding access to education, health, and economic freedom, and empowering an entrepreneurial mindset, and the Advisory Board of C Street Advisory Group which provides strategic counsel to senior executives and Boards on value creation, and diversity, equity, and inclusion. Finally, he is on the Investment Committee of Boston Children’s Hospital (May 2022 – present).

Prior Experience and Background

Flood previously served on the Board of Trustees of the Financial Accounting Foundation (January 2016 to December 2020), the governing body for its standardsetting Boards, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB), and their Advisory Councils. Prior to that Flood served as an executive vice president and member of the executive management team at TIAA-CREF (2011 to 2012) where he also was a member of the Fortune 100 firm’s board of trustees (2004 to 2011.) Prior to joining TIAA-CREF, Flood was president and CEO of Smith Breeden Associates, a Durham, N.C.-based asset management firm (2000 to 2012.) He also formerly worked at Morgan Stanley, New York, where Flood’s thinking and work contributed to some of the first quantitative finance systems used on Wall Street (1987-1999.) Flood has managed large businesses and overseen investment strategies during two of the largest crisis periods in recent history: The stock market crash in 1987 and financial crisis in 2007-2008. In the first part of his career Flood was a faculty member specializing in international finance at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business (GSB) lecturing in graduate and executive programs at the Stanford GSB, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Sloan School of Management, the Nomura School of Advanced Management in Tokyo, Japan, and the International Management Institute in Geneva, Switzerland (1982-1987). Flood holds a PhD in Economics from the MIT and earned a Bachelor of Art’s degree in economics at Harvard University.

Flood is an active public speaker and over the years has appeared regularly on CNBC, Bloomberg TV, and CNN to provide expert guest commentary on economic issues. He also has contributed commentary to the Wall Street Journal and Fortune. Flood’s presentations have included keynote speeches for organizations such as:

  • Association for Investment Management & Research (AIMR), annual fixed income conference
  • Securities Analyst Association of Japan, Tokyo, Japan
  • China Banking and Regulatory Commission Annual Conference, Shanghai, China
  • Bank for International Settlements, Basel, Switzerland
  • Islamic Finance Conference and Global Finance Forums, Kuala Lumpur-based Bank Negara Malaysia

When he’s not addressing economic issues, Flood likes to develop compositions of gospel music to support work with churches supported by him and his wife, Paula. Their most recently completed work, “Show Me Your Way “was released in 2020. Gene and Paula reside in Chapel Hill, N.C.