Though the center's primary audience will be institutional investors, it will actively engage asset managers of alternative investments to provide balance, expertise, and data in all center activities. The center will also leverage and partner with centers of excellence in specific assets such as Real Estate, Private Equity, and Hedge Funds at Emory and elsewhere to realize its vision.

In 2007, Emory University's Goizueta Business School received a $10 million gift to establish the Emory Center for Alternative Investments. In the Spring of 2008, Klaas Baks was appointed as the executive director of the center. The center's long-term agenda will be shaped by a center board, co-chaired by Lado Gurgenidze, former prime minister of Georgia and Larry Benveniste, past dean of Goizueta Business School.

The center's primary objective is to provide cutting edge research and thought leadership targeted at the most important challenges faced by institutional investors as they relate to alternative investments. Our research aims to advance a variety of problems ranging from best practices to a global understanding of issues as they relate to public policy and industry perception.

In addition to this focus, the center was conceived as a meeting place for people interested and active in alternative investments. The center also aims to engage students and practitioners alike through classes, executive education, seminars, and networking events. An open forum for discussions among the leaders in these fields will be critical to understanding and charting the future.

The center's board, staffed by private equity Limited Partners, oversees roughly $800 billion AUM and helps guide strategic vision. This vision has helped the center establish itself as a premier hub in the alternative investment industry through its research, classes, conferences, competitions, seminars, and publications.