Meredith JenkinsCarnegie Corporation’s Co-CIO Meredith Jenkins will leave
the endowment to join a brand new asset owner in New York City.
Jenkins, who spent 16 years at the $3.3 billion fund, has been named inaugural CIO at Trinity Church Wall Street effective March 4, 2016.
In the newly created role, she will lead the church’s first in-house investment team, working on the endowment’s real estate portfolio to “advance Trinity’s global ministries,” the release said.
Executive recruiter Russell Reynolds Associates conducted the search.
“She is a consummate professional, an exemplary colleague, and a born leader,” Carnegie’s President Vartan Gregorian said of Jenkins’ move.
Jenkins joined Carnegie in 1999 as the second hire for its new investment team. Then, the endowment stood at $1.8 billion mainly allocated to public equities and fixed income.
She was then named co-CIO in 2011, sharing responsibilities with Kim Lew. Together, they diversified the portfolio, adding alternatives and emerging markets exposures.
“Her stewardship, including an expertise in the Asian financial markets, contributed to a period of change and remarkable growth in the endowment,” said Thomas Kean, former Governor of New Jersey and chair of Carnegie’s board of trustees.
The endowment said under Jenkins’ and Lew’s tenure, the fund consistently performed in the top quartile of its peer universe, according to Cambridge Associates.
Upon Jenkins’ departure, Lew will assume the CIO position at Carnegie.
Prior to joining Carnegie, Jenkins spent time at Cambridge Associates, research firm Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., and Goldman Sachs. She holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Virginia and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
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