Brandeis Seeks New CIO, Amherst Looks to Add to ‘Mighty’ Investment Team

Brandeis University and Amherst College are looking to bolster their investment teams, as Brandeis is seeking a new chief investment officer, while Amherst is looking to add an investment officer to its “small but mighty” team.

Brandeis is looking to hire a CIO to oversee its $1.2 billion endowment and succeed Nicholas Warren, who left the endowment in March after more than a decade to become CIO of Glenmede Trust Co. Tarek Saghir is currently Brandeis’ interim CIO.

According to a job posting on the university’s website, the CIO reports administratively to the university’s executive vice president of finance and administration and works very closely with the investment committee chair.

“The chief investment officer will be a proven investor and strategic player/coach with excellent judgment who can combine top-down thematic thinking with high quality bottoms-up manager selection and manager oversight,” the posting says.

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The CIO is responsible and accountable for the overall management of the investment portfolio and leadership of the investment office staff. They are also responsible for the overall management of Brandeis’ investment portfolio, investment committee relations, and investment office personnel. Additional responsibilities include, but are not limited to:

Guiding all aspects of the university’s investment objectives, policies, and processes.
Sourcing, evaluating, and executing all investment strategies, including selection and monitoring of external investment managers, as well as oversight of all investment activities.
Monitoring performance, portfolio positions, current events, and organizational changes of the invested fund managers and regularly completing analytical reviews evaluating the relative performance of each manager.
Leading, supporting, and mentoring Brandeis University’s investment office staff.

The posting also said prospective candidates should have at least 12 years of experience as a senior investor with an institutional asset management platform, including, but not limited to, an endowment, foundation, family office, or outsourced CIO. The university has hired David Barrett Partners to help in its search.

Meanwhile, Amherst College CIO Letitia Johnson is looking to add an investment officer to her team, which oversees the endowment’s nearly $3.8 billion investment portfolio.

“The Amherst College Endowment is looking for an investment officer to add to our small but mighty investment team!” Johnson said in a LinkedIn post.

According to a posting for the job, the investment officer will report to Johnson and is expected to collaborate with the team as well as mentor analysts and summer interns.

“The portfolio is concentrated and has low turnover,” says the posting. “As such, successful candidates will demonstrate a strong interest in spending time on the current portfolio and will exhibit a long-term mindset.”

Responsibilities for the job include, but are not limited to:

Sourcing, conducting due diligence, selecting, and monitoring existing and prospective investment managers in a variety of asset classes.
Helping prepare materials for the investment committee and other high-level audiences.
Taking appropriate actions to support a diverse workforce and committing to diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Prospective candidates are expected to have a minimum of five to 10 years of related investment experience, and are required to have a bachelor’s degree, while MBA, CFA and/or CAIA designations are preferred.

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Tags: Amherst College, Brandeis University, chief investment officers, CIO, Endowments, hire, job posting, Letitia Johnson, Nicholas Warren

Ray Dalio

Ray Dalio is hanging it up as head of the world’s largest hedge fund firm, Bridgewater Associates. The billionaire investor and public philosopher, who founded the company in his New York apartment in 1975, put together an extraordinary run.

Dalio has gradually been edging away from the daily running of Bridgewater. On social media, he said he has transferred all of his voting rights to the board of directors and stepped down as one of Bridgewater’s three co-CIOs. He said his future role at the company (assets: $150 billion) will be “founder and CIO mentor.”

“Over the last two years I have watched and mentored them so they could run Bridgewater without my interference and they did a great job,” he said in a LinkedIn post, of the people who will run Bridgewater going forward. Co-CEOs Nir Bar Dia and Nark Bertolina, plus co-CIOs Bob Prince and Greg Jensen, will run the firm.

Dalio, 73, was one of the first to construct portfolios of uncorrelated investments and he put a big emphasis on research. He famously foresaw the global financial crisis and kept his investments out of harm’s way. Dalio cleaned up from the crisis by investing in Treasury bonds. He had some rough times in the 2010s, but then came roaring back. Forbes estimates that his fortune now is worth $20 billion.

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Bridgewater’s flagship fund, Pure Alpha II, has romped this year by shorting stocks in Europe, where equities are hit hard by energy shortages and other problems from the Russia-Ukraine war.

In June, the Pure Alpha fund reportedly doubled its short positions in European shares, to $10.5 billion. Its targets were said to include German software maker SAP and French health care company Sanofi. In addition to shorting, it has scored from trades in commodities, sovereign debt and emerging market currencies. Dalio also is known for his advocacy on investing in China and has attracted criticism for downplaying its human rights violations.

The hedge fund honcho has penned several books outlining his economic and management philosophies, which among other things stresses feedback and candor from everyone in an organization, regardless of rank. His latest book, Principles for Dealing with the Changing World Order: Why Nations Succeed and Fail, sketches out why the U.S. became the world’s richest economy.

He has active philanthropic interests that he intends to devote more time to, in particular his own charity group, the Dalio Foundation.