Jagdeep Singh Bachher, CIO and vice president of investments in the University of California Office of the President and head of UC Investments, is working as an institutional investor, a shareholder and an employer to create the conditions for—and benefit as an investor from—diverse, equitable and inclusive teams.

Baccher, in his nine years at UC, worked with his team to develop what he calls the “UC Investments Way,” 10 pillars that encapsulate the endowment’s culture and guides its long-term investment strategy. In addition, his team is taking action to create a diverse staff and improve the pipeline for diverse candidates for the industry.

Since 2019, the fund has annually released a report called “Diversified Returns,” which summarizes its work as an institutional investor to create the conditions for, and to reap the rewards of, inclusive teams.

“We believe that complaining about a lack of diversity, and a missing pipeline for diverse managers in the investment business does little to solve the problem” Baccher says.

Baccher also worked to develop the UC Investments Academy, among the initiatives by UC Investments to connect women and diverse UC students with career paths in finance. The academy has professionally trained and mentored 1,000 students, and so far, has helped more than 70 land jobs in the field. Baccher told CIO that in coming years it plans for the academy to reach 10,000 students within the UC system at no cost to them.

He also is making the effort to meet with and invest in overwhelmingly minority managers. In 2022, Baccher’s team met with roughly 333 diverse managers. Out of UC’s investments to new managers, six out of seven were firms owned by women and people of color. UC also increased the percentage of its total holdings allocated to diverse managers to 40% from 36%.

Prior to being CIO at UC Investments, Baccher was deputy CIO and COO at Alberta Investment Management Corp., one of Canada’s largest public pension fund managers. Baccher holds a doctorate in management sciences and a B.A.Sc. in mechanical engineering from the University of Waterloo.

As of June30, 2023, UC Investments’ assets totaled $164 billion and the endowment has reported one-, five- and 10-year total returns net of fees of 8.8%; 8.7% and 8.8%, respectively.

—Matt Toledo