Boston University Endowment Hires from Cambridge Associates

charles haigh boston university Charles HaighBoston University’s (BU) investment office has poached Cambridge Associates’ co-head of hedge fund research to help invest the university’s $1.6 billion endowment.

Charles Haigh will serve as one of three investment directors on the eight-person investment team led by CIO Clarissa Hunnewell, another Cambridge Associates vet who worked with Haigh before joining BU in 2011.

“Everyone is excited to have a person of Chuck’s caliber joining our close-knit team,” Hunnewell said in a statement. “He’s jumped right in and has already had an impact on the team and the portfolio.”

While at Cambridge Associates, Haigh led the 10-person team responsible for sourcing, monitoring, and evaluating hedge fund managers focused on activism, long/short equity, event-driven strategies, and distressed investing. He also advised endowment clients on investing in hedge funds.

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At BU, he will broaden his focus from hedge funds to all asset classes.

“The generalist model doesn’t exist everywhere, so that’s something that really attracted me to BU after focusing on one area for almost 20 years,” Haigh said. “I’m really delighted to get to know the team and think more broadly about other asset classes.”

The endowment has also recently made two other hires: Market Analyst Alexandra Sing and Investment Associate Andrew Schwert.

Sing joined BU from equity manager Forester Capital in July while Schwert started in August after graduating from the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business.

David Marcus, Stony Brook David MarcusThe Stony Brook Foundation has hired David Marcus as CIO to run its $447 million investment portfolio, the organization confirmed this week.

Marcus succeeds Erin Abouzaid, the New York-based university foundation’s inaugural CIO, who left the role earlier this year after four years to join hedge fund Hitchin Hill Capital.

Marcus joins from Bermuda-based asset management firm SHL Capital, where he was a managing director for two years. Prior to this, he spent 16 years running endowment portfolios, including the $1 billion Juilliard School fund in New York and a $3 billion portfolio for Dartmouth College in New Hampshire.

“We couldn’t be more pleased that David, with his proven experience and track record, has joined the Stony Brook Foundation,” said Ashvin Chhabra, chair of the foundation’s investment committee chair and investment chief of Euclidean Capital, Renaissance Technologies Founder James Simons’ family office. “I have the utmost confidence that David will continue to maximize the return on our donors’ investment to advance the noble mission of Stony Brook University.”

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Marcus said he hoped to build on the “excellent work” of his predecessor in advancing the university’s aim to aid students from financially disadvantaged backgrounds.

He has a degree in finance from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from the University of Chicago.