Home > News > Corporate Moves > Bowdoin College Names K. Niles Bryant CIO
Corporate Moves

Bowdoin College Names K. Niles Bryant CIO

He will succeed Paula Volent, who will step down June 30 after running the $1.8 billion endowment for 20 years.
By Michael Katz

K. Niles Bryant

Bowdoin College has promoted K. Niles Bryant to be the new CIO of its $1.8 billion endowment, effective July 1. Bryant will succeed Paula Volent, who will step down at the end of June after more than 20 years on the job.

“Niles’ exceptional experience and skills, his record of achievement, and his deep commitment to Bowdoin’s mission make him the ideal person to succeed Paula,” Bowdoin President Clayton Rose said in a statement. As a member of Bowdoin’s senior leadership team, Bryant will report to Rose.

Paula Volent

Bryant will take the helm a little more than a year after joining Bowdoin’s investment office. He started in April as director of investments. He previously was director of real assets for the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation for nearly 12 years, and before that was associate director of investments at the Carnegie Corporation of New York for over four years.

Prior to moving into the financial sector, Bryant was an associate at the New York City law firms of Dewey Ballantine and Winston & Strawn. He earned an undergraduate degree in classical archaeology at the University of Michigan and a law degree at the Duke University School of Law, as well as an MBA from Dartmouth College’s Tuck School of Business.

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“Niles is uniquely positioned for this leadership position at Bowdoin,” Volent said in a statement. “During this recent challenging period, Niles has worked side by side with me and our investment committee on managing Bowdoin’s portfolio, augmenting the investment team, and carrying out our due diligence on potential opportunities.”

Volent has not yet revealed her post-Bowdoin plans other than to say that she will be “taking on new challenges.” She leaves her post after overseeing the endowment’s growth from just over $465 million during the summer of 2000 to $1.8 billion as of the end of June.

The Bowdoin endowment consists of more than 1,700 individual funds, and, as of June 30, had three-, five-, and 10-year annualized returns of 10.7%, 8.5%, and 11.6%, respectively.

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Home > News > Asset Management Culture > Massachusetts’ Pension Fund Increases Corporate Diversity Standards
Asset Management Culture

Massachusetts’ Pension Fund Increases Corporate Diversity Standards

Board of $86.9 billion state fund also calls for portfolio companies to guarantee health care for workers.
By Michael Katz


The board of Massachusetts’ Pension Reserves Investment Management (PRIM), which oversees the state’s $86.9 billion pension fund, voted to increase its standards for diversity on the boards and workforces of the companies it invests in, among other policy changes.

According to the new proxy voting policy, PRIM will vote against or withhold a vote from all nominees of a portfolio company’s board if less than 35% of the board is diverse in terms of race, and if it is less than 35% diverse in terms of gender, according to State House News Service. PRIM’s old policy was to vote against or withhold a vote if less than 35% of the board was diverse in terms of race and gender combined.

The proposal for the policy changes was put forth by Massachusetts State Treasurer Deborah Goldberg and recommended by a PRIM subcommittee.

“Every major corporation in America is seeking advice on how to actually implement real diversity initiatives, including their suppliers, including the other companies that they work with,” Goldberg said, according to State House News Service. “And so we are on a trend and leading as we should be for Massachusetts.”

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In addition to the new board diversity policy, the pension fund also added a new policy that requires at least 20% of a company’s employees be diverse in terms of race and at least 20% of employees of a company to be diverse in terms of gender. PRIM will also require that at least 20% of suppliers, contractors, and vendors used by a company be minority-owned businesses, and that at least 20% of suppliers, contractors, and vendors used by a company be woman-owned businesses.

Additionally, PRIM said it will support shareholder proposals requiring companies to guarantee health insurance coverage, as well as offer hazard pay or overtime pay for essential workers during a pandemic.

PRIM’s decision comes as institutional investors have increasingly used their influence to require the companies they invest in to improve diversity on their workforces and corporate boards.

In January, a group of more than a dozen consulting firms overseeing more than $4 trillion in assets formed a diversity coalition called the Institutional Investing Diversity Cooperative that called for more transparent data on diversity from investment teams. And in October, a group of more than 30 Canadian institutional investors with approximately $2.3 trillion in assets pledged to monitor the diversity and inclusion practices of Canadian public companies in their portfolios.

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