Kenneth MirandaCornell University’s endowment has tapped former director of
the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) investment office as its new CIO.
Kenneth Miranda will manage Cornell’s $6 billion portfolio starting July 1, the university announced Wednesday.
He replaces the Ivy League school’s most recent CIO AJ Edwards, who stepped down at the end of March. Edwards was the third CIO to resign in the last six years.
“[Miranda] is a results-driven professional with dynamic strategies that will ensure our endowment grows in depth and breadth as it maintains the stability required to support our educational and engagement mission,” said Michael Kotlikoff, Cornell provost and acting president.
The new CIO has been a member of the university board of trustees’ investment committee since 2012, and will be reporting to the chair of the committee as well as Cornell CFO Joanne DeStefano.
Upon taking the new role, Miranda said he will aim to “globalize the return streams of the endowment,” according to the press release.
“I tend to look at big changes, big themes, to identify market inefficiencies, growth bottlenecks, and forced selling pressure that tend to generate the environment for outsized returns,” Miranda said. “At the same time, I’m very focused on managing risk and the downside protection of the portfolio through quantitative techniques.”
Miranda joined the IMF in 1986, and has been leading its investment office since 2000. He currently serves as a member of the IMF Food and Agriculture Organization’s advisory committee on investments.
Previously, Miranda served as president of the Bank-Fund Staff Federal Credit Union, and was a senior adviser on George Washington University’s investment committee.
He holds a PhD in economics from the University of Chicago and a bachelor of science in foreign service from Georgetown University.
“We are fortunate to hire someone of Ken’s caliber,” Kotlikoff said. “Cornell’s endowment is in very good hands.”
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