Helmsley Trust's Alts Chief Quits for OCIO Giant

Northern Trust has nabbed Bei Saville to lead its endowment and foundation outsourcing business.

Bei SavilleBei Saville, Northern Trust Multi-Manager SolutionsThe $5.7 billion Helmsley Charitable Trust has lost its head of alternatives to Northern Trust’s outsourced-CIO (OCIO) division, the corporation announced Monday. 

Bei Saville moved into the newly-created role of senior CIO for endowments and foundations (E&F), where she is charged with managing investment programs for E&F clients. 

Saville had spent five years at Helmsley, during which time the fund transitioned from a high-net worth portfolio into one of the country’s largest charitable foundations. 

“We started with $2 billion—and continuous inflows from the Helmsley estate—managed by JP Morgan’s private bank arm that needed a strategic investment plan, including private capital,” CIO Rosalind Hewsenian told CIO last year. “We didn’t want a lot of bottom-up investments that didn’t achieve the end goal when put together. So while we have people with specific areas of responsibility, everyone’s a generalist.”

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Prior to leading Helmsley’s alternatives allocations, Saville worked with the same asset classes as an investment manager for Pfizer. 

Her six-year stint as an institutional asset owner followed more than 15 years in the private sector, beginning as a real estate project manager for a Beijing-based developer and progressing on to a series of financial analyst positions. In 2009, Saville ended her prior tenure on Wall Street as a vice president with Morgan Stanley’s institutional portfolio management team. 

Josh Keshner, Northern Trust Asset Management’s managing director for nonprofits, called Saville a “seasoned multi-asset class investor” and “valuable addition” to the group. 

“Endowments and foundations need to balance two objectives: Protecting purchasing power over the long term and supporting steady distributions in the near term,” Kashner said. “Bei can work with E&F clients to develop sophisticated investment programs” according to institutional mission. 

Northern Trust’s OCIO unit managed $63.1 billion as of March 31, with an additional $43 billion under advisement. 

Related Content:Northern Trust Spins Off Entire Alts Operation & The Establishment’s Startup: Power 100 Profile of Helmsley’s CIO

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