Ken Lee Named Caltech CIO | Chief Investment Officer

Ken Lee

The California Institute of Technology has named Ken Lee as CIO, Caltech president Thomas Rosenbaum announced Wednesday, in charge of the university’s $4.5 billion endowment.

Lee has been CIO of the Children’s Medical Center Foundation, the $2 billion endowment of Children’s Health, a Dallas-based hospital network, since 2020. Caltech began searching in October 2024 for a successor to former CIO Scott Richland, who retired in December 2024. Doug MacBean, senior managing director for investments, has served as interim CIO since Richland’s retirement.

“Ken’s broad experience across the financial sector, demonstrated success as an investment manager, idealism about and commitment to university values, and appreciation of what makes Caltech special, make him a wonderful fit,” said Rosenbaum in a statement. “We look forward to welcoming Ken to a leadership role at the Institute.”

As Caltech CIO from 2010 until his retirement, Richland grew the assets of the endowment to almost $4.6 billion from $1.6 billion, generating more than $2.7 billion in investment gains and distributing more than $2 billion to support the university.

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Lee, prior to his role at Children’s Health, was a managing director at the Carnegie Corp. of New York from 2008 to 2020. He earned a bachelor of arts degree in economics and East Asian studies from Yale University and an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

“We appreciate Ken’s contributions to Children’s Health throughout the past four years and wish him the best in his future endeavors,” a spokesperson for Children’s Health said via email. “As we move forward, we are actively conducting a nationwide search to fill the role of Chief Investment Officer to ensure continued support for our mission to make life better for children.”

As of the Caltech Investment Office’s fiscal year 2023 report, the fund allocated 26% of its investments to alternative securities, which includes hedge funds and credit, 25% to private equity and venture capital, 25% to global developed equities, 13% to real assets, 7% to emerging markets equities and 1% to global fixed income. The fund returned 9.9% in fiscal 2023 and 8.5% over the 10-year period ending June 30, 2023.