Kresge Foundation Seeking Investment Director

The Kresge Foundation, which provides grants to low-income communities and manages more than $4 billion, is seeking an investment director who will focus on public market investments, according to a job posting.

The 100-year-old organization deploys grants and social impact investments across arts and culture, education, environment, health, human services and community development. The foundation’s CIO is John Barker.

The candidate will report to the fund’s managing director of public markets. Requirements for the position include a bachelor’s degree, with a preference for a master’s degree and a Chartered Financial Analyst charter, a minimum of eight years of experience, a proven investment track record through market cycles, and experience in manager selection and portfolio construction.

“The Investment Director will be responsible for evaluating, recommending and monitoring investment opportunities across public markets (global equity, marketable alternatives, credit) and ensuring the robust portfolio construction of at least one asset class while working collaboratively with the entire team to protect and grow the endowment in a manner that is consistent with the Foundation’s mission,” the job posting states.

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According to the posting, the starting salary for the Troy, Michigan-based position will be at least $249,600, but could vary based on the candidate’s experience. The job posting lists an application deadline of midnight on July 25.

The endowment, which measures its performance over market cycles of at least five years, reported an annualized 6.2% return for the five years ending December 31, 2022. That year, the fund approved 550 grants, totaling $162.8 million, and made $38 million in commitments across 13 social investments.

Physical gold is heavy to handle—a standard gold bar weighs almost 28 pounds—but it sure can take wing. Gold has been dazzling investors for a long while this century, up almost nine-fold since 2000, while the S&P 500 rose 3.6 times. This year, gold is up 17.7%, to $2,452 per ounce, almost even with the rallying stock index (which has risen 18.1%). Still, perversely, gold can be volatile, tumbling very quickly, as good economic news can be bad news for the metal’s price.

Gold does best when inflation is rising, the economy is falling, or some other turbulence appears. From 2013 through 2019, it dipped by one-third amid low inflation and strong economic growth. Right after the Federal Reserve started hiking interest rates in March 2022, gold slipped again (higher rates are appealing to bond investors, who therefore ditch gold, which pays zero interest).

But bullion surged anew starting in October 2023 amid talk of a possible recession and rate cuts, along with strong demand for gold by Chinese and emerging-market central banks, as a hedge against the strong dollar.

To George Milling-Stanley, chief gold strategist at State Street Global Advisors, all the fluctuations are worth it because of gold’s long-term record: “The longer the time horizon, the better,” he says in an interview.

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Institutional investors hold gold in many forms: the bars themselves, shares of gold mining companies, exchange-traded funds and other pools. Endowments, such as those of the University of Notre Dame and the University of West Virginia, are notable gold owners. So are pension funds like the Ohio Public Employees Retirement System and the Teacher Retirement System of Texas.

As of June 30, OPERS gold holdings were $858 million, up from $745 million six months before. That is a just a small part of the fund’s $114 billion in assets.

Similarly, Texas Teachers has $13.6 million in gold investments out of $186 billion in total assets. Indeed, the gold figure had dropped from a higher figure, when Texas Teachers sold $33 million in stock of NovaGold Resources, a Canadian gold mining company, in this year’s first quarter.

Gold is just a minor part of most allocators’ portfolios. “It’s good for diversification; it’s a protective asset,” says Milling-Stanley of State Street, which recommends that clients maintain between 2% and 5% of their holdings in gold, a higher percentage than either OPERS or Texas Teachers owns.

Regardless of the allocation size, the point is that gold, whether in bars, miner stocks or other investments, has a staying power. After all, it is the oldest asset around, dating back to biblical times. As the 119th Psalm noted, only the Ten Commandments trump gold in the eyes of God: “I love your commandments above gold.”

Kresge Foundation Seeking Investment Director

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