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Asset AllocationApril 18, 2024

Wellington Management Closes $385 Million Climate Innovation Investment Fund

The fund will primarily invest in late-venture and early-growth companies.

Wellington Management announced on Wednesday that it has closed a climate-focused investment fund with $385 million in commitments.

The fund, titled Climate Innovation I, is the firm’s first fund focused on investing in private companies mitigating climate change, a spokesperson for the firm told CIO. The firm plans for CIF I to invest in late-venture and early-stage growth companies that are developing software and other tech-enabled solutions, such as AI, data and analytics across multiple industries.

Wellington plans for the fund to invest in companies developing solutions to mitigate the effects of climate change within the energy transition, sustainable buildings, transportation, industrial automation, enterprise digitalization, consumer, and agricultural industries.

“For many years, climate solutions required trade-offs, but recent improvements and cost declines in technology around software, hardware, analytics, and connectivity mean today’s solutions are delivering meaningful cost savings and superior user experiences for businesses and consumers,” said Greg Wasserman, head of private climate investing at Wellington, in a press release.

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CIF I is Wellington’s fourth venture investment fund and part of the firm’s $8.5 billion private investing group, which makes venture capital and private credit investments across many industries. Limited partners in CIF I include a number of allocators, such as sovereign wealth funds and insurers.

Notre Dame CIO Mike Donovan to Retire

Donovan will be succeeded by Tim Dolezal in the CIO role.

By Matt Toledo

Photo: Matt Cashore/University of Notre Dame

Long time Notre Dame CIO Mike Donovan will retire this year, a university spokesperson tells CIO. He will be succeeded by Tim Dolezal, managing director at Notre Dame’s investment office, who has been at the fund for 20 years.

Donovan will step down from his position at the end of the fiscal year on June 30.

Donovan, who is a member of CIO’s 2023 Power 100 list, was appointed CIO of Notre Dame in 2020, 23 years after joining the investment office. He succeeds Scott Malpass, who helmed the investment office as CIO for 32 years. The university’s investment office has a history of hiring alumni. Donovan, Malpass, and Dolezal are all graduates of the university.

Notre Dame’s endowment had $18.9 billion in assets as of fiscal year-end 2023, and has returned 1.3%, 13.1%, 10.7%, 10.5% and 10.7% annualized for the prior one, three, five, 10 and 20 years. The fund allocates 25.1% of its portfolio to public equity, 48% to private equity and 26.6% to multi-strategy investments, including fixed income and other diversifying assets that are uncorrelated to public markets.

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Previously, Donovan was a managing director of private equity at the investment office. He also practiced corporate law at Morgan, Lewis & Bockius.

Donovan holds a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in finance from Notre Dame, A J.D. from the UCLA School of Law, and a Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School.

Donovan is not the only high-profile university endowment CIO to announce their retirement this year. Andrew Golden, CIO of the Princeton University Investment Co., will also retire after 30 years with the fund.