Columbia University Endowment CEO to Step Down

Peter Holland, Columbia Investment Management Company CEO and president, will retire as head of the $11 billion endowment effective Sept. 30, 2020, Columbia University said.

“It has been a privilege to steward the financial resources that make it possible for Columbia to expand access to students, recruit extraordinary faculty and broaden the University’s global impact,” Holland said in a statement. “Leading the IMC team and serving President Bollinger and our dedicated Trustees has been a unique and enormously rewarding experience.”

The announcement comes just a few months after the endowment’s CIO Tim Donahue left Columbia to become CIO of Hawaii’s Kamehameha Schools’ endowment; COO Sanjeev Daga left the endowment just over a year ago to join former Columbia endowment CIO Narv Narvekar at Harvard Management Company.

It also follows a dismal year for the endowment’s investment portfolio, which returned only 3.8% 2019 and underperformed every other Ivy League endowment.

Columbia President Lee Bollinger has appointed a committee to launch a national search for Holland’s successor. He said Andrew Barth, chairman of Columbia Investment Management Company, will serve on the search committee along with several current and previous trustees of the institution.

“For the past 17 years, Peter Holland has been integral to the growth of Columbia’s endowment and to securing long-term returns that place Columbia among the top of our peer group,” Barth said in a statement.

Holland has been a member of the executive team at Columbia Investment Management Company since 2003. Prior to joining Columbia, he worked at J.P. Morgan for 15 years, primarily in the US equities derivatives group, serving as co-head of the group from 1998 until joining Columbia.

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