Endowment Performance Rankings 2020 - Strange Days

Our 2020 endowment performance report features ten-year returns for one hundred and ten institutions — the latest available. We consider a ten-year span to be a rigorous and revealing measure of the strength of an institution’s oversight and long-term investment abilities.

However, as always, there are caveats.

Timing

Most endowments close their books for the fiscal year on June 30 then prepare for the auditors. Soon thereafter, usually in mid to late fall, the schools release preliminary performance results.

These numbers are “official” but Non-Time Matched because private market performance reporting – real estate, private equity, etc. – lags public market results by three to six months, and sometimes longer.

Usually, this does not matter because public and private market investments tend to move pretty much in sync.

However, in spring 2020 with covid on the loose, the June 30th fiscal close missed a big uptick in private market valuations because those numbers were not ready and therefore not reported to the investment offices. This hit big endowments hard, those with heavy allocations to alternatives.

Costs

Not all returns are equal.

Some schools report their numbers net of all costs including external management fees, internal office costs, and the endowment tax.

However, many endowments when computing their returns subtract external management fees but not office costs or the endowment tax.

Over a ten-year period that makes a difference.

Turnover

Turnover affects performance. Only about a third of the one hundred CIOs on our list have held the top investment position for ten years or more and they tend to have the best performance

For example, in our chart below, ten of our top fifteen endowments by 10-year performance had investment heads with ten years or more in tenure.

CEO/CIO Endowment Tenure as of June 30, 2020 Source: Charles Skorina & Company https://www.charlesskorina.com
10-yr rtn Rank	Institution	CEO/CIO	Start date	Years as CIO/CEO	10-year Rtn	AUM Billion
–	–	–	–	–	–	–
1	Bowdoin College	Volent, Paula J.	Jul2000	20	11.6	1.80
2	MIT	Alexander, Seth	Jun2006	15	11.4	18.40
3	Yale U	Swensen, David W.*	Apr1985	35	10.9	31.20
4	Princeton U	Golden, Andrew K.	Jan1995	25	10.6	26.60
5	Dartmouth College	Ruth, Alice A.	Apr2017	4	10.4	6.00
6	Williams College	Chilton, Collette	Oct2006	14	10.3	2.80
7	Brown U	Dietze, Jane	Dec2013	2	10.2	4.70
8	U Notre Dame	Malpass, Scott C.	Aug1988	32	10.2	12.30
9	U Virginia	Durden, Robert	Apr2018	3	10.1	9.90
10	Carnegie Mellon U	Kennedy, Charles A.	Dec2007	10	9.7	2.10
11	Rockefeller U	Falls, Amy	Apr2011	10	9.6	2.30
12	Wesleyan University	Martin, Anne	Aug2010	11	9.6	1.10
13	Wellesley College	Kuenster, Debby	Feb2009	12	9.5	2.29
14	Stanford University	Wallace, Robert F.	Jul2015	5	9.3	30.30
15	University of Pennsylvania	Ammon, Peter H.	Jul2013	7	9.3	14.90

*David W. Swensen, died May 5, 2021. BA, U Wisconsin-River Falls, ’75, Yale University MA and Ph.D. ’80

It takes years to fully implement a multi-asset, multi-generational investment strategy and altering course mid-stream – a new investment chair or a change in CIOs – can sap performance for a decade.

Staff Matters

It’s not just a CIO that makes a difference. An investment staff researches, culls, presents, and monitors themes and opportunities. Their focus is on the external world of investments and returns.

Kim Lew, Columbia University’s CIO gave us an excellent breakdown of roles and responsibilities in our interview with her last September. A must read.

Institutional investing is a group effort. We recruit investment heads for a living and speak from experience when we say that the best investors have the best staffs.

One More Thing: Women are Killing It!

Take a look at our next chart showing endowments performance for ten, five, and one-years. Seven of the top fourteen chief investment officers in each category are women including the number ones. Just saying . . .

Women in Finance Top 15 endowment chief investment officers 10-year, 5-year, 1-year returns as of June 30, 2020 Source: Charles Skorina & Company https://www.charlesskorina.com
–	CEO/CIO	10-yr rtn %	–	CEO/CIO	5-yr rtn %	–	CEO/CIO	1-yr rtn %
–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
1	Volent, Paula J. Bowdoin College	11.60	1	Dietze, Jane Brown U	9.80	1	Dietze, Jane Brown U	12.10
2	Alexander, Seth MIT	11.40	2	Alexander, Seth MIT	9.00	2	Falls, Amy Rockefeller U	10.70
3	Swensen, David W.* Yale U	10.90	3	Volent, Paula J. Bowdoin College	8.50	3	Wilson, Scott Washington U	9.90
4	Golden, Andrew K. Princeton U	10.60	4	Falls, Amy Rockefeller U	8.50	4	Harris, Britt UTIMCO	9.50
5	Ruth, Alice A. Dartmouth College	10.40	5	Swensen, David W.* Yale U	7.85	5	Martin, Anne Wesleyan U	8.80
6	Chilton, Collette Williams College	10.30	6	Ruth, Alice A. Dartmouth College	7.80	6	Kuenster, Debby Wellesley College	8.80
7	Dietze, Jane Brown U	10.20	7	Harris, Britt UTIMCO	7.80	7	Alexander, Seth MIT	8.30
8	Malpass, Scott C. U of Notre Dame	10.20	8	Golden, Andrew K. Princeton U	7.70	8	Ruth, Alice A. Dartmouth College	7.60
9	Durden, Robert U of Virginia	10.10	9	Chilton, Collette Williams College	7.70	9	Malpass, Scott C. U of Notre Dame	7.40
10	Kennedy, Charles A. Carnegie Mellon U	9.70	10	Malpass, Scott C. U of Notre Dame	7.70	10	Dinneen, Anne Hamilton College	7.30
11	Falls, Amy Rockefeller U	9.60	11	Kuenster, Debby Wellesley C	7.60	11	Narvekar, Narv * Harvard U	7.30
12	Martin, Anne Wesleyan U	9.60	12	Martin, Anne Wesleyan U	7.40	12	McLean, William M. Northwestern U	7.10
13	Kuenster, Debby Wellesley C	9.50	13	Kennedy, Charles A. Carnegie Mellon U	7.30	13	Swensen, David W.* Yale U	6.80
14	Wallace, Robert F. Stanford U	9.30	14	Wallace, Robert F. Stanford U	7.10	14	Johnson, Letitia Amherst C	6.60
15	Ammon, Peter H. U of Pennsylvania	9.30	15	Wilson, Scott Washington U	7.10	15	Pulavarti, “Srini” Emory U	6.35
–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–

*David W. Swensen, died May 5, 2021. BA, U Wisconsin-River Falls, ’75, Yale University MA and Ph.D. ’8

And now, on to our 2020 Endowment big list with one hundred and ten colleges and universities (eighty-seven over one-billion AUM and twenty-three under one-billion) ranked by 10-year performance as of June 30, 2020.

We think our list highlights what the best institutional investors are capable of achieving in a specific period, but we remind our readers that there’s much more to the story.

Every school has its own endowment payout rate and tolerance for risk. Some schools rely heavily on income, others place more weight on growing the principal.

The job of the investment staff is not to beat Yale, it’s to meet the objectives set by the board.

— Charles Skorina

Endowment Performance 2020 Ranked by 10-year returns as of June 30, 2020 Source: Charles Skorina & Company https://www.charlesskorina.com
10-yr Rank	Institution	Head of Investments (x CIO turnover 2020)	10-yr Rtn%	5-yr Rtn%	1-yr Rtn%	AUM $ billions
–	S&P 500	–	14.0	–	–	–
1	Bowdoin College	Volent, Paula J.	11.60	8.50	5.90	1.80
2	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	Alexander, Seth	11.40	9.00	8.30	18.40
3	Yale University	Swensen, David W.*	10.90	7.85	6.80	31.20
4	Princeton University	Golden, Andrew K.	10.60	7.70	5.60	26.60
5	Dartmouth College	Ruth, Alice A.	10.40	7.80	7.60	6.00
6	Williams College	Chilton, Collette	10.30	7.70	3.30	2.80
7	Brown University	Dietze, Jane	10.20	9.80	12.10	4.70
8	University of Notre Dame	Donovan, Michael x Malpass, Scott C.	10.20	7.70	7.40	12.32
9	University of Virginia	Durden, Robert	10.10	6.60	5.30	9.90
10	Carnegie Mellon University	Kennedy, Charles A.	9.70	7.30	5.40	2.10
11	Rockefeller University	Falls, Amy	9.60	8.50	10.70	2.30
12	Wesleyan University	Martin, Anne	9.60	7.40	8.80	1.10
13	Wellesley College	Kuenster, Debby	9.50	7.60	8.80	2.29
14	Stanford University	Wallace, Robert F.	9.30	7.10	5.60	30.30
15	University of Pennsylvania	Ammon, Peter H.	9.30	7.00	3.40	14.90
16	Colorado College	Moore, Robert C.	9.30	5.91	3.00	0.80
17	Rice University	Thacker, Alison K.	9.30	6.50	-0.70	6.48
18	Amherst College	Johnson, Letitia	9.20	7.00	6.60	3.15
19	Swarthmore College	Amstutz, Mark C.	9.20	6.90	3.30	2.10
20	Columbia University	Lew, Kim Y. x Holland, Peter	9.10	6.11	5.50	11.30
21	Duke University	Triplett, Neal F.	9.10	5.93	0.70	8.50
22	Pennsylvania State University	Cullen, Joseph M.	9.00	6.50	5.70	4.60
23	Grinnell College	Thayer, Jainen “JT”	9.00	7.30	5.10	2.1
24	University of Oklahoma Fdn	Johnson, Bradley	8.92	6.48	3.93	1.37
25	U of California Regents	Bachher, Jagdeep S.	8.90	6.60	5.00	14.00
26	Denison University	Browne, Kathleen	8.90	5.90	4.80	0.91
27	Washington U St. Louis	Wilson, Scott	8.80	7.10	9.90	8.50
28	Hamilton College	Dinneen, Anne	8.80	6.10	7.30	1.02
29	Colby College	Shufrin, Deborah x Hugh O’Donnell	8.80	6.50	3.80	0.88
30	Stetson University	Alexander, Jr., John C. (Sr Investment Advisor)	8.70	6.60	5.40	0.30
31	University of Michigan	Lundberg, Erik	8.60	6.20	2.30	12.50
32	Northwestern University	McLean, William M.	8.60	6.60	7.10	11.13
33	McGill University	Leblanc, Sophie	8.60	5.00	1.70	1.66
34	Clemson University Fdn	Alexander, Jr., John C.	8.60	6.20	2.50	0.75
35	Emory	Pulavarti, Srinivas “Srini”	8.58	6.58	6.35	7.94
36	University of North Carolina	King, Jonathon	8.50	6.30	2.30	3.64
37	University of Rochester	Phillips, Douglas W.	8.50	6.10	3.70	2.60
38	University of Arkansas Fdn	Cambridge Associates (OCIO)	8.50	6.40	2.90	1.90
39	University of Minnesota (OIB)	Mason, Stuart	8.50	5.50	0.20	1.42
40	University of Western Ontario	Bélanger, Martin	8.50	5.71	1.07	0.59
41	University of Colorado	Agility (OCIO)	8.43	6.66	4.20	1.90
42	UC San Diego	Committee/ Verus	8.40	6.20	5.00	0.89
43	Boston College	Zona, John J.	8.40	5.60	4.20	2.60
44	North Carolina State University	George, Libby P.	8.40	6.20	2.10	1.42
45	Claremont McKenna & Harvey Mudd Colleges	Floyd, James	8.40	5.48	1.90	1.30
46	University of Alberta	Ritter, Ronald	8.40	5.30	-2.50	1.42
47	Michigan State University	Zecher, Philip	8.30	6.90	5.10	3.10
48	Phillips Academy Andover	Glantz, Kirsten Landers	8.30	6.00	3.30	1.13
49	University of Toronto	Smith, Daren M.	8.30	5.60	2.20	2.30
50	Colgate University	Hope, Joseph	8.20	5.80	4.20	0.95
51	U of Southern California	Diamond, Amy x Lisa Mazzocco	8.20	5.30	2.60	5.91
52	University of Minnesota Fdn	Gorence, Douglas J.	8.20	6.00	1.60	2.50
53	Pomona College	Wallace, Dave	8.20	5.10	1.00	2.25
54	Harvard University	Narvekar, Narv	8.18	5.90	7.30	41.90
55	Tulane University	Chau, Richard x Crigler, Jeremy	8.10	6.30	2.60	1.06
56	Texas Christian University	Hille, James R.	8.09	5.60	3.62	1.60
57	UofTx/ Tx A&M U (UTIMCO)	Harris, Britt	8.00	7.80	9.50	38.30
58	Drexel University	Ulozas, Catherine	7.95	6.52	2.24	0.80
59	University of Pittsburgh	x Greg Schuler	7.94	5.14	0.71	4.09
60	Tufts University	Smith, Craig W. Dungan, Sally*	7.90	6.30	3.70	1.70
61	University of Missouri System	Richards, Thomas F.	7.90	5.90	1.20	1.70
62	University of Oregon	Engelbert, Volker	7.90	5.30	1.40	0.93
63	Villanova University	McAndrew, Shane P.	7.80	5.90	4.60	0.80
64	University of Washington	Ferguson, Keith	7.80	5.50	1.10	3.60
65	Johns Hopkins University	Perlioni, Jason T.	7.80	5.70	3.70	6.75
66	West Virginia University Fdn	Kraich, Rick	7.76	6.08	5.43	1.80
67	University of Chicago	Schmid, Mark A.	7.70	5.50	3.20	8.60
68	Marquette University	Gissal, Sean	7.70	4.90	0.90	0.69
69	University of British Columbia	Jia, Dawn	7.70	5.00	-1.20	1.67
70	University of Georgia	Bull, Jason	7.60	5.20	1.60	1.30
71	Trinity University	Crow, Craig	7.60	5.60	1.10	1.28
72	Indiana University	Stratten, Gary A.	7.60	4.30	-1.90	2.20
73	University of Tennessee System	Mecherle, Rip	7.60	6.30	-2.60	1.00
74	Cornell University	Miranda, Kenneth	7.50	5.20	1.90	7.20
75	UC Los Angeles	Barton, Justin	7.50	5.04	0.52	4.00
76	Rutgers SUNJ	MacDonald, Jason	7.50	5.30	0.21	1.40
77	Arizona State University Foundation	Mindlin, Jeffrey	7.44	5.89	4.81	0.96
78	Texas A&M University	Pia, Michael	7.41	5.59	0.81	1.95
79	Washington & Lee University	Makena (OCIO)	7.40	5.40	3.20	1.20
80	UC Berkeley	McAuliffe, David	7.40	5.20	2.20	2.12
81	University of Kansas	Clarke, James G.	7.40	5.40	0.40	1.60
82	University of Cincinnati	Scheer, Karl	7.40	4.80	-1.90	1.40
83	Virginia Tech University	Ward, Daniel A.	7.30	3.60	-5.00	1.20
84	University of Illinois Fdn	Ellison, Ellen J.	7.30	4.40	-1.10	1.90
85	Iowa State University Foundation	Inv Committee & CA	7.30	4.9	1.20	0.96
86	Purdue Research foundation	Cooper, David C.	7.30	4.50	-0.07	2.59
87	UC San Francisco	Harkins, David	7.20	5.50	5.30	2.00
88	University of Florida	Reeser, William S.	7.20	5.60	3.70	1.90
89	University of Toledo	Welch, Donna	7.20	3.10	-1.70	0.54
90	Kansas State University	Cox, Lois	7.10	4.97	2.60	0.67
91	University of Iowa	Bethea, Jim	7.10	3.00	-6.00	1.51
92	Lehigh University	Agatone, Kristin	7.00	5.90	0.70	1.40
93	University of Miami	Maynard, Charmel	6.99	4.74	2.05	1.05
94	Georgia Institute of Technology	Pellegrino, Brian	6.90	5.50	2.60	1.81
95	Case Western Reserve University	Milanich, Tim R.	6.90	5.50	1.30	1.90
96	University of New Mexico	Investment Committee	6.90	4.50	-0.20	0.44
97	Bucknell University	Motto, Angela	6.80	4.66	0.80	0.85
98	Southern Methodist University	Dahiya, Rakesh	6.72	4.25	0.95	1.60
99	University of Nebraska	Neale, Brian	6.70	3.70	-1.30	1.70
100	Haverford College	Casel, Mike	6.70	4.03	-1.30	0.50
101	Vanderbilt University	Hall, Anders	6.60	5.07	-0.10	6.90
102	University of Kentucky	Shupp, Todd	6.60	3.90	-1.00	1.51
103	University of Hawaii	Wo, C. Scott Invest Committee Chair	6.60	4.40	-0.90	0.34
104	Ohio State University	Srinivasan, Vish x Lane, John	6.50	4.00	1.10	5.29
105	William and Mary College	Hiestand, F. Brian	6.50	4.60	0.50	1.00
106	University of Massachusetts	Gibbons, Jonathan	6.30	5.07	3.30	0.92
107	University of Utah	Shear, Jonathan	6.11	4.12	0.70	1.42
108	Texas Tech University	Barrett, Tim	6.09	5.24	1.15	1.20
109	University of Arizona	Kelly, Steve	5.90	3.20	-3.00	0.87
110	Miami University	Strategic Investment Group (OCIO)	5.80	3.50	0.90	0.54
–	–	–	–	–	–	–

*David W. Swensen, died May 5, 2021. BA, U Wisconsin-River Falls, ’75, Yale University MA and Ph.D. ’80

*Sally Dungan died April 12, 2020. BA, French literature, Pomona College ‘75, MA, Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, California ’78

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The Skorina Letter

Each issue explores how the world’s most accomplished asset managers think and invest. Original content includes profiles and interviews with industry veterans and research on compensation and investment performance.

Our insights and commentary come from our clients – board members, CEOs, chief investment officers – and the global investment community within which we work as executive search professionals.

Institutional investors operate at the crossroads of capital, talent, and ideas, shepherding over seventy trillion dollars in global assets. It’s a constantly evolving spectacle and The Skorina Letter gives readers a ringside seat.

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