Synopses & Reviews
Even if you've read almost every investment book there is, you've never read anything like
Outperform: Inside the Investment Strategy of Billion Dollar Endowments.In Outperform, authors John Baschab and Jon Piot have written an approachable, pragmatic guide for individual investors who want to understand the proven investment strategies of large academic endowments and enhance the performance of their portfolios. It provides a unique look into the world of endowment investing through extensive and exclusive interviews with current and former Chief Investment Officers of leading endowments at both public and private universities—such as the Ohio State University, University of Texas, Cornell University, and Emory University—that have a total of over $125 billion in assets under management.
Divided into three informative parts, the book:
Reveals the relatively unknown techniques, strategies, organization, and philosophy of academic endowments
Defines the specific practices and tools used by top endowments in making investment decisions, including asset allocation, manager evaluation, and alternative investment selection
Highlights key differences between individual and institutional investors that dictate different approaches in investment philosophy
Outperform: Inside the Investment Strategy of Billion Dollar Endowments not only provides investors with invaluable insight from the endowment world's elite money managers, but also details how they consistently beat the market, all while translating their strategies into advice that will benefit the individual investor.
Synopsis
"University endowment managers have generally outperformed the market benchmarks. However, their knowledge has not been well documented in any book. This book fills that gap and should be of significant help to all those who want to learn from extensive interviews with a number of endowment managers."
—PREM JAIN, McDonough Professor of Accounting and Finance, Georgetown University
Learn how higher education's largest endowments consistently achieve higher investment returns than the overall market.
The Chief Investment Officers who oversee the top academic endowment funds manage over $400 billion in total assets. Over the last ten years (1999–2009), large endowments returned an average of 6.1%, compared to the S&P 500 index average of –2.22%, an outperformance difference of over 8%. With the recent sharp economic downturn, and a decade of inflation-adjusted flat returns in the overall equities market, institutional and individual investors alike are looking to endowments for proven strategies for improving the performance of their portfolios. Outperform: Inside the Investment Strategy of Billion Dollar Endowments interviews top CIOs from leading endowments, to detail how they consistently outperform the market, what they predict for the coming years, and how small investors can employ their investment philosophies.
About the Author
JOHN BASCHAB is Senior Vice President at Technisource, a leading business services company and a division of SFN Group. He was a cofounder and president of consulting services at Impact Innovations Group before successfully selling the company to Technisource in 2005. After receiving his MBA with honors from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, Baschab worked as a technology consultant to Fortune 500 companies in the Chicago office of management consultancy Booz & Company. He began his career at AT&T following graduation from the University of Alabama. John is an adjunct professor at Southern Methodist University.
JON PIOT received a bachelor of science from Southern Methodist University and an MBA from Harvard Business School. He began his career at Andersen Consulting (now Accenture) and provided consulting services to Fortune 500 companies at management consultancy Booz-Allen Hamilton. As co-founder and CEO of Impact Innovations Group, Jon led the sale of Impact Innovations to Technisource in 2005 and was part of the executive team responsible for the sale of Technisource to Spherion Corp. He is currently the managing partner at Redpoint Capital, a private equity investment group, and an adjunct professor at Southern Methodist University.
Table of Contents
Preface ix
Acknowledgments xiii
PART I ACADEMIC ENDOWMENTS
Chapter 1 Academic Endowments Overview 3
The World of Endowments 4
History of Endowments 6
Academic Endowments in the Context of the Investment World 7
Large Academic Endowments 7
Implications for Individual Investors 17
Summary 19
Notes 20
Chapter 2 Historical Endowment Performance 21
Investment Returns 22
Asset Allocation 28
Summary 30
Notes 31
Chapter 3 A Look Inside Endowments 33
Endowments Are Different 33
Endowments Define Asset Classes Broadly 35
Endowments Achieved a One-time Sophistication Improvement 36
Endowments Are Nimble 36
Endowments are Evaluating Approaches to Managing Tail Risk 37
Endowments also Manage Working Capital 38
Endowments Manage Liquidity Carefully 39
Endowments are Changing their Approach to Performance Measurement 41
Summary 41
PART II PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES
Chapter 4 Jonathan Hook, Chief Investment Officer
The Ohio State University 45
Chapter 5 Guy Patton, President and CEO
The University of Oklahoma Foundation 57
Chapter 6 Bruce Zimmerman, Chief Investment Officer University of Texas Investment Management Company 69
PART III PRIVATE UNIVERSITIES
Chapter 7 James H.C. Walsh, Chief Investment Officer Cornell University 81
Chapter 8 Sally J. Staley, Chief Investment Officer, and Anjum Hussain, Director of Risk Management Case Western Reserve University 95
Chapter 9 Mary Cahill, Vice President of Investments and Chief Investment Officer
Emory University 113
Chapter 10 Don Lindsey, Chief Investment Officer
George Washington University 125
Chapter 11 Scott W. Wise, President
Rice Management Company 141
Chapter 12 James (Jim) Hille, Chief Investment Officer
Texas Christian University 153
Chapter 13 Jeremy Crigler, Chief Investment Officer
Tulane University 167
PART IV ADVISORS AND MANAGERS
Chapter 14 Sandy Urie, President and Chief Executive Officer, and Celia Dallas, Co-Director of Research and Managing Director
Cambridge Associates 181
Chapter 15 Lyn Hutton, Chief Investment Officer
Commonfund 199
Chapter 16 Thruston Morton, CEO and Chief Investment Officer
Global Endowment Management 217
Chapter 17 Mark W. Yusko, CEO and Chief Investment Officer
Morgan Creek Capital Management 231
Chapter 18 Rafe de la Gueronniere, Principal
New Providence Asset Management 247
Chapter 19 Bob Boldt, Chief Executive Officer
Boldt Ventures 267
Conclusion Concepts for Individual Investors 281
Lessons for Individual Investors 281
Trends 288
Predictions for Endowments 292
Summary 294
Glossary 297
About the Authors 307
Index 309