Modern Endowment Management: Paula Volent and the Bowdoin Endowment
By: and and
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- Synopsis
- This case examines modern endowment investment management through the lens of a leadership transition between Chief Investment Officers (CIOs). In March 2021, Paula Volent is about to step down as the CIO of the endowment of Bowdoin College after twenty-one years, and is preparing to meet with her successor, Niels Bryant, to plan for the transition. Under Volent's leadership, the endowment has grown from about $433 million to almost $1.8 billion while providing the college a consistent annual payout of between 4% and 5% of the value of the endowment to fund its operations. While returns have been exceptional under Volent's leadership (as compared for example to most other college and university endowments), she is acutely aware of the challenges ahead driven by capital markets conditions, including the persistently low level of real and nominal interest rates relative to history, high equity valuations, and the flow of assets into alternative asset classes. At the same time, colleges such as Bowdoin have become increasingly reliant on endowments in order to be able to offer admission the best students, regardless of their financial situation, as well as compensation and research budgets to attract the best faculty in a highly competitive environment. Without the support of a growing endowment, this cost inflation would require significant tuition increases and quite possibly cuts to financial aid. The case offers students ample opportunities to examine the link between the financial needs of an investor ("liabilities") and its assets, and to analyze how this translates into effective investment risk management, liquidity management, return targets and the tradeoff between risk and return, and portfolio structuring decisions. The case also provides opportunities to examine performance evaluation as well as strategies for manager selection in actively managed portfolio.
- Copyright:
- 2021
Book Details
- Book Quality:
- Publisher Quality
- Publisher:
- Harvard Business Publishing
- Date of Addition:
- 08/28/21
- Copyrighted By:
- HBS
- Adult content:
- No
- Language:
- English
- Has Image Descriptions:
- No
- Categories:
- Nonfiction, Business and Finance
- Submitted By:
- Bookshare Staff
- Usage Restrictions:
- This is a copyrighted book.
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