Princeton needs to transition from growth to focus because long-term rates of return are steadily declining across university endowments. This decline has been hard to see because returns have been volatile. In other words, returns have not been a steady 8 percent or 10 percent; instead, they have been all over the map.
The fund is slated to discuss an RFP at its February board meeting after exploring the addition of new managers in 2017 and conducting a search for firms in 2015 that was ultimately placed on hold.
The university’s director of endowment investments recently retired after 15 years of service at the institution, which outsourced management of its portfolio last year.
The fund approved a recommendation from its general investment consultant to allow an existing real estate manager discretion to toggle between two different classes of stock to improve its return profile.
The foundation named the managing director of a nearby investment office as its next cio to complete a search initiated last year as the previous investment head left to join a family office firm.
The system hired a deputy cio in December and recently promoted the hire to cio as its previous investment head left after more than a decade in the role.