NYU has named Kathleen E. Jacobs as Chief Investment Officer. Ms. Jacobs will be responsible for the investment of NYU’s $3.5 billion endowment, working in close consultation with the Investment Committee of the Board of Trustees and NYU’s Executive Vice President for Finance and IT. She will begin work at NYU in August.
NYU today announced it has named Kathleen E. Jacobs as Chief Investment Officer. Ms. Jacobs will be responsible for the investment of NYU’s $3.5 billion endowment, working in close consultation with the Investment Committee of the Board of Trustees and NYU’s Executive Vice President for Finance and IT. She will begin work at NYU in August.
Ms. Jacobs comes to NYU from her role as Managing Director in the Office of Investments at New York-Presbyterian Hospital, where over the last seven years she had a leading role in asset allocation and the selection of fund managers.
Joel S. Ehrenkranz, chair of the Board’s Investment Committee, said, “We are very pleased to have Kathleen Jacobs join the University as CIO. She impressed us with her good judgment, her equanimity, her record of successes, and her experience with the kind of strategies and assets that are relevant to the management of NYU’s endowment. This is an important role – the CIO must manage an endowment that serves not only the University community of today, but countless generations to come. We believe that vital responsibility will be in good hands with Kathleen Jacobs at the helm.”
Ms. Jacobs commented, “I am pleased to be joining NYU. The University is recognized as one of the world’s great institutions of higher education – innovative, dynamic, and diverse. I look forward to doing my part through the management of the endowment to help NYU sustain its academic momentum and global reputation for excellence.”
Since 2002, NYU’s endowment has tripled in size. NYU’s endowment was ranked 27th overall among colleges and universities, but 174th in terms of per-student-endowment, based on the NACUBO survey of 811 university endowments as of June 30, 2014. NYU’s endowment is largely invested through investment managers, with 45 percent of its assets in equities and equity-like investments, 11 percent in fixed income, and 44 percent in alternative and real assets. Spendable income from the endowment makes up about four percent of NYU’s annual budget.
A 1998 graduate of Bucknell University, prior to joining New York-Presbyterian Hospital, Ms. Jacobs worked at J.P. Morgan, Goldman Sachs, and the Juilliard School’s investment office.