Tom Joy is the Chief Investment Officer at the Church Commissioners of England, where he is responsible for the stewardship of the Church of England’s £10.1 billion endowment fund.

Our conversation covers Tom’s background, the history and goals of Church Commissioners to achieve sound returns with modest volatility and invest responsibly. We discuss Tom’s four pillars to achieve these objectives across governance, people, genuine diversification, and operations, and dive into team structure, internal management, external manager selection, responsible investing in the environment, diversification in public and private markets, new initiatives, and risks on the horizon.

Show Notes
3:25 Tom’s background
6:55 History of Church Commissioners
7:42 Investment goals
15:03 Governance
19:48 Team Structure
23:39 Internal vs. External management
28:31 Tactical asset allocation
29:36 External manager selection
31:16 Responsible investing
36:08 Divestment vs. engagement
39:45 Socially beneficial investing
40:40 Genuine diversification
43:25 Private equity and venture capital
46:49 Real assets
49:23 Credit markets
50:02 Hedge funds
50:43 New initiatives
51:44 Risks
53:31 Closing questions