Middle of the Fairway at the University of Rochester

Doug Phillips is the CIO of the University of Rochester, where he has overseen the school’s $2.6 billion endowment for twenty years. Doug’s two-decade tenure at Rochester constitutes only the back half of his work in the endowment world, as he previously managed Williams College’s endowment for fourteen years and started his career in the early eighties at Princeton.

Our conversation covers the history of Rochester’s endowment, the University’s broad stakeholders, asset allocation, manager sourcing, research process, investment committee, assessment of past decisions, and efforts to be a good partner to managers. We then dive into each asset class, touching on traditional equity, hedge funds, real assets, private equity and venture capital.