Doug Phillips
The University of Rochester announced on Thursday the retirement of Doug Phillips, its senior vice president and CIO. Phillips, whose retirement is effective September 30, joined the university in 2000.
Phillips oversees the investments of the university in Rochester, New York, including its $3.7 billion long-term investment pool (mostly consisting of the university endowment) and $300 million in pension plans. He is also the chairman of the university’s retirement plan committee, which oversees a $7.8 billion defined contribution plan that has 42,000 participants.
“Doug has selflessly dedicated his heart, soul, and extraordinary competence for the benefit of our University of Rochester,” said Rich Handler, chair of the university’s board of trustees and the CEO of Jefferies Group LLC, in a statement. “He has displayed consistent and keen investment insight, disciplined stewardship, and constant focus on long-term results.
“His ability to ignore the tremendous noise that occurs in every market dislocation and focus entirely on backing the highest quality managers and the right diversification strategy for our endowment has strengthened our university tremendously.”
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Phillip’s successor will be named in the coming weeks, according to the university announcement. Naveen Nataraj, a university trustee and its investment committee chair, as well as the co-head of investment banking at Evercore, has chaired the search.
As of June 30, 2024, the University of Rochester endowment allocated 35.9% of its assets to public equity, 27.4% to private equity, 23.9% to hedge funds, 9% to fixed income and cash and 27.4% to real estate. In fiscal 2024, the endowment returned 9.5%, and it has returned 1.1%, 8.7% and 7.4% over the past three, five and 10 years, respectively.
“It has been a wonderful privilege for me to work at the University of Rochester, which is an organization with such a rich and unique history,” Phillips said in a statement. “I am thankful for the opportunity to serve the people of the University of Rochester and for the wisdom and sage advice provided by our trustees, colleagues in the Investment Office, and many friends in the investment community.”
Prior to joining the University of Rochester in 2000, Phillips oversaw the investments of the Williams College endowment as treasurer for 14 years. He was also previously manager of investment administration at Princeton University.
Phillips also founded and chaired the $4 billion investment committee of the Medical Center Insurance Co., which provides malpractice insurance for Rochester University’s medical professionals.
He is currently a member of the investment committee of the John Templeton Foundation and has previously served on the investment committees of the American Red Cross and the New York State Common Retirement Fund.
Phillips earned a bachelor’s degree from Rutgers University and an MBA from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
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