Customer Reviews

Foundation and Endowment Investing: Philosophies and Strategies of Top Investors and Institutions (Wiley Finance)

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Starting with the thorough introduction, this book taught me volumes about foundation investing. I sit on a foundation board, and I feel much more comfortable with investment policy discussions now! I recommend this book and have loaned my copy out to our executive director.

Authors Larry Kochard and Cathleen Rittereiser have published an instructive and rare look behind the scenes of a collection of elite endowments and foundations. Their important text enhances and expands the good work of David Swensen in "Pioneering Portfolio Management" by revealing the thoughts and investment processes of a dozen accomplished Chief Investment Officers. "Foundation & Investment Investing" will be valuable for a broad universe of readers including CIOs, board members, investment staff professionals, portfolio managers and analysts, fund marketing professionals, business professors and their students, and individual investors. As foundation and endowment investment offices can be challenging to understand, I have bought additional copies for my colleagues in our equity hedge fund. I have also bought copies for a few individual investors who have asked for my guidance on managing their retirement portfolios in this increasingly volatile and complex investment environment. The final chapter observes that the CIOs interviewed are "all likable people". I agree, and enjoyed the sharp and candid insights of each of the CIOs. The interviews with Mark Yusko and Alice Handy were particularly enjoyable and instructive.

As CIO of Georgetown University and investment management executive of Alternative Asset Managers, respectively, the authors' historical perspectives and informed commentary are interesting, and their organizations are lucky to have them.

I hope Kochard and Rittereiser are interviewing another dozen CIOs for a sequel to this excellent and important investment management book!

"Foundation and Endowment Investing" by Larry Kochard (himself a top Chief Investment Officer) and Cathleen Rittereiser is a very well written and valuable book. While providing an excellent general overview of how the investment landscape has changed for some of the most innovative investors today, I found the most interesting and valuable section to be the profiles of 12 of the top endowment and foundation CIOs. The authors obviously spent hours interviewing and gaining insights from these titans of the investing world, resulting in a very readable and valuable book.

Clearly Kochard and Rittereiser know how to ask CIOs important questions as they themselves are insiders in the foundation/endowment field. Their years of industry experience and network with these accomplished CIOs has made reading their book an eye-opening experience. The interviews are conducted with highest quality that are conducive to bringing out sharpest, practical and candid observations by these industry-recognized CIOs. I also think that the writing is sharp and clear-cut that help to drive home key takeaways for readers . Many investment professionals, whether or not working in the endowment/foundation field will benefit from reading the book to have a grasp of today's fast-changing and more complexed global investing. I do hope to see sequels from the two authors as they have proven to work together so well.

This is an excellent and enjoyable text on investment policy and practice for endowments and foundations. I recommend it for any student or practitioner of institutional investments, whether they are focused on endowments or elsewhere. We all have something to learn from the wit and wisdom of this book.

Many investment books are either are too simplistic (not that it's rocket science) or so technical and lost in the numbers that they miss the gestalt of successful investing. This narrative does quite the opposite. The authors open with an excellent summary of the history, circumstances, and essential elements of endowment and foundation investment management. They follow with conversations with a dozen of the leading CIO's in the field, offering the reader real insight to the unique perspective of each institution, the passions and interests that make each CIO tick, and a better understanding of why successful investing doesn't come from a 'cookie cutter' approach. They close with a helpful summary of what we've learned along the way.

When you are done, you feel like you have enjoyed real conversations with some of the best practitioners in the field, and have a better sense of the depth, character, and focus that have made them successful. You won't be overwhelmed with jargon, just immersed in the real gestalt of successful investing. Sit down with this well written book, a glass of milk, and a warm cookie, and enjoy the conversation.

This book is a must read for all institutional marketers. I learned something new on every page. It was of particular interest to me to learn about the early work experiences of the featured CIO's and how they made it to the top of their field. I found the book well written and easy to read. Well done.