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Capital Allocators #316 · May 22, 2023 · 52m

Amy Falls - CIO of Northwestern University

Amy Falls, CIO overseeing Northwestern's $14.2 billion endowment, discusses portfolio construction, manager selection, and the unique challenges of running an institutional portfolio during market uncertainty.

Canon

Falls argues that the best CIOs focus entirely on the quality of their investment process — manager selection, asset allocation, risk management — and detach from short-term performance outcomes they cannot control.

Highlights

Endowment investing requires a different relationship with time than any other investor
Falls explains that endowments invest with a perpetual time horizon — they must support the university forever. This changes every decision: liquidity needs, risk tolerance, and return expectations all shift when the time horizon is infinite.