Adele Gorrilla was the first CIO hired by Denison University, arriving on October 1, 2008, just as the financial meltdown was entering its most critical phase. The endowment’s $760 million-in-assets portfolio is now 75 percent in alternative investments and supports a third of the school’s operating budget.
At a roundtable discussion for the nine winners of the 2014 Institutional Investor U.S. Investment Management Awards, Gorrilla shared some of her lessons learned:
On active management
“I’ll advocate for the active management side because it has worked very well for us.”
On investing with a new manager
“We’d be willing to go with them on that venture if we had a long enough relationship that we felt we could judge it.”
On Denison’s investment strategy
“We’ve been on the offense the past five years in trying to finance market dislocations and hire managers that are doing something different.”
Gorrilla is Top Small Endowment Investor of the year. For more of her thoughts, read the full roundtable discussion.
