Twelve years ago John Hull left his job as CIO of the then-$112 billion New York State Common Retirement Fund and moved uptown to assume the same role at a very different venue, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, where he was charged with building out the investment office handling the organization’s $3.8 billion portfolio. Today the 66-year-old oversees 11 professionals managing $5.9 billion in assets. Hull has expanded the diversification of the portfolio, which in 2002 was heavily weighted toward U.S. public equities. Today more than two thirds of its assets are in alternative investments, including a 25 percent allocation to private equity (up from 13 percent in 2002). Over the past ten years, Hull has delivered an annualized 9.4 percent return, besting the 7.9 percent average for foundations and endowments with more than $1 billion in assets in the Cambridge Associates Member Database. Hull is a member of Bryn Mawr College’s investment committee, a trustee for the Williams Capital Management Trust and a former member of the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board.
