Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan’s $10 billion philanthropy has hired its first chief investment officer: David Lee of Princeton University’s endowment.
Running the brand-new Chan Zuckerberg Initiative’s (CZI) portfolio will be Lee’s first experience in the CIO role.
He has spent the last eight years working on asset allocation, public equities, and hedge funds as a managing director for the ivy league endowment, according to CZI’s Friday announcement. The Princeton University Investment Company managed $25.9 billion as of June 30 with long-term returns in the top percentile of all institutional investors, according to its website.
The CZI position was among the most sought after in investment circles, and its recruitment process among the most exclusive, an insider said, pegging the portfolio at $10 billion. New York City-based recruiting firm David Barrett Partners facilitated the search.
Lee will report to an investment committee laden with prominent investors, according to the announcement. Yale University CIO David Swensen, who pioneered the prevailing model for endowment and foundation investing, serves as committee chair.
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“I am honored to support CZI’s innovative philanthropic initiatives,” Swensen said in the announcement. “With a strong, engaged investment committee and an outstanding chief investment officer, CZI has laid the foundation for a top-notch investment organization. We’re ready to go to work.”
Other committee members include Lei Zhang, founder and CEO of Hillhouse Capital; Matt Cohler, general partner of venture capital firm Benchmark; and Carter Simonds, a former hedge fund investor who also serves on Yale’s investment board.
