The California Institute of Technology’s longtime chief investment officer, Scott Richland, is stepping down after 14 years at the helm.
Richland grew Caltech’s assets under management from $1.6 billion when he joined to $4.6 billion as of April 2024. His team has contributed more than $2.7 billion in investment returns over that period.
Over the ten-year period ending June 30, 2023, Richland and his team generated 8.5 percent annual returns, earning Caltech a spot in the top quartile of Cambridge Associates 154 college and university survey reporters, according to a letter from the university’s president.
“It has been my honor to spend the last 14 years helping to enable the incredible people and research that will make the world a better place to live,” Richland said. “It is an amazing investment office team, investment committee and administration, all working together toward the same goals, that makes our investment success possible.”
Richland will officially step down in December. He began his career as a research analyst at Amherst Associates, then worked his way up in the industry at firms including Citigroup, SunAmerica, and AIG. In 2003, he helped launch and grow Andell Holdings, one of the nation’s largest family offices. There he repositioned the investment portfolio, diversifying it away from concentrated international equity investments.
Richland serves on several boards of directors, including Foldax, Inc. and Pasadena Private Lending, which are both companies Caltech has directly invested in.
Following his departure from Caltech, Richland plans to focus on his board positions, teaching, and more philanthropy. Richland has already lectured for some of Caltech’s classes and has acted as an advisor to the school’s Women’s Financial Empowerment and Investment Club and the Student Investment Fund.
In terms of philanthropy, he is a member of the investment committee at John Muir Health and the Jewish Community Foundation of Los Angeles. Richland and his wife also created and endowed the Stephen A. Ross Memorial Graduate Fellowships in Caltech’s Division of the Humanities and Social Sciences in honor of the former investment committee chair.
Caltech’s president has appointed a committee that includes trustees, faculty, and staff to conduct a search for Richland’s successor. Among them is Tim Sloan, the Caltech investment committee chair, former CEO of Wells Fargo CEO and currently vice chairman at Fortress Investment Group, and Kneeland Youngblood, vice-chair of Caltech’s investment committee and the founder of Pharos Capital Group.