From family office to university endowment.
Investment industry veteran Mark Baumgartner was named CEO and CIO of the University of Florida Investment Corp. Baumgartner, who will start January, will succeed Bill Reeser, University of Florida’s current CEO/CIO, who is retiring at the end of this year.
This announcement comes months after Baumgartner departed the Dalio Family Office, where he was CIO, after being in the role for less than a year. Before joining the family office, Baumgartner served as CIO at Carnegie Corp. for three years, where he applied his quantitative investment approach and rebuilt a team that had thinned out during the pandemic.
Baumgartner’s previous experience includes serving as the CIO for the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. He held roles at fundamental and quantitative hedge funds, co-led Morgan Stanley Investment Management’s institutional solutions group, and served as director of asset allocation and risk for the Ford Foundation.
He has a Ph.D. in mechanical and aerospace engineering from Princeton University. But his bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering came from the University of Florida, making this a homecoming of sorts.
“I’m thrilled to be returning to my hometown to serve my undergraduate alma mater and look forward to supporting the incredible growth trajectory the University of Florida has been on for many years to come,” Baumgartner said.
UFICO was founded in 2004 by university trustees as a direct support organization for the university. Since taking on the role of CEO and CIO in 2014, Under Reeser’s leadership, UFICO’s portfolio has grown from $2.7 billion to over $6 billion. UFICO’s long-term pool has contributed more than $1 billion to support the university and its programs during his tenure.
