Amid high turnover at the top of endowments, an investment officer from a university is moving over to the private sector.
Commonfund has appointed Julia Mord chief investment officer of its $20 billion outsourced CIO business. At the end of March, Mord will begin overseeing the development and management of the OCIO provider’s global investment program. She will also chair the investment and asset allocation committees as well as join Commonfund OCIO’s executive group.
A company spokesperson confirmed that Mord replaces Deborah Spalding, who left in September 2024 to join Conservation International. Mark Anson, Commonfund CEO, held the role in the interim. The Prince Houston Group conducted the search for Commonfund.
Mord joins from Tulane University, where she is currently deputy CIO of the New Orleans-based school’s $2.3 billion endowment. A Tulane spokesperson said that the investment management office’s managing director Jake Kriegsfeld will assume her duties when she leaves the office at the end of the month. Prior to Tulane, Mord was an investment officer at AI International, where she co-managed a multi-asset class portfolio with a significant allocation to alternatives.
Mord makes the switch at a time when many senior investment officers are leaving the university endowment space, with leadership changes occurring at institutions like Princeton, Rice, and University of Florida Investment Corp. While retirements are driving much of the turnover, endowments’ larger shift to outsourcing investment management is contributing to the reshuffling.
Competition among OCIOs is also heating up as providers are gaining in size and influence while private and community foundations are increasingly outsourcing their investment management. According to the Council on Foundations and Commonfund’s annual report, 90 percent of private foundations used external offices in 2023. For community foundations, that figure is 92 percent. Despite short-term volatility, both types of foundations saw strong returns in 2023, with private foundations averaging 12.6 percent and community foundations 14.1 percent, bolstering their long-term performance.
