Stan Willie, the Colorado Health Foundation’s chief investment officer, is retiring, Institutional Investor has learned.
The foundation, based in Denver, manages roughly $2.6 billion in assets under management, which it distributes to healthcare-related programs in the community.
Willie has helmed the foundation’s investment office since 2009. A spokesperson said in an e-mail that he will remain in his position until early next March.
According to Willie’s biography on the foundation’s website: “To Stan, the theory and practice of investing financial assets are both challenging and exciting. But what’s most meaningful about his current job is that the returns generated [in] the Foundation’s financial investment portfolio go to improving the health of people throughout Colorado.”
Unlike some of his CIO peers, Willie’s career has not just focused on investing. He joined the Colorado Health Foundation from Boston University, where he had served as the executive director of the Office of Technology Development for roughly four years. There, he built an organization that helped the school’s faculty commercialize the technologies that they created in their research, according to the foundation’s website.
Prior to his tenure at BU, Willie was the senior director of the Qwest Asset Management Company for 15 years. At the company, he held positions in asset allocation, alternative investments, global equity, and strategy research and development.
He began his career in scientific research, spending 11 years in the field, primarily at Bell Labs.
In addition to making traditional investments in stocks, bonds, and private assets, the Colorado Health Foundation uses its investment portfolio as a tool for providing capital to local programs, including the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless and the Colorado Housing and Finance Authority, the organization’s website said.
The Colorado Health Foundation is now looking for a new CIO, who will be involved in manager selection and offer leadership to the foundation’s investment committee, in addition to working alongside the fund’s consultant, Wilshire Associates.
