In the 2017 fiscal year, Andover’s endowment amounted to 1.058 billion dollars. This makes Andover one of the highest-funded high schools in the United States, according to an article from Business Insider.
Andover’s sizeable endowment portfolio is overseen in part by those on the Investment Committee, which is composed of both trustees and non-trustee alumni. This committee works together with the Investment Office in New York City.
Chief Investment Officer (CIO) Kirsten Glantz heads the team in New York. As CIO, Glantz takes on a number of roles regarding Andover’s endowment.
“The CIO is responsible for the overall management of Andover’s 1.1 billion dollar investment portfolio, implementing the investment objectives and policies approved by the Investment Committee. This includes sourcing, evaluating and executing all investment strategies, selecting and monitoring external investment managers, and oversight of all investment activities,” Glantz wrote in an email to The Phillipian.
Glantz works with her team to research the most effective ways for Andover to invest its endowment. They then communicate their recommendations to the Investment Committee.
In a telephone interview with The Phillipian, Glantz said, “It’s a small team that does the research and work to determine how we should invest, how we should recommend investing the endowment to the Investment Committee… Then we spend a lot of time meeting with a lot of different managers in every different asset class and try to pick the ones that we think are the best ones to invest with.”
Andover invests in a variety of asset classes, including private and hedge equities, among others. According to the annual fiscal report developed by Glantz and her team, this equity exposure has been combined with defensive strategies aimed at diversifying the portfolio.
“Andover has invested the endowment in a diversified set of established investment managers over many years. On a high level, we allocate capital to third-party managers who invest our endowment assets across a broad spectrum of asset classes,” said Glantz.
One of the most timely questions of the endowment is whether Andover invests its money in firearm companies. Chief Financial Officer Andrea Nix explained that though there are not any direct investments in this market, the complicated nature of the system contributes to uncertainty.
“It’s a complicated answer. We don’t have any direct investments [in firearms], but it’s complicated because we’re in a lot different funds that we can’t control. There may be fractional shares of something,” said Nix.
In the past, there has been controversy about Andover’s endowment being invested in alcohol, tobacco, and fossil fuels. Nix ensured that there are no current investments directly in these markets but noted the possibility of indirect financial ties.
“To be clear we don’t have any direct investments in any of those things, but fossil fuels is more complicated,” said Nix.
In addition to these investments, last year’s endowment was used to support various causes on campus. The annual fiscal analysis reports that the endowment provided 553 students with scholarships and 88 faculty members with teaching foundations.
Impacts of the endowment such as these remind Glantz of the importance of her work.
“The most inspiring thing about the role is knowing every day how impactful my work is for supporting the long term success of the Academy in fulfilling its important mission,” wrote Glantz.
