2025 Endowment Leadership Series (Recordings)

Tim Baird began his career working in the human resources field with increased responsibility for financial matters. Upon graduation from Geneva, Baird worked in corporate headquarters of Tasty Baking Company (Tastykake) in Philadelphia along with a brief stint at WonderBread/Hostess Cakes as the Assistant HR Manager for the Philadelphia bakery. While working in the HR field, Baird earned a Master’s in Business Administration from St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia in 2008. Baird returned to Geneva as the Director of Human Resources in 2005. In 2010, Baird assumed the role of Associate VP of Operations and HR for the College where he managed the personnel and benefits budgets and he lead capital spending for the College. In this and his current role, Baird leads the College’s efforts in the HR, facilities, vendor management, capital planning, construction management, and legal affairs functions. In August 2017, Baird assumed the additional responsibilities of the role of Vice President of Business and Finance. He focuses his efforts on the overall financial strategy, reporting and projections of the College. He provides executive leadership for the treasury and investments in collaboration with the Endowment Investment Committee of the Board.

David Bluestein is a Principal and Senior Investment Consultant with Mercer in the Endowments and Foundations Group. Based in Boston, David brings over twenty-two years of experience as a consultant and investment manager. He has advised endowments, foundations, and private clients on asset allocation, manager selection, spending policy, risk, performance monitoring, and all other issues regarding the management of institutional portfolios. He has also conducted research across many different asset classes and strategies, including public and private asset managers. Before Mercer, David was a Senior Investment Consultant at Crewcial Partners (formerly Colonial Consulting), where he worked with endowments and foundations on all aspects of their investment portfolios, contributed to manager research, and wrote the firm’s quarterly commentary. Prior to that, David worked at Cambridge Associates, where he was a generalist consultant and later a specialist consultant constructing customized hedge fund programs for clients. This led to an opportunity to join the partnership at Nyes Ledge, a hedge fund-of-funds, where he was part of the manager selection team and performed research across all hedge fund strategies.

David earned a BS in Management from the State University of New York at Binghamton, and an MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth.

Jason Bull joined the University of Georgia Foundation in 2018 and has more than 20 years of investment management experience. As the chief investment officer, he is responsible for managing the foundation's $1.8 billion endowment, overseeing asset allocation, and ensuring the foundation meets its long-term financial goals. Before joining the Foundation, Bull was a managing director at Emory University, where he led investments in global public equities. Earlier in his career, Bull worked as a financial analyst at Goldman Sachs. He holds an MBA from Emory University’s Goizueta Business School and a BS in mathematics and economics from Eastern Michigan University. Bull is also a CFA charterholder.

Rick Cole has more than 25 years of experience serving nonprofit organizations. He is the New York Market Industry Leader for nonprofit and education and is a member of the FORVIS higher education center of excellence. Before joining the firm in 2019, he worked at FASB, where he served as a supervising project manager for almost six years. Prior to joining FASB, Cole was vice president and controller at a large national museum in New York for seven years and a senior manager with a large international accounting firm where he worked for 14 years and specialized in audits of higher education institutions and other nonprofit organizations. He is a lecturer at the Columbia University School of Professional Studies, in their nonprofit management program.

Cole is a CPA in New York and New Jersey and is a member of the AICPA and New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants. He is a graduate of Montclair State University, with a BS degree and an MBA degree.

Georges Dyer is co-founder and executive director of the Crane Institute of Sustainability and leads its flagship initiative, the Intentional Endowments Network (IEN), which supports endowments in aligning investment policies with institutional mission, values, and sustainability goals. For over 20 years, he has been engaged in solutions-based, whole-system approaches to sustainability. From 2006-2014, Dyer served in various roles, including vice president, at Second Nature. Previously, Dyer was the head of market intelligence for the Institutional Equities Group at LaBranche Financial Services in New York, worked with design-build firms on residential green building projects in Vermont and Colorado, and is certified in Permaculture design. 

Dyer is a graduate of The Mountain School of Milton Academy, Phillips Exeter Academy, and Dartmouth College. He holds a MSc in strategic leadership towards sustainability from the Blekinge Institute of Technology in Karlskrona, Sweden, where his thesis research focused on carbon reduction projects under the Kyoto Protocol and EU Emissions Trading Scheme.

John Griffith is a director at Hirtle Callaghan and serves as the firm’s endowment specialist. He has over 28 years of nonprofit experience. Griffith leads the firm’s holistic planning process for institutions, working closely with investment committees to design customized investment programs that are fully aligned with their goals and risk tolerance. He also works directly with endowments on specific, client-driven projects. These projects help committees tackle key strategic issues, including spending policy, liquidity policy, debt ratios and covenants, capital campaigns, operating reserves and governance. From 2003 until 2014, he was the chief financial officer and treasurer of Bryn Mawr College before joining Hirtle Callaghan. Prior to Bryn Mawr, Griffith spent 15 years in various financial roles at the University of New Hampshire. Griffith started his career at Coopers & Lybrand. 

Griffith earned a master's in finance from Bentley University and a bachelor's in business administration from the University of New Hampshire.

William Jarvis is managing director and philanthropic executive at Bank of America Private Bank, where he heads strategic-thought leadership for institutional and private nonprofit organizations. An authority on investment policy and governance for endowed nonprofit organizations, Jarvis brings 41 years of experience to this role. Jarvis is the managing editor of the Bank of America Study of Philanthropy and the author of numerous white papers on investment policy and endowment governance.

Prior to joining Bank of America in 2017, Jarvis served as the executive director of the Commonfund Institute. In 2021, Jarvis was honored with NACUBO’s Rodney H. Adams Endowment Management Award for outstanding individual contributions to professional development activities in the area of college and university endowment and investment management.

Jarvis holds a B.A. in English literature from Yale University, a J.D. from the Northwestern University School of Law, and an M.B.A. from the J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management. Jarvis does not provide legal advice in his role at Bank of America.

Nikki Kwan is a responsible investing and impact investing professional dedicated to creating a more just and sustainable world through business and finance. At the University of Toronto Asset Management Corporation, she is focused on advancing the firm’s leadership and best practices in responsible investing. This includes the continued integration of ESG considerations throughout decision-making, manager selection, stewardship activities, reporting and disclosure, knowledge sharing, and industry building. Prior to UTAM, Kwan has worked with impact investment management firms, social finance intermediaries, social ventures, and institutional investors in North America and Asia to design and implement impact investing strategies and models that generate positive financial, social, and environmental outcomes. She has contributed to research reports examining Canada’s conservation finance landscape and various impact investing markets. She holds an honours business administration undergraduate degree with a sustainability certificate from the Ivey Business School at Western University.

Bill McCarron joined Prime Buchholz in 1990 and has served as the firm’s president since 1999. He has more than 40 years of industry experience. McCarron is a member of the firm’s Executive Committee and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Council. Formerly, he was a consultant with New England Pension Consultants and, prior to that, a senior investment officer of Boston Safe Deposit and Trust, responsible for analytical services to major pension funds. Earlier, McCarron was a colleague of Prime Buchholz co-founder Jon Prime at the Wellesley Group, where he was involved in a full range of client investment advisory services. McCarron currently serves as a trustee of the Boston Latin School Foundation and chairperson of its investment committee. He is also a member of the Board of Governors for the Boston Athletic Association and serves as its treasurer.

McCarron earned his BS from Suffolk University’s School of Management.

Jeff Mindlin serves as the inaugural Chief Investment Officer at ASU Enterprise Partners. In this capacity, Jeff is responsible for managing about $2b of Arizona State University Foundation’s investment assets to maximize risk adjusted returns. This includes the endowment, sustainability, and short-term investment pools. He provides critical support of the Investment Committee and Board of Directors as well as oversight of consultants. He also leads the investment activities of other affiliates engaged in direct real estate and corporate venture capital. During his tenure, Jeff has been tasked with aligning the investment strategy with ASU’s sustainability leadership including Net Zero and corporate engagement efforts. Jeff serves on the boards of the university’s education technology accelerator (ASU ScaleU) and angel investor network (InvestU). He acts as a trustee to the retirement plan and advises on the investment management of ASU’s operating funds. To support ASU’s emphasis on experiential learning and sustainability, Jeff is active with multiple student managed funds and finance-related clubs. In addition, Jeff chairs the TIAA-Nuveen Investment Council and serves on the Intentional Endowment Network’s Executive Committee and Net Zero Working Group. He also serves on the investment committee for the Center for Jewish Philanthropy of Greater Phoenix.

Lucy Momjian serves as Senior Education Strategist in Mercer's Endowment and Foundation Investment Practice working with higher education and independent school Outsourced Chief Investment Officer (OCIO) and advisory clients on their investment portfolios and supporting them with custom analyses and research. She joined Mercer in March 2024, in concert with its acquisition of Vanguard's OCIO unit, where she most recently served in a similar role. Prior to Vanguard, Lucy had the privilege of working in leadership roles within the University of Pennsylvania's (Penn's) Investment and Treasury Offices for over 20 years. As a result, she brings direct experience to managing both sides of a University's balance sheet and a deep understanding of risks that colleges and universities address.

Lucy holds a Bachelor's degree in Economics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and an MS in Higher Education Administration from Penn's Graduate School of Education. Lucy holds both the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA) designations. She served as a long-term board member and former President of the CFA Society of Philadelphia. 

Aaron Moore serves the California State University as executive director of advancement at the Office of the Chancellor and chief financial officer for the CSU Foundation, providing oversight in managing investments, financial reporting, and compliance. The CSU Foundation manages the Chancellor’s Office, multi-campus gifts and grants, and the systemwide charitable gift annuity program and disburses $2 million in student scholarships annually. Moore's team also oversees the CSU Alumni Council and systemwide alumni relations for the CSU's 4.3 million global alumni.

Dan Ricci joined Prime Buchholz in 2010 and has more than 16 years of experience. As the director of information systems, he is responsible for overseeing the development of enterprise applications and data aggregation processes. Before his current role, he served time as a senior systems analyst, business analyst, and performance analyst at Prime Buchholz. Before Prime Buchholz, he was an associate financial analyst for Liberty Mutual Insurance Company. In addition to his core responsibilities, he serves as a member of the firm's Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Council. 

Ricci has an MS in information systems with a concentration in data science from Northwestern University and a BS in finance from the University of New Hampshire. He is a member of the CFA Institute/CFA Society Boston.

Ken Souza joined the USF Foundation in December of 2008. He had previously worked for the asset management arm of Fidelity Investments and in insurance portfolio investing for New York Life. As the Foundation’s assistant vice president of investments, he oversees over $900 million in endowment and operating pool assets. This role includes leading investment initiatives, coordinating research with the Foundation’s investment consultant, conducting due diligence on current and prospective managers, and reporting to the Foundation’s investment committee.

Souza graduated from Merrimack College in 2000 and obtained an MBA from Suffolk University in 2005. Souza is also a certified treasury professional. Souza also serves on the advisory board for the Merrill Lynch Wealth Management Center and the Student Managed Investment Fund in the USF Muma College of Business and is a board member on the Tampa Bay History Center Foundation.

Charlene Sweeney has been at Brown University for 12 years, serving the last 8 years as the University Controller. Prior to Brown University, she was a senior manager at KPMG where she worked for almost 15 years in the audit practice serving not-for-profit Universities and Hospitals. She is currently the NACUBO representative on the AICPA NFP Entities Expert Panel and a member of the NACUBO APC. She has presented at EACUBO, NACUBO Higher Education Accounting Form, and Workday Rising. She is a CPA licensed in the state of RI. 

Cori Trautvetter is a Partner and serves as Mercer’s U.S. Endowment and Foundation Commercial Leader and is part of the Endowment and Foundation Leadership Team. She is located in the St. Louis office and is also a member of the firm’s Endowment & Foundation and Values-Aligned Strategic Research Teams. Prior to its acquisition by Mercer in 2018, Cori was a Managing Director at Pavilion Advisory Group Inc. where she provided strategic investment advice to endowments, foundations, defined contribution plans, defined benefits plans, healthcare organizations and Taft-Hartley funds along with heading up the firm’s Endowment and Foundation Practice. Cori joined Pavilion Advisory Group Inc. in 2000. Prior to joining Pavilion Advisory Group Inc., Cori served for five years as an Associate Banker at Illini Bank in Springfield, IL. At Illini Bank, her responsibilities included managing consumer loans for numerous clients.

Cori is a member of the Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA®) Association. She earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Finance from Eastern Illinois University. She currently serves on the Eastern Illinois University’s School of Business Advisory Board. Cori is also a Board Member for Youth In Need, a nonprofit child and family services agency and is an Investment Committee Member for the Daughters of Charity – Province of St. Louise. 

Tim Yates heads Commonfund OCIO and is responsible for managing all aspects of Commonfund OCIO's business, which focuses exclusively on non-profit institutions. In this role, he leads a team of professionals that advise, implement, and monitor custom investment solutions for institutions with total assets under management of more than $15 billion. Yates is a member of the Commonfund OCIO Executive Group and serves on both the Commonfund Asset Allocation and Operating Committees.

Yates joined Commonfund as an associate in the CF Private Equity Associate Program. In 2003, he was a founding member of Commonfund's OCIO platform, where he was responsible for the design, tailoring, and implementation of total portfolio solutions. Additionally, he held several roles with CF Private Equity including having responsibility for custom accounts and serving as a senior member of the firm’s emerging markets private equity portfolio leadership team with a focus on Latin America.

Before joining Commonfund, Yates was an instructor of Spanish and Italian at Fordham Preparatory School in the Bronx, NY. He holds an MBA in finance with a designation in international business from Fordham University and a BA in modern languages from Trinity College. Yates is a member of the investment committee for St. Paul’s Church in Fairfield, CT, the Advisory Board of Girls Who Invest, a member of the Trinity College Board of Fellows, and the Board of Directors of Caroline House—a non-profit in Bridgeport, CT, focused on enabling women and children to reach the fullness of their potential through education in English language and life skills.

Liz LaPolt Clark is vice president for policy and research at NACUBO and a member of the NACUBO executive leadership group. She has been widely quoted in the press and is a sought-after speaker on how Washington politics and federal policies impact higher education. Clark got her start on Capitol Hill opening Cornell University's first Washington, DC-based federal relations office. Also in her career, she has led federal affairs for the State University of New York (SUNY) System and for Oregon State University. At NACUBO, she heads the team responsible for analysis of federal regulatory and legislative actions, research, and communications.

Sue Menditto is NACUBO’s expert on financial accounting and reporting, managerial analysis, and financial viability. She is charged with fulfilling higher education advocacy needs with the GASB, FASB, AICPA, and Department of Education. She was appointed to the IPEDS Finance Survey Workgroup in August 2023 as one of its financial reporting experts. She has also represented higher education on the Governmental Accounting Standards Advisory Council (2006–2012), AICPA’s Revenue Recognition Task Force (2016–2017), and the Department of Education’s financial responsibility subcommittee (2017–2018).

Menditto informs the association’s research efforts on accounting issues, endowment management, and tuition discounting; writes member communications: news, advisories, accounting tutorials, and articles; and supports members’ professional development needs by providing subject matter guidance. She has also co-authored chapters of publications addressing accounting, public health, and analytics and regularly speaks on accounting and financial management topics at conferences.

Menditto began her career in public accounting, was a CFO and Controller for a not-for-profit organization, and a vice president for Bank of America where she specialized in change management and accounting policy. She holds degrees in psychology and accounting and is a certified public accountant.  

Kenneth E. Redd is senior director, research and policy analysis for NACUBO. At NACUBO, Redd directs the annual NACUBO-TIAA Study of Endowments, the NACUBO Tuition Discounting Study, and other studies on higher education finance issues.

In addition to his work at NACUBO, Redd also serves on the board of trustees for the Meadville Lombard School of Theology in Chicago, IL, and is a member of the board of directors for the Unitarian Universalist Common Endowment Fund (UUCEF) and the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE).

Redd has a master’s degree in public affairs from the Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota.