ELS26: The New Regime in Endowment Practice

Karen Whitney currently serves as Executive Vice President of Student Success Services & Administration (SSS&A) and Chief Financial Officer at National University. In this role, she leads a broad portfolio that includes finance, accounting, treasury, student operations, information technology, and strategic initiatives supporting the student experience. Karen’s career reflects steady advancement in financial leadership. She has held CFO/COO roles at the former National Education Partners/Northcentral University, where she drove financial strategy and operational excellence. Before stepping into CFO positions, she built deep expertise in financial planning and analysis as Senior Vice President at the University of Phoenix and Vice President at Apollo Group. Her foundation began in the real estate and hospitality sectors, where she served in leadership roles at CB Richard Ellis, Trammell Crow Company, and Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide. She started her career as an auditor with PricewaterhouseCoopers, Karen earned her Master’s in Business Administration from the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia and graduated summa cum laude with a B.S. in Business Administration from Trinity University. She is a licensed Certified Public Accountant.

Edward Ng, CFA, Managing Director, is Head of the Americas Endowments, Foundation, and Healthcare team within Multi-Asset Strategies and Solutions. The Multi-Asset Strategies & Solutions (MASS) team is the investment group at the heart of BlackRock's portfolio construction, asset allocation, and active management ecosystem. MASS draws on the full toolkit of BlackRock’s index, factor, and alpha-seeking investment capabilities to deliver precise investment outcomes and cutting-edge alpha insights. MASS constructs active asset allocation strategies and whole portfolio solutions across a wide spectrum of commingled funds, separate accounts, model portfolios, and outsourcing solutions in the wealth and institutional channels. Before being involved in the creation of the multi-asset solutions business in 2007, Mr. Ng was with the Financial Institutions Group, responsible for asset allocation strategy and client service with the firm's insurance and other taxable clients. Prior to joining BlackRock in 2001, Mr. Ng was a Vice President at Merrill Lynch Investment Managers building the firm's institutional insurance asset management business. From 1995 to 1999, Mr. Ng was investment consultant with Wilshire Associates responsible for asset allocation, portfolio construction, and manager selection activities. He began his investment career as a quantitative equity research analyst with Barings Asset Management and previously was an engineer with Hughes Aircraft Company. Mr. Ng earned a BS degree in mechanical engineering from the University of California at San Diego and an MBA degree in finance and MS degree in engineering from Boston University.