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CU Endowment Manager Named “Rising Star” by Leading Industry Publication

Caleb Sevian

Caleb Sevian, one of the University of Colorado’s endowment’s portfolio managers, was named a “Rising Star of Foundations & Endowments” by the Euromoney Institutional Investor online network, which publishes widely read trade magazines and newsletters for a money manager audience.

Sevian was honored for spearheading several initiatives to safeguard the University of Colorado Endowment from market turmoil—including improved tracking of quantitative data, and building a more robust risk-management system. Due in part to Sevian’s work, the University of Colorado Endowment outperformed market and targeted asset-allocation benchmarks this past fiscal year, declining just 17.7 percent while many major universities, including Harvard and Yale, saw 25 to 30 percent declines.

“The things I do for my work really matter to helping kids get scholarships,” says Sevian, an alumnus of the University of Colorado. “As someone who had to work their way through school, I have a special place in my heart for that.”

Sevian had joined the University of Colorado Foundation in May 2008, and in July 2009 left Foundation staff to become a principal at asset management firm Perella Weinberg Partners, where he continues to manage the University of Colorado Foundation’s investment portfolio under the leadership of Chris Bittman.
“Caleb has a deep intellectual curiosity, a rigorous analytical process and a significant commitment to the foundation and endowment world. I expect he will continue to make headlines for his investment performance,” Bittman says.
Though just 15 were chosen, more than 100 money managers were nominated for this honor. Another manager chosen as a Rising Star is Kent Muckel, who also worked on the University of Colorado portfolio at the CU Foundation during the 2008-09 fiscal year period covered by the award, and currently is chief investment officer at Baylor University.