We build long-term, risk-appropriate portfolios for institutions that are tailored to each client's specific goals, risk tolerances, liquidity requirements, and strategic plans. Portfolios are populated with exposure to traditional and alternative investment opportunities that are generally unavailable to conventional investment firms and capital allocators. We source and underwrite those relationships through our differentiated networks and our extensive experience in the leading endowment community.
We also look to build a deep foundation of trust and integration with clients, supporting board governance, capital planning, advancement strategy, and other institutional needs, as if we were their in-house team.
We believe our firm has the resources to compete with large endowments but is small enough to engage deeply with clients and their key stakeholders. We pride ourselves on our approachability, responsiveness, candor, and collegiality.
Portfolios are designed to meet our clients’ needs, not ours. We tailor sophisticated solutions that address a broad range of investment goals, from total-portfolio solutions to alternative investment and impact-focused strategies.
Our experienced leadership team has decades of experience working for and partnering with leading endowments, foundations, private equity, hedge funds, and family offices. We understand the unique growth, resourcing, and liquidity challenges institutions face, and how to manage them.
Managing a large, multi-asset portfolio can be an uphill battle for many organizations. Limited resources, competing priorities, and committee-led decision-making can stand in the way of timely, effective portfolio management. Since 2007, endowments and foundations have partnered with GEM as a leading Outsourced Chief Investment Office (OCIO) to manage their investment and governance needs. We bring the sophistication, discipline, and experience of endowment investing to our clients, freeing them to focus on their missions.
We believe a partnership is only as effective as the foundation it’s built on. We collaborate with our clients’ boards, finance teams, and other stakeholders to gain a deep appreciation of the organization’s outsourcing needs through a holistic enterprise assessment and candid conversation. A comprehensive investment program is constructed from this alignment, with investment policy guidance, risk modeling, daily portfolio oversight, tailored governance insight, administrative support, and more.
We act as hands-on extensions of our clients’ organizations, aligning with their stakeholders on goals, strategic vision, risk tolerance, constraints, and operational structure.
We are deeply committed to helping clients identify, assess, and solve for their needs and objectives. We develop advanced, uniquely crafted strategies to help meet clients’ short-term goals, such as funding new facilities or grants, as well as their long-term aspirations.2
GEM partners to create and deploy well-defined investment strategies, addressing the needs of a client’s total portfolio with a broad range of alpha-seeking opportunities. Our investment team was built to source differentiated, elite managers, affording our clients access to high-potential opportunities that are difficult to replicate.
We assume responsibility for the nuts and bolts of investment management — including reporting, tax administration, rebalancing, and committee engagement — so our clients can focus on their organizational missions and day-to-day operation.
We act as hands-on extensions of our clients’ organizations, aligning with their stakeholders on goals, strategic vision, risk tolerance, constraints, and operational structure.
We are deeply committed to helping clients identify, assess, and solve for their needs and objectives. We develop advanced, uniquely crafted strategies to help meet clients’ short-term goals, such as funding new facilities or grants, as well as their long-term aspirations.2
GEM partners to create and deploy well-defined investment strategies, addressing the needs of a client’s total portfolio with a broad range of alpha-seeking opportunities. Our investment team was built to source differentiated, elite managers, affording our clients access to high-potential opportunities that are difficult to replicate.
We assume responsibility for the nuts and bolts of investment management — including reporting, tax administration, rebalancing, and committee engagement — so our clients can focus on their organizational missions and day-to-day operation.
We aim to translate our clients’ return goals, spending needs, and risk tolerance into an appropriate portfolio structure, then leverage our extensive networks and endowment experience to source and underwrite compelling manager and investment opportunities across asset classes. We use diversified custom and commingled structures to help ensure efficiency, fairness, and alignment across our clients. Both multi-asset and asset class-specific portfolios are built using a single, rigorous investment process.
We seek to generate long-term, real returns3 that support organizations’ spending needs today and grow value for future generations.2
Head of Investments Jay Ripley joined Ted Seides on the Capital Allocators podcast to discuss his path from private equity to GEM, the firm’s approach to backing emerging managers and independent sponsors, and the importance of strong manager selection amid growing dispersion.
In a recent byline, GEM’s Co-Founder and Managing Partner, Stephanie Lynch, examines the merits of in-person nonprofit board meetings and highlights why virtual interactions often lack the depth of engagement required for effective board leadership.
Strong returns from leading university endowments have reignited discussion about how institutions can sustain performance in a shifting market environment. In commentary for The Wall Street Journal, GEM’s Co-CIO, Matt Bank, reflects on how endowment leaders are preparing for more uncertain conditions ahead.
Let’s start a conversation about how we can help.
1 Customization is not available in a pooled, GEM–managed investment fund and would require the investor to invest through a fund-of-one structure, which has a higher expense load.
2 Returns are not guaranteed.
3 Returns that take inflation into account.
