Ellen Ellison
CIO, HICO Ventures. On 1 show, 3 appearances. The Shows tab opens the full record on each.
investorexecutive
Ellison served as the inaugural Chief Investment Officer of the University of Illinois Foundation, overseeing endowment growth from $1.0 billion to $2.7 billion. She previously served as Executive Director of Investments at the University of Miami and later became Chief Investment Officer at HICO Ventures.
1shows
3appearances
19statements
2resolved
2supported
0contradicted
100%fully supported
Everything Ellen Ellison said on any show that made the record, most notable first. Each card names its show and opens the statement there.
Hedge funds are a fee structure, not an asset class, Ellison says
“Hedge funds are a fee structure or a legal entity so that I don't care if it's a hedged equity, directionally long hedge fund or private equity, it's equity.”
Mastering asset classes takes too long for under-40 CIOs, Ellison argues
“I'm always amazed when I see people under age 40 who are CIOs because, let's face it takes a long time to get reasonably good at all those different asset classes.”
Japan has exited deflation, an economic shift apparent soon, Ellison predicts
“I think that most people still don't believe that Japan has moved out of this deflationary period, but I think they have, and this will be really apparent maybe a year from now.”
GP reaction to LP term feedback reveals long-term partnership ability, says Ellison
“And I find the way a GP reacts to term suggestions to be highly revelatory in terms of their ability to be a great partner going forward.”
Ellison: Direct portfolio management provides essential training for future allocators
“I think direct management of portfolios is a wonderful training for someone who ultimately becomes an allocator because you get used to pulling the trigger, you get used to being wrong and having to extricate yourself from mistakes and understanding the nature…”
Illinois Foundation targets first-time funds over tier-two managers, Ellison notes
“We've decided, instead of hiring, you know, B, C, and D, we're setting off to try to find smaller groups, first-time funds, smaller funds, so everything is kind of skewed towards smaller as a result, one way to handle that issue.”
Asset managers lose entrepreneurial edge after 10-15 years, Ellison argues
“I've been fairly convinced that when you look at life cycles of firms and talent and how, in particular, the hedge fund industry, but I think this applies to any asset management or investment manager, it's just very hard to maintain the same entrepreneurial t…”
Ellison: University of Illinois Foundation cut investment committee size in half
“So we had to figure out a way to shrink the size of the investment committee from, I believe it was around 16 or 17, In half.”
Illinois Foundation eliminated 'hedge funds' and 'alternatives' from its institutional vocabulary
“So we eliminated hedge funds from the vocabulary, and we eliminated alternatives from the, we don't talk about alternatives or hedge funds.
We talk about equities, credit, inflation-linked things, etc.”
Ellison: Agriculture was the best-performing asset class for the decade ending 2012
“Fortunately or unfortunately, the last cycle peaked in 2012, but ag really was the best performing asset class for the decade ending 2012.”
Illinois endowment targets a massive 10% to 20% allocation to agriculture
“I think it should be a significant part of the portfolio all in, so I would say somewhere between 10 and 20% over time.”
Ellison: Leadership turnover is deadly for institutional endowment performance
“I think turnover is deadly in our business, and so to the extent that you can keep Leadership and strategy intact and going for at least a decade, and in Scott's case, what, three decades? I mean, it's amazing.”
Ellison: University of Illinois layered $5M monthly into Sixteenth Street Capital
“We were going to start with a fairly good allocation, but we thought we'll stay about 10 to 15% of her total fund assets. So I started layering in, I think I did like five million every month for the first five, six months.”
Ellison: Institutional allocators learn the most from their investment managers
“The more exposure you have to managers across the asset allocation spectrums, I really feel that, especially today, I learned the most from my actual managers.”
Ellison: Illinois Foundation puts 63% of portfolio into global equity
“So we put
Everything public and private into that 63% in global equity.”
University of Illinois Foundation retains its $150M portfolio of gifted farms
“We are in the wonderful position of being given gifted farms, so we have about one hundred fifty million in gifted farms, and we recognize, you know, people are very attached to their farms, not like a donation of stock, and so
If our donors understand that we…”
Ellison: The best investment decision-making is made by fewer people
“I think that the best decision, investment decision making, Making is made by fewer people.”
Ellison: UI Foundation holds an approximate 4% overweight in Japanese equities
“Put a, an overweight on Japanese equities in June of, and I have also one active strategy on top of this allocation. So it's about a four percent overweight.”
Ellison: CIOs must invite constructive disagreement to avoid drowning out team insights
“My personal leadership project for the next year is to really figure out a way, and you'd think it'd be easier with a small team, and no doubt it is, and we're all in the same place, so this is not a complex organizational structure, but I know there is a way …”
One line per show, most statements first. The link opens Ellen's full record on that show: the calibration, argument clarity, speaking style and every statement made there.
| Show | Role there | Eps | Statements | Record | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 CAPITAL ALLOCATORSLEDGER | CIO, HICO Ventures | 3 | 19 | 100% 2/2 | full record on Capital Allocators → |