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Ellen Schumann

Partner Emerita, Edgehill Endowment Partners · 1 appearance on the record.

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investorfounderexecutiveedgehillendowment.com ↗

After 12 years at the Yale University Investments Office, she served as the inaugural Chief Investment Officer of the Carnegie Corporation of New York from 1999 to 2011. In 2013, she co-founded the outsourced CIO firm Edgehill Endowment Partners.

10statements → 2claims → 1claims resolved → 3.6/5average certainty → 2.2/5average debate potential → ≈4.5/5argument clarity, estimated → 3said about them ↓

1 supported 0 partly supported 0 contradicted 1 not checkable as stated how the 2 claims stand · each chip opens the sources

2 assertions · 1 opinion · 7 insights · every statement was checked. The predictions and assertions are the 2 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 1 is resolved, and 1 names no date, number or outcome precise enough to check. Everything else (opinions, insights, what ifs, disclosures) can never be settled by the record, so it carries no assessment.

The record, in short

What the tape says about how Ellen argues and how the claims held up. Everything they said, and everything said about them, is in the tabs below.

Their most notable supported claim

Assertion Supported
Schumann: Carnegie's portfolio was flat in 2001 while benchmarks fell 16%
“In 2001, Ackley was down 16% and our portfolio was flat.”
Ellen Schumann Apr 1, 2024 ▶ 9:27 Training Grounds – Carnegie Corporation of New York (EP.377)

How they sound: not measured why? →

We measure speaking style by listening to the audio itself, and a fair number needs at least 2,000 words from one person on tape we have measured. There is too little of Ellen Schumann on measured tape to publish a rate. This says nothing about how they speak.

Everything Ellen Schumann said on Capital Allocators that made the record, most notable first. Filter by type, assessment or year in the ledger →

Insight
Schumann: Specialist asset class models improve investment sourcing via deeper networks
“I really believe in a specialist model where individuals do lead a particular asset class because I think that the network that you bring, the sourcing capability, The relationships within a hedge fund community, or a venture community, or the real estate comm…”
Ellen Schumann Apr 1, 2024 ▶ 19:47 Training Grounds – Carnegie Corporation of New York (EP.377)
Opinion
Schumann: The endowment industry lacks organizational and people management skills
“And I don't think really managing organizations is a skill set that many CIOs thought about back then. I think our industry is very undeveloped in that way.”
Ellen Schumann Apr 1, 2024 ▶ 20:40 Training Grounds – Carnegie Corporation of New York (EP.377)
Insight
Schumann: Requiring committee approval for all investments helped Carnegie increase risk
“They had to approve every investment recommendation, which is not today a best practice. But what I liked about that is that I think it helped us take more risk”
Ellen Schumann Apr 1, 2024 ▶ 39:18 Training Grounds – Carnegie Corporation of New York (EP.377)
Insight
Schumann: Fixed income adds little value compared to private investments
“Fixed income, not going to add a lot of value. When Meredith came on board, you jumped into privates. Frankly, that's where we're going to add a lot of value.”
Ellen Schumann Apr 1, 2024 ▶ 9:05 Training Grounds – Carnegie Corporation of New York (EP.377)
Insight
Schumann: Hiring highly paid investment professionals disrupts foundation cultures
“It's disruptive to hire investment professionals at an elemasonary institution. When you're the high paid help, you're a new group.”
Ellen Schumann Apr 1, 2024 ▶ 9:56 Training Grounds – Carnegie Corporation of New York (EP.377)
Insight
Schumann: Formal conference room meetings weaken fund manager due diligence
“I think one of the downsides today interviewing and vetting managers is that you come to the manager's office, you're walked into a conference room, sitting by yourself, they come into that conference room, they control the environment totally, and Back then i…”
Ellen Schumann Apr 1, 2024 ▶ 25:56 Training Grounds – Carnegie Corporation of New York (EP.377)
Insight
Schumann: Foundation structures make routine promotions and pay increases difficult
“We started out without any hierarchy or ways of promoting people, so I did really have to go to bat every time I wanted to promote people. And also increase their compensation commensurate with their experience, because that doesn't really happen in a foundati…”
Ellen Schumann Apr 1, 2024 ▶ 41:58 Training Grounds – Carnegie Corporation of New York (EP.377)
Insight
Schumann: Captive capital with good governance is institutional nirvana
“If you have captive capital and you have good governance, it is nirvana. And governance issues are so important, and so many institutions have dysfunctional, quirky governance that does not serve them well.”
Ellen Schumann Apr 1, 2024 ▶ 1:12:29 Training Grounds – Carnegie Corporation of New York (EP.377)
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Schumann: Most foundations lacked professional investment staff in the late 1990s
“And I think at the time, foundations were a lot sleepier than endowments. Most of them did not have professional staffs.”
Ellen Schumann Apr 1, 2024 ▶ 7:56 Training Grounds – Carnegie Corporation of New York (EP.377)
Assertion Supported
Schumann: Carnegie's portfolio was flat in 2001 while benchmarks fell 16%
“In 2001, Ackley was down 16% and our portfolio was flat.”
Ellen Schumann Apr 1, 2024 ▶ 9:27 Training Grounds – Carnegie Corporation of New York (EP.377)

The other half of the tape: Ellen Schumann's own voice is left out of every number here. 3 statements on the record name them. every mention, with the transcript →

Statements about Ellen Schumann, by other people (3)

Insight
Liu: Legal documents do not protect limited partners when investments fail
“We spent a lot of time really thinking about how a manager would treat you when things went wrong, because the documents don't protect you. Ellen talked a lot about that. We have to know that they'll make the right decision when something goes wrong.”
Kim Lew Apr 1, 2024 ▶ 29:26 Training Grounds – Carnegie Corporation of New York (EP.377)
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Maul: In 2008, Carnegie's private portfolio faced capital calls without distributions
“This was oh eight, and distributions had just totally stopped. She showed me this chart of the private portfolio. Of what should be a self-funding portfolio with capital calls matching distributions. And the chart was wildly out of whack because calls had cont…”
Elisa Maul Apr 1, 2024 ▶ 17:00 Training Grounds – Carnegie Corporation of New York (EP.377)
Assertion Supported
Forman: Yale directly owned real estate assets before pioneering private equity model
“Back in the day, Yale was a direct real estate owner of assets. When I joined, I was put in charge of managing all those assets, and David and Ellen and Donna were pursuing this New model called private equity real estate”
Alan Forman Sep 25, 2023 ▶ 7:50 Alan Forman – Yale Endowment Real Estate (EP.340)

Appearances (1)

EpisodeDateSpeaking time
Training Grounds – Carnegie Corporation of New York (EP.377) Apr 1, 2024 13m
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