Michelle Knudsen explains why institutional endowments prioritize return stability and capital preservation due to annual budgetary spending requirements.
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“If your portfolio is driving a spend level, you're more sensitive to a December 31st mark that is substantially below where it was the year before.”
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More from Michelle Knudsen
Insight
Serving multiple clients forces compromises on portfolio construction for scale
“When you're serving multiple clients, you have to make compromises on the portfolio because you can't underwrite 25 different great portfolios. You need economies of scale.”
Michelle KnudsenJul 27, 2026▶ 20:13Rebuilding the NYU Endowment – Michelle Knudsen (EP.513)
Insight
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“We found that the risk appetite of those investment committees when you're serving as a fiduciary for an institution was lower than for many of our private equity GPs.”
Michelle KnudsenJul 27, 2026▶ 15:51Rebuilding the NYU Endowment – Michelle Knudsen (EP.513)
Insight
Underwriting emerging managers adds business risk alongside investment risk
“When I joined partners, we rarely underwrote emerging managers. The view was our job is to take investment risk. You're also taking on a business risk when you underwrite a new manager.”
Michelle KnudsenJul 27, 2026▶ 18:09Rebuilding the NYU Endowment – Michelle Knudsen (EP.513)
Disclosure
NYU endowment delegates manager selection to internal team up to 3%
“When it comes to manager selection, we rely on the expertise of the team who have spent their careers Getting to know the managers, understanding the landscape, the manager selection decisions rest with the team up until a certain point. Once you have a manage…”
Michelle KnudsenJul 27, 2026▶ 28:56Rebuilding the NYU Endowment – Michelle Knudsen (EP.513)
Disclosure
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“One is on the hedge fund side, where when I was at the Mellon Foundation, we were relatively early to underwriting hedge fund strategies that are more trading oriented, that run higher levels of leverage, where you don't have necessarily a single persistent so…”
Michelle KnudsenJul 27, 2026▶ 34:42Rebuilding the NYU Endowment – Michelle Knudsen (EP.513)
Disclosure
NYU is substantially growing private market allocations while peer institutions retreat
“Our team has the view that there is still a lot of value to be had over the long term in private markets. Maybe not every private market. We want to be more discerning there. But we have the ability, and we have been growing that portfolio Substantially over t…”
Michelle KnudsenJul 27, 2026▶ 35:47Rebuilding the NYU Endowment – Michelle Knudsen (EP.513)
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