William Spitz, former treasurer of
Vanderbilt University, has been named the 2008 Lifetime Achievement Winner by Foundation & Endowment Money Management. Spitz retired from Vanderbilt last year.
In the 22 years that Spitz served as Vanderbilt’s vice chancellor of investments and treasurer, the school’s endowment grew to $3.5 billion from $300 million and became more highly diversified. He pioneered the concept of a more flexible, broader approach to asset allocation, which several other endowments have since emulated.
"Bill had a wonderful knack of knowing how to take seeds and make them grow," said K. Beth Johnson, senior consultant at Hammond Associates and a former investment director at Vanderbilt. "More than once he accepted investment allocations of insignificant portfolio value in highly oversubscribed investment funds. Those small investments subsequently bloomed into larger positions with top-tier firms."
Spitz has remained an active member of the investment industry. He has been invited to join
Oxford University‘s investment committee and has joined the boards of Cambium Global Timberland, Acadia Realty Trust and MassMutual Financial Group. Spitz spent 11 years on the board of Commonfund, four of them as chair. In that time he helped to professionalize the firm and establish procedures and controls.
While working at Vanderbilt, Spitz taught at the Vanderbilt Owen Graduate School of Management. Since leaving, he has written two case studies of Vanderbilt’s investments for
Harvard
Business School. He is also author of two investment advice books, Get Rich Slowly and Save Smart for a Secure Future.
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Media contact: Missy Pankake, (615) 322-NEWS
missy.pankake@vanderbilt.edu