Mark W. Yusko is an American investor and hedge fund manager. He is the founder, chief investment officer and managing director of Morgan Creek Capital Management, an investment management firm that advises

pension fund A pension fund, also known as a superannuation fund in some countries, is any plan, fund, or scheme which provides retirement income. Pension funds typically have large amounts of money to invest and are the major investors in listed and priva ...

endowment Endowment most often refers to: *A term for human penis size It may also refer to: Finance *Financial endowment, pertaining to funds or property donated to institutions or individuals (e.g., college endowment) *Endowment mortgage, a mortgage to b ...

s and wealthy individuals.

Investment career

From 1993 to 1998, he was a Senior Investment Director at the

University of Notre Dame The University of Notre Dame du Lac, known simply as Notre Dame ( ) or ND, is a private Catholic research university in Notre Dame, Indiana, outside the city of South Bend. French priest Edward Sorin founded the school in 1842. The main campu ...

Investment Office. Yusko left Notre Dame in 1998 to head the endowment office at the

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States ...

. From 1998 to 2004, Yusko was founder and chief executive of the UNC Management Company. Yusko left UNC to found Morgan Creek Capital Management in 2004. In 2004, Morgan Creek Capital Management, LLC partnered with Salient Partners LP to start The Endowment Fund. After reaching about $3.5 billion in assets, Yusko served as chief investment officer for the Fund until January 2013, when Yusko was removed for poor fund performance. Large redemptions by investors prompted The Endowment Fund in October 2012 to announce that investor withdrawals would be limited. In 2014, The Endowment Fund announced that investors could withdraw from the fund, but at significant discounts. Yusko is a frequent commentator on the

alternative investment An alternative investment, also known as an alternative asset or alternative investment fund (AIF), is an investment in any asset class excluding stocks, bonds, and cash. The term is a relatively loose one and includes tangible assets such as ...

industry and has appeared on

CNBC CNBC (formerly Consumer News and Business Channel) is an American basic cable business news channel. It provides business news programming on weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., Eastern Time, while broadcasting talk sho ...

, Bloomberg TV,

Fox Business Fox Business (officially known as Fox Business Network, or FBN) is an American business news channel and website publication owned by the Fox News Media division of Fox Corporation. The channel broadcasts primarily from studios at 1211 Avenue ...

, and other major networks as well as in newspapers including the

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

and

Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

. He is a proponent of the Endowment Model of investing, which favors diversified strategies by asset class and within each asset class in both public and private markets.

Wealth and philanthropy

The Morgan Creek Foundation: The Morgan Creek Foundation was established in 2005 and receives a portion of the profits of Morgan Creek Capital Management each year. The Foundation awards grants to education-focused, community-based, non-profit organizations. In 2011, the Foundation received the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Chamber of Commerce's "Non-Profit of the Year" award. The Hesburgh-Yusko Scholars Program: In 2009, Yusko and his wife, Stacey, founded The Hesburgh-Yusko Scholars Program, a four-year, merit-based scholarship and leadership development program, with a $35 million gift to the

. The Yuskos’ benefaction was the third-largest gift in the University’s history and was substantial enough to land them on the ''Slate'' 60 list of the largest American charitable contributions of 2009. The Program gave 25 scholarship awards in Spring 2010 and 26 awards in Spring 2011. Yusko has also served on the boards of several North Carolina-based non-profits, including Carolina Meadows, a non-profit retirement community in Chapel Hill; MCNC, a technology and economic-development organization in the Research Triangle Park; and the Weaver Foundation, in Greensboro.

References

External links

Mark Yusko on CNBC
Video from CNBC - July 14, 2011
Mark Yusko: The Endowment Model Isn't Broken
Video from Opalesque - May 19, 2010
Yusko on Endowment Investing
Video from Fox Business News - December 22, 2009
Analysis and Discussion with Mark Yusko of Morgan Creek Capital Management
Video from Bloomberg News - April 17, 2009

From Institutional Investor - August 2004 {{DEFAULTSORT:Yusko, Mark W. Year of birth missing (living people) University of Notre Dame alumni University of Chicago Booth School of Business alumni University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill staff Living people American investors American money managers Chief investment officers

Investment career

Wealth and philanthropy

See also

References

Further reading

External links