After more than 20 years at the helm, the Alfred I. duPont Charitable Trust’s first chief investment officer is retiring.
David Gonino announced Monday that he plans to retire from the nearly $10 billion foundation. Travis Angevine, who was promoted to deputy CIO in September, will take the helm as CIO on January 1.
“I’ve always wanted to work for a purpose,” Gonino said by phone. “I’ve been fortunate that I’ve gotten to do both of my jobs.”
Gonino’s 42-year-long career has spanned two institutions: He spent 18 years at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, where he served as treasurer before joining duPont in 2000.
When Gonino joined the duPont Charitable Trust, its assets were worth about $1.5 billion and held in a single stock. His mandate was to diversify the portfolio and build a team, both of which would help financially support Nemours Children’s Health, a pediatric hospital system that spans four states.
Today, the duPont Charitable Trust’s portfolio is worth almost $10 billion and invested across asset classes in an endowment-style model. As he has worked to invest this capital, Gonino has watched the investment management industry evolve.
“If there’s a trend that I see, it’s the institutionalization of everything interesting and difficult, such as venture capital and private equity,” he said. “Everything that’s interesting becomes institutionalized. Looking for the next opportunity off of the beaten path is the key to success.”
The team Gonino built at the duPont Charitable Trust includes ten investment staffers and 15 operations and support members. This 25-person team is a career highlight for Gonino. “My legacy at duPont is the team we built here,” he said. “It’s the thing I’m most proud of in my career.”
As a leader, Gonino has been able to boil down his views on talent development to three words.
“We think about people in terms of brains, energy, and charm,” he said. “What I’ve learned over the years is that the charm grade is the most important in terms of how they fit well with their teammates, share ideas, help people succeed.”
Angevine is counted among those whose careers developed under Gonino’s leadership. He worked with Gonino for three years after joining RPI as its managing director of investments in 1997. The two were reunited in 2011, when Angevine joined the duPont Charitable Trust as a managing director of private markets from RPI.
Although Gonino is proud of his work building a team and an investment portfolio, he was clear that the duPont Charitable Trust’s mission was a key incentive in his work.
“We’re an endowment that supports one of the largest children’s healthcare systems in the country,” he said. “That is the great motivator. That’s why I’m here, that’s why the team is here — so that we can have an impact on sick kids.”