Will McLean, who has spent his entire career investing at three nonprofit institutions, became Northwestern’s CIO in January 2002. He credits the institution’s investment committee, his team and top-performing asset managers for his success.

At a roundtable discussion for the nine winners of the 2014 Institutional Investor U.S. Investment Management Awards, McLean shared some of his lessons learned:

On manager selection and retention

“We push ourselves to make the hurdle higher, whether it’s qualitative evaluation or return expectation.”

On his investment strategy

“We’ve been adding uncorrelated strategies to try to diversify away from our equity exposure.”

On the uncertainty among investors

“It makes us nervous because there’s something about it that just doesn’t feel right.”

McLean is Top Large Endowment Investor of the year. For more of his thoughts, read the full roundtable discussion.