John Barker, the longtime chief investment officer for Mass General Brigham, is stepping down, Institutional Investor has learned.
Barker had been CIO for the not-for-profit healthcare system since 2012. Three sources confirmed his departure. Barker’s last day will be on January 31, according to an announcement sent internally by Mass Brigham General’s CFO and treasurer Niyum Gandhi last month.
Liz Baldwin and Kate Kamm will serve as interim co-CIOs while Mass Brigham General launches an official CIO search.
“Since joining Mass General Brigham as its first chief investment officer in 2012, John Barker has been an invaluable leader, developing an investment portfolio that has consistently exceeded performance benchmarks and helped this organization to thrive,” Gandhi wrote in the internal memo. “He also led a multi-year effort to build the organization’s reputation from a relatively unknown, non-institutional, local investor to a trusted and preferred investor globally through high diligence standards, professionalism, and partnership mentality.”
Under Barker’s oversight, the hospital’s investment pools grew from $10 billion to more than $24 billion, according to his LinkedIn profile. He also significantly increased the portfolio’s exposure to private assets, upping the allocation from 7 percent to 35 percent.
Before joining Mass General Brigham, Barker was a managing director at Harvard Management Company where he oversaw externally managed equity and high yield portfolios for three years. Before that, he served as an alternative assets manager at Wellesley College for six years. Barker served as interim CIO at Wellesley before leaving for Harvard.
Other prior roles include consulting work for Cambridge Associates, AT&T, and Lochridge, and an investing position at private equity firm Paratus Capital.
In addition to his work at Mass General Brigham, Barker serves as a member of investment committees at Brooks School, Winsor School, Boston University, CRICO (Harvard Medical Institutions), Waycrosse, and Old Mountain.
Mass General Brigham, previously known as Partners HealthCare, includes sixteen hospitals and healthcare providers. The investment team manages operating, endowed, and pension assets.
