Georgetown did not leave its chief investment officer seat empty for long. The university has named Kristin Agatone to oversee its $3.6 billion portfolio, replacing longtime CIO Michael Barry who left earlier this year to head Johns Hopkins’ endowment. In September, she’ll take the reins from the investment office’s managing director Chris Gill, who served as interim CIO while the school sought a permanent replacement.
Agatone has served as CIO for Lehigh University’s $2.2 billion portfolio for nine years, which Georgetown boasts nearly doubled under her watch. A spokesperson for the Pennsylvania-based school confirmed that it has begun a search for her successor.
Chief Operating Officer David Green said in a statement that Agatone was selected in part for her financial experience “in both higher education and the private sector.” In terms of private sector experience, her resume boasts roles at Goldman Sachs and TPG.
“The combination of investing with a strong mission to support students and institutions of higher learning was the perfect path for my career,” she said in a statement.
Agatone makes the move over to the larger portfolio as part of a larger-than-usual game of musical chairs within university endowment CIOs (see also: Princeton, Rice, JSU, and UFICO, among others).
She also joins the university at a time when Georgetown is facing hiring freezes and budget cuts — which interim university President Robert Groves attributed to the federal funding freezes on universities.
At Georgetown, Agatone said she's eager to contribute to the university’s mission as it grows overseas. She also wants to continue programs like the Investment Office’s internship program, which serves as a pipeline for Georgetown undergraduates into careers in investment management.
“In finance, you make a lot of assumptions about behavior in an imperfect world,” she said. “There’s something about trying to make the best decisions possible in the midst of ambiguity that was always attractive to me.”
Georgetown’s endowment returned 11.2 percent for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2024, generating $360 million in investment gains. The marketable portfolio — 70 percent of the endowment — returned 14.2 percent, while private investments returned 5.1 percent. Its public equity portfolio returned 17 percent for the year, vs. 20 percent for the benchmark.
