When Kathleen Vogelsang was tasked with building the Van Andel Institute’s investment office from the ground up in 2005, she had a desk, a computer, and $465 million in cash. Twenty years later, she’s handing over the $2.3 billion portfolio to her deputy and starting her own firm to help others do what she did: Build investment offices from scratch.

Vogelsang confirmed with Institutional Investor that she will leave the Van Andel Institute at the end of the year. Ted Heilman, deputy CIO, will assume the role in January. “He and I have worked as a team for many years, so he’s ready to step in and take over,” she said. “I made sure to have good succession in place.”

The Van Andel Institute is a Grand Rapids, Mich.-based independent research facility devoted to improving human health through biomedical research and science education.

Her next chapter is Bostwick Investment Consulting, a fee-based advisory she co-founded with Quan Mac, CEO and CIO of Greenville Asset Management. The new Grand Rapids firm won’t sell products or manage assets directly (“We’re not asset gatherers,” she said). Instead, it will act as an extension of a client's team, offering project-based guidance ranging from establishing a full investment office to building a private equity program.

“It’s a unique skill,” Vogelsang explained. “We don’t want to manage the assets, but we want to help others build their investment offices.”

Vogelsang and Mac conceived the idea about a year ago. “We had similar roles, and we like building things and [have] built these investment offices from the ground up,” she said.

In addition to being fee-based, Bostwick will be project-based. If a high-net-worth client hires them to help build a family office, the partnership ends once the office is built. “We’re an extension of the team for as long as they need us. We’re not looking to replace any of their staff,” she said.

Bostwick’s services stem from Vogelsang’s experience developing the Van Andel Institute’s portfolio. Starting alone, she embarked on a “whirlwind tour on due diligence of managers when the market was going up,” unwilling to let the cash sit idle.

She built a five-person team over the years, including her first hire and now-successor Heilman. Together, they added significant private equity and alternative investments and brought some equity management in-house.

“The portfolio looks very different than when we started — a lot more sophisticated, with managers from all over the world,” she said, describing a typical Yale-model endowment with strong geographical diversification.

Bostwick’s services are designed to be flexible. The firm can help high-net-worth individuals, family offices, or those navigating a recent liquidity event — such as selling a family business — decide on next steps.

“When you come into a lot of money, everybody’s coming at you, and you don’t know who to trust. So, we have a network of people we can trust,” she said, noting they can provide vetted recommendations for consultants and other advisors.

Vogelsang was surprised to find interest from institutional investors — particularly private equity firms. “They said, ‘We could really use your help in giving us the LP perspective on our marketing and fundraising materials,’” she said. “We can help them review their pitch books.”

With the official launch set for January, Vogelsang is poised to leverage the skills that built one endowment’s success to help a new set of investors find their footing. “It’s hard to get into managers. How do you get into private equity? It’s a skill and not everybody knows how to do that,” she said. “You can’t just cold call a manager that’s oversubscribed.”

For Vogelsang, the move is a return to her roots — not in scaling down, but in starting again. Two decades ago, she had a desk and a mission. Today, she has a partner and a new one: to build, once more, from the ground up.

(Correction: An earlier version of this article misstated the Van Andel Institute's portfolio size of $2.3 billion.)