Brooks School

Brooks School

Brooks School was founded in 1926 by Endicott Peabody as a private, co-educational college-preparatory institution overlooking Lake Cochichewick. The school operates under Head of School John R. Packard, with a board led by President John R. Barker '87 and Treasurer Valentine Hollingsworth III '72, while maintaining ties to notable alumni including Steve Forbes '66 and former Morgan Stanley Vice Chairman Peter A. Nadosy '64. The $102M endowment (Altss estimate) pursues a multi-asset strategy spanning venture capital, growth equity, buyouts, and fund-of-funds commitments. Publicly available information from 2025 tax filings and related documents shows allocations to venture strategies across seed, start-up, and expansion stages, alongside buyout and growth vehicles. The institution draws into a deep alumni network that includes financial services executives and publishing heirs, creating unusual deal-access channels for an educational endowment. Geographic focus remains anchored in the United States with no confirmed international direct investments. Beyond the endowment, Brooks School holds real assets including the 270-acre main campus, the Lakeview Farm property in North Andover, and specialized collections such as the Robert Lehman Art Center Collection and the Buhl Collection photography portfolio. The school is a member of Great Boarding Schools, a consortium of elite North American preparatory institutions. In May 2025, the Diana Davis Spencer Foundation was confirmed as a major grant donor supporting campus programs. Brooks operates with a structural posture uncommon among secondary-school endowments: its investment strategy mirrors that of a small institutional allocator rather than a passive education fund. The absence of a separate foundation vehicle channels all investable assets through the endowment, creating a concentrated governance structure under the Board of Trustees investment committee. This places alumni-trustees with Wall Street backgrounds in direct oversight of venture and buyout commitments, blending fiduciary duty with deal-flow access in ways rare for an institution focused on grades nine through twelve.