California State University, San Marcos Foundation

California State University, San Marcos Foundation

The California State University, San Marcos Foundation was established in 2009 as a 501(c)(3) auxiliary organization to accept and administer gifts for the university. It operates under a board chaired by Simon Kuo, retired VP of Corporate Quality at Viasat, with SchoolsFirst Federal Credit Union SVP Kristin Crellin as vice chair. Large-scale philanthropy arrived in the form of a combined $20 million for behavioral and mental health programs, sourced equally from Price Philanthropies Foundation and the Epstein Family Foundation, whose founder Dan Epstein built ConAm Management Corporation. The foundation's deployment splits across two distinct streams: a mezzanine-oriented investment strategy and direct ownership of campus-aligned real assets. The real-asset portfolio includes University Village Apartments, The QUAD, and North Commons on the residential side, plus the Extended Learning Building, Center for Children and Families, and a parking structure on the commercial side. A further mixed-use facility, Black Oak Hall, rounds out the physical holdings. The investment committee, led by Halbert Hargrove senior wealth advisor Taylor Sutherland, oversees the CSUSM Endowment Portfolio alongside the smaller CSUSM Cougar Fund. Team leadership is drawn from a cross-section of San Diego–area operating executives and philanthropists rather than career endowment managers. Carol Lazier, a board director with ties to ConAm Management Corporation, and Steve Wagner, co-founder of Stone Distributing Co., serve on the board alongside Kuo and Crellin. Hunter Industries maintains a long-term corporate partnership with the foundation. In recent months, the university spotlighted six top students from the Class of '26, reflecting the foundation's primary purpose of funding student success and faculty research. The foundation functions less as a standalone institutional allocator and more as a real-estate-heavy auxiliary treasury with a donor-advised character. Its unusual structure — blending a mezzanine investment program with directly held residential and commercial campus properties — distinguishes it from pure investment-management offices at larger UC system endowments. Governance rests with a board that mixes corporate operating veterans and family philanthropists, rather than a dedicated CIO-led investment staff.