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Drew University
Drew University opened in 1867 as a Methodist theological seminary on a wooded Madison, New Jersey campus, funded by the wealth of Daniel Drew — a steamboat...
Drew University
Drew University opened in 1867 as a Methodist theological seminary on a wooded Madison, New Jersey campus, funded by the wealth of Daniel Drew — a steamboat and railroad financier whose name is still attached to the endowment. The university now runs the College of Liberal Arts, Drew Theological School, and the Caspersen School of Graduate Studies. The draw on the endowment supports Drew's Phi Beta Kappa liberal-arts mission, with the portfolio managed under the stewardship of the Board of Trustees and its investment committee. The endowment deploys capital across a deliberately diverse set of alternative strategies. The portfolio's fund-of-funds construction spans buyouts, distressed debt, natural resources, special situations, and turnaround strategies. While the university does not publicly list its underlying manager line-up or direct holdings, the investment committee has leaned on practitioners who bridge institutional allocator backgrounds and private-markets expertise — former investment committee chair Leo Grohowski also served as chief investment officer of BNY Mellon Wealth Management. The chair of the board, William W. Landis III, co-founded the real-estate credit manager Raith Capital Partners, bringing transactional private-market experience to the committee. The finance function sits with CFO Ken Macur. Drew participates in the NACUBO survey universe, giving it access to peer benchmarking data on endowment practices. The university also owns physical assets beyond the endowment pool, including the 186-acre main campus, the Drew Forest Preserve, and the Zuck Arboretum. In 2023, Hilary Link was appointed president, consolidating leadership of the university's financial and academic strategy. The endowment is structurally a classic liberal-arts pool — modest in scale relative to the Ivy League — but the portfolio's exposure to distressed, turnaround, and special-situations strategies marks a willingness to absorb complexity uncommon among similarly-sized endowments. The presence of a real-estate credit professional as board chair adds a layer of practitioner-driven oversight to the investment committee.
General information
Firm type
Endowment / Foundation
Year founded
1867
Location
Region
North America
Country
United States
City
Madison
Corporate office
36 Madison Avenue, Madison, NJ 07940, United States
Principals
Hilary L. Link
President
Ken Macur
Chief Financial Officer
William W. Landis III
Chair of the Board of Trustees
Leo Grohowski
Former Chair of the Investment Committee
Sector focus
Frequently asked questions
What is the investment strategy of the Drew University endowment?
The endowment uses a fund-of-funds structure with commitments across buyouts, distressed debt, natural resources, special situations, and turnaround strategies. The university does not publicly disclose its underlying fund portfolio, so the exact manager line-up is not available. The investment committee oversees asset allocation, drawing on members with institutional and private-markets experience.
Who oversees investment decisions for the Drew University endowment?
The Board of Trustees is ultimately responsible, with direct oversight provided by its investment committee. Current board chair William W. Landis III, co-founder of Raith Capital Partners, brings real-estate credit expertise. Leo Grohowski, a former investment committee chair, also held the role of CIO of BNY Mellon Wealth Management, giving the committee deep institutional-investment experience.
How large is the Drew University endowment?
The university does not publish a rolling public figure for its endowment. Based on analysis of financial and regulatory filings, the pool is estimated at approximately $183 million. This places Drew among smaller liberal-arts endowments nationally.
Does Drew University invest directly or through funds?
The endowment deploys through a fund-of-funds approach, not via direct co-investments or single-stock holdings, based on its mandate structure. This architecture allows it to access buyouts and distressed debt by layering manager selection across multiple private-market funds.
Where did the Drew University endowment's wealth originate?
The wealth traces to Daniel Drew, a 19th-century Wall Street financier and steamboat operator who funded the founding of the Methodist seminary that became Drew University in 1867. His career in transportation and stock speculation generated the fortune that seeded the institution.
How is a smaller endowment like Drew's positioned versus larger peers?
Drew's $183 million pool is small relative to the multi-billion-dollar Ivy League endowments, but the portfolio's stress on distressed, turnaround, and special-situations allocations reflects a higher-complexity mandate than many similarly-sized peers. The committee's practitioner-heavy leadership — including a real-estate credit founder — supports this posture.
What is Drew University's relationship to the Borough of Madison regarding its land assets?
Drew owns substantial real estate beyond the endowment fund itself, including the main campus, the Drew Forest Preserve, and the Zuck Arboretum. The university has collaborated with the Borough of Madison and the Friends of the Drew Forest on preservation and land-redevelopment agreements, balancing its educational mission with local conservation interests.
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