J. Paul Getty Trust

Katharine Krieger became Chief Investment Officer in January 2024, succeeding James M. Williams who had managed the endowment for more than two decades. Krieger previously oversaw endowment assets at the University of Chicago and the Carnegie Corporation of New York. She reports to the Trust's Board of Trustees, chaired by David L. Lee, with President and CEO Katherine E. Fleming responsible for setting the overall strategic allocation budget the investment office executes against.

The fortune originates with J. Paul Getty, who founded Getty Oil Company and secured extraordinarily lucrative oil concessions in the Saudi Arabia–Kuwait Partitioned Neutral Zone starting in 1949. Upon his death in 1976, a portion of his estate flowed to the Trust, and the 1984 sale of Getty Oil to Texaco for $10.1 billion cemented the endowment's capital base. No descendants control the Trust; the assets are irrevocably dedicated to the charitable mission.

The Trust has no students, faculty, or research hospitals to fund. Its annual mandated payout of roughly 5% of assets — approximately $385 million — supports museum operations, conservation science, art-history research, and grant-making in the visual arts. This single-purpose mission eliminates the multi-school, multi-priority allocation battles common at universities, allowing a streamlined investment focus on long-term total return rather than short-term liquidity.

The investment portfolio does not treat art as an investable asset class. Masterpieces held by the Museum — such as Van Gogh's Irises and Manet's Spring — are programmatic assets, not investment holdings. The endowment portfolio is composed of traditional institutional assets: public equities, fixed income, absolute-return strategies, private equity, and real assets. Art acquisitions are funded through the operating budget, not the investment portfolio.

The Trust does not publicly disclose a dedicated co-investment program. As a tax-exempt private foundation, direct operating businesses or active control positions would create unrelated business taxable income risks, so the portfolio likely skews toward fund commitments. The appointment of Krieger, who has experience with co-investment and direct strategies at prior institutions, may signal an evolution but no formal co-investment mandate has been announced.

Public equities form the largest single allocation, typically 30–40% of assets. The private portfolio spans buyout, venture capital, and real assets, with absolute-return strategies and fixed income providing ballast. The Trust does not run a direct real estate development arm despite owning the two museum campuses; the real-asset exposure comes through commingled fund commitments.

No. The Trust is governed by an independent Board of Trustees drawn from the arts, academia, and finance. Current members include Thelma Golden, Director of the Studio Museum in Harlem, and Mary Schmidt Campbell, former President of Spelman College. The chair is David L. Lee, a finance and technology executive. No Getty family descendants sit on the board.