Madeira School

Madeira School

The Madeira School was founded in 1906 as a college-preparatory boarding and day school for girls in McLean, Virginia. The institution's financial foundation rests on its 376-acre campus, physical assets including an equestrian center and art gallery, and an endowment structured to provide long-term operational support. Elizabeth Hewitt, also CIO of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, chairs the Investment Committee and shapes its unorthodox portfolio. The endowment deploys across a wide spectrum unusual for its size class: venture capital (early stage through growth), buyouts, CLOs, mezzanine debt, natural resources, and secondaries. Confirmed portfolio structures include fund-of-funds and direct co-investments. The physical campus in McLean serves as a core asset, alongside the Madeira Art and Antiquities Collection, STEAM Academic Center, and equestrian facilities. Investment oversight sits with a Board of Trustees that includes finance professionals like Jose Maria Zertuche Trevino, a Managing Director at BlackRock. Christina Kyong was appointed Head of School in July 2023, succeeding the previous leadership. The school maintains memberships in the National Association of Independent Schools and the Virginia Association of Independent Schools, but does not disclose team headcount for its investment office. The endowment's structural differentiator is its dual identity: it combines the governance of an educational institution with an institutional-caliber investment committee led by a major foundation CIO. This grants Madeira access to asset classes and manager relationships typically out of reach for endowments under $100M. The committee operates with a hybrid model — managing direct real assets while also committing to external private funds, a configuration that mirrors larger university endowments more than peer secondary schools.