# St. Andrew's School of Delaware Endowment

St. Andrew's School of Delaware Endowment is an Endowment / Foundation based in Middletown, United States.

## Overview

- **Organization type:** Endowment / Foundation
- **Headquarters:** Middletown, United States
- **Region:** North America
- **Address:** Middletown, DE, United States
- **Founded:** 1929
- **Assets under management:** $228 million (Altss estimate)
- **Website:** standrews-de.org
- **LinkedIn:** https://www.linkedin.com/school/sas_delaware/

## Regulatory record

- **Reports private funds:** No

## About

St. Andrew's School was founded in 1929 by A. Felix du Pont, a scion of the du Pont family whose wealth came from the chemicals and manufacturing empire. The school operates as a 100% residential, Episcopal, co-educational institution, and its endowment exists solely to fund financial aid and faculty support — a structure that has allowed it to draw a nationally diverse student body. Former board chair Katharine duP. Gahagan and current trustee Henry McVey, CIO of KKR, maintain the family and institutional ties that distinguish the school's governance. The endowment deploys capital across buyout, distressed debt, fund of funds, natural resources, and special situations strategies. While it allocates to external managers through a conventional fund-of-funds approach, it separately targets direct, mission-related investments in ClimateTech and Energy Transition & Renewables. Confirmed positions are not publicly itemized, but the school's stated investment types include philanthropic and mission-related investing, anchored by its ESG technology focus. The school's physical assets — the 350 Noxontown Road campus, the O'Brien Arts Center, a rental property portfolio, and its fine art and archival collections — operate alongside the financial portfolio. St. Andrew's endowment engages with the institutional investment community through its membership in Commonfund, the non-profit investment network, and regional organizations like the Delaware Bankers Association. The Cornerstone Society recognizes estate-plan donors who have included the school, while the CFO, Brian Maxwell, and COO, Ann Visalli, manage day-to-day investment and operational oversight. Faculty support funds and the Kurt Sinclair and Liz Regan Kiingi '87 endowments represent named, donor-directed sub-vehicles within the broader portfolio. What makes St. Andrew's structurally distinct is its embedded dual mandate: it functions as both a traditional endowment allocating to external managers and a direct investor in assets tied to the school's mission. The board's KKR lineage through McVey gives it access to institutional-grade deal flow that most independent-school endowments cannot replicate, while the physical campus, art collection, and rental properties create a real-asset base that insulates the portfolio from purely financial market cycles.

## Sectors

- ClimateTech
- Energy Transition & Renewables

## People

- Joy McGrath — Head of School
- Brian Maxwell — Chief Financial Officer
- Ann Visalli — Chief Operating Officer
- Kellie Bickenbach — Chair of the Board of Trustees
- Henry McVey — Board of Trustees, CIO of KKR

## Questions

### Who runs investment decisions at St. Andrew's School of Delaware Endowment?

Day-to-day financial oversight falls to CFO Brian Maxwell and COO Ann Visalli, under the governance of the Board of Trustees chaired by Kellie Bickenbach. Board member Henry McVey, CIO of KKR, provides institutional investment connectivity that shapes the endowment's access to external managers and direct deals.

### Does the endowment participate in fund commitments or only direct deals?

Both. The strategy includes a fund-of-funds approach across buyout, distressed debt, and special situations, alongside direct investments in ClimateTech and Energy Transition & Renewables. The dual-track structure is unusual for an endowment of this size and type.

### What physical assets does the endowment hold beyond its financial portfolio?

The endowment's balance sheet includes the 350 Noxontown Road campus, the O'Brien Arts Center, the Sipprelle Field House, a rental property portfolio in Middletown, Delaware, and a fine art and archival collection — creating a real-asset layer that diversifies the purely financial holdings.

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Last updated: 2026-07-06T00:38:31.343Z

Canonical page: https://altss.com/profile/st-andrew-s-school-of-delaware-endowment

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