The University of the South — Sewanee

The University of the South — Sewanee

The University of the South was chartered in 1857 and operates today as a private Episcopal liberal arts college governed by a Board of Trustees elected by 28 owning dioceses. The endowment exists primarily to fund financial aid and operations for the College of Arts and Sciences and the School of Theology. In 2025, the institution named Isabelle Love — formerly of Princeton University Investment Company (PRINCO) and Goldman Sachs — as CFO and Vice President for Administration, signaling an intent to bring Princeton-model portfolio sophistication to Sewanee's investment office. The endowment allocates across venture capital, growth equity, buyout, mezzanine, fund-of-funds positions, and natural resources including timberland. The university directly manages the 13,000-acre Domain, a land asset held since the 19th century, and operates limited partnerships tied to timber and natural resources. The Sewanee Village Ventures initiative, led by Vice President David Shipps, represents a direct real estate development play converting university-owned land adjacent to campus into a mixed-use commercial district — a move that turns a passive land holding into an active income-producing asset. Sewanee's investment management is overseen by Board of Regents member and Investment Committee Chair Sandy Guitar. The committee includes Vice-Chancellor Rob Pearigen and Regent James Folds Jr., maintaining a compact governance structure typical of institutions at this AUM scale. The endowment participates in NACUBO and the Annapolis Group, tracking comparably sized liberal arts college portfolios. The university also holds an unusual intellectual property asset: the copyrights to Tennessee Williams' works, donated by the playwright himself. The institution's most telling structural differentiator is its ecclesiastical ownership model. Twenty-eight dioceses elect the Board of Trustees, linking fiduciary duty to a specific religious constituency in a way few other endowed liberal arts colleges replicate. This governance framework constrains mission drift and preserves the university's identity — an architectural feature that influences investment time horizon and illiquidity tolerance more than any single portfolio decision.