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Trinity College
Trinity College was founded in 1823 on a hilltop overlooking Hartford, where its endowment now pools over 1,000 separately named funds into a single investment...
Trinity College
Trinity College was founded in 1823 on a hilltop overlooking Hartford, where its endowment now pools over 1,000 separately named funds into a single investment vehicle. Governance sits with a Board of Trustees chaired by Lisa G. Bisaccia, a former CVS Health executive, while the Investment Subcommittee is led by EQT Partners' James Yu. Donor relationships and committee seats intersect with some of the largest institutions in private markets: Paul E. Raether, a KKR senior advisory partner, is a Trustee Emeritus, and Commonfund's current CEO Tim Yates is a Trinity alumnus who serves as a strategic connector to the outsourced CIO ecosystem. The endowment allocates across a full alternatives stack: private equity buyout, venture capital (early-stage through late-stage), growth equity, secondaries, real assets, private credit, and hedge funds. The investment committee includes Henry Mallari-D'Auria, the CIO of Ariel Investments, and Melissa Stepnowski, the CIO of The Hartford, creating unusual in-house sourcing advantages. Real estate holdings are primarily campus-adjacent, anchored by the Learning Corridor mixed-use project and a student housing portfolio on Crescent Street and Allen Place, all held through mission-aligned structures like the Southside Institutions Neighborhood Alliance — a partnership with Hartford Hospital and Connecticut Children's Medical Center. May 2024: Trinity appointed Tim Yates, a 1994 alumnus and Commonfund's President and CEO, to its Board of Fellows, deepening the endowment's connection to the $300B outsourced CIO industry that Commonfund dominates. The endowment participates in the NACUBO-Commonfund Study of Endowments, providing annual benchmarking on its $800M–$900M pool against peer liberal arts institutions. A student-run investment fund, headquartered on campus, manages a portion of assets, while the Watkinson Library holds non-financial treasures such as the Birds of America Elephant Folio and the Trumbull-Prime Collection. What distinguishes Trinity is the concentration of private-markets operators on its investment committee — a feature more common at Ivy League endowments than at a 2,200-student liberal arts college. The Raether-Yu-Stepnowski axis creates a direct pipeline into KKR deal flow, EQT's Nordic and North American sourcing, and The Hartford's insurance-lens on credit markets. That governance structure, plus the Commonfund relationship through Yates, means a committee that can allocate into complex structures without relying solely on third-party gatekeepers.
General information
Firm type
Endowment / Foundation
Year founded
1823
Location
Region
North America
Country
United States
City
Hartford
Corporate office
300 Summit Street, Hartford, CT 06106, United States
Additional offices
Rome, Italy
Principals
Joanne Berger-Sweeney
President
Lisa G. Bisaccia
Chair of the Board of Trustees
James Yu
Chair of the Investment Subcommittee
Melissa Stepnowski
Member of the Investment Committee
Henry Mallari-D'Auria
Trustee and Chief Investment Officer at Ariel Investments
Tim Yates
President and CEO of Commonfund OCIO
Sector focus
Frequently asked questions
Who oversees investment decisions at Trinity College?
The Investment Subcommittee of the Board of Trustees has direct oversight. James Yu, a Partner at EQT Partners, chairs the subcommittee. Other members include Melissa Stepnowski, CIO of The Hartford, and Henry Mallari-D'Auria, CIO of Ariel Investments. The full Board is chaired by Lisa G. Bisaccia, former EVP at CVS Health. Day-to-day management may involve Commonfund OCIO, led by Trinity alumnus Tim Yates, though the exact delegation is not publicly detailed.
How large is the Trinity College endowment?
Trinity College does not publicly disclose a single, current AUM figure. Based on its participation in the NACUBO-Commonfund Study and the composition of its investment committee, Altss estimates the endowment falls in the $800M–$900M range. The endowment is composed of more than 1,000 individual endowed funds that are pooled for investment and payout purposes.
What is the endowment's approach to private markets?
The endowment makes significant allocations to private markets, spanning buyout, venture capital (from seed to late-stage), growth equity, mezzanine, and secondaries. This is reflected in the backgrounds of its investment committee members, who hail from firms like KKR, EQT Partners, and Cortec Group. The committee also has direct real estate exposure through campus-adjacent holdings in Hartford, including the Learning Corridor development and the Crescent Street student housing portfolio.
How does Trinity College manage its real estate holdings?
Real estate is held both for campus use and community redevelopment. The Learning Corridor, a mixed-use campus on Broad Street, was developed through the Southside Institutions Neighborhood Alliance (SINA), a partnership with Hartford Hospital and Connecticut Children's Medical Center. The endowment also owns a student housing portfolio on Brownell Avenue and Allen Place. Additionally, Trinity maintains a campus in Rome, Italy, at Via Raimondo da Capua.
What is the relationship between Trinity College and Commonfund?
The connection runs through Tim Yates, a 1994 Trinity alumnus who serves as President and CEO of Commonfund. In May 2024, Yates was appointed to Trinity's Board of Fellows. Commonfund is a major provider of outsourced chief investment officer (OCIO) services to nonprofit institutions, including many college endowments. While Trinity has not explicitly disclosed using Commonfund as its OCIO, the governance overlap makes it a likely strategic partner.
Are there any restrictions on how Trinity can invest its endowment?
The primary restriction is the mandate of intergenerational equity — the endowment must preserve its inflation-adjusted purchasing power while providing a sustainable annual payout to support college operations. Individual endowed funds may carry donor-imposed restrictions, but the full details are not public. The investment committee operates under the Uniform Prudent Management of Institutional Funds Act (UPMIFA) as adopted in Connecticut.
Does Trinity College run a student-managed investment fund?
Yes, the Trinity College Student Investment Fund (TCSIF) manages a portfolio of assets under the supervision of faculty and, in some cases, members of the investment committee. The fund is headquartered on campus in Hartford and serves as an educational vehicle for students interested in public and private market investing.
Profile maintained by Altss using OSINT (open-source intelligence), regulatory filings, licensed data partners, and verified direct submissions. Read the methodology. Last updated: . Continuous refresh with full update cycles at least every 30 days.
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