University of Memphis Foundation

University of Memphis Foundation

The University of Memphis Foundation was chartered in 1964 as a tax-exempt Tennessee corporation formed exclusively to benefit the University of Memphis. Holly Ford serves as CEO, while Marty Kelman chairs the Board of Directors — a group that includes investment veterans David Scully, president of Duncan Williams Asset Management, and Jimmy Lackie, whose background spans venture capital and hedge funds. The foundation accepts, manages, and disburses private support, functioning as the university's primary gift-receiving and investment-management vehicle. The endowment invests across real estate, growth capital, and partnership-driven operating ventures. The real assets portfolio includes the UMRF Research Park, University District Residential Properties, and a position in RREEF America REIT II, a large US property fund. Technology investments track toward Advanced Materials, Biotech, Cybersecurity, and defense-linked applications, with confirmed sector focuses that include Supply Chain & Logistics, Robotics & Automation, and Energy Transition. The foundation's most distinctive deployment mechanism is UMRF Ventures, Inc., a student-staffed enterprise whose first and largest client is FedEx Corp. — turning a corporate partnership into a revenue-generating training platform that feeds back into the university system. Board composition reflects a blend of Memphis business leadership and investment management expertise. David Scully brings fixed-income and wealth-management oversight through his role at Duncan Williams, while Jimmy Lackie's venture and hedge fund experience provides alternatives fluency. The foundation's corporate relationships extend to Nike, Inc., which contributes apparel and sponsorship support to the athletics program, and to the Herbert Herff Trust, a named philanthropic partner. The foundation also stewards non-financial assets of cultural significance, including the Institute of Egyptian Art & Archaeology Collection housed at the Art Museum of the University of Memphis, and the broader University of Memphis Art Collection. What separates the University of Memphis Foundation from most university endowments is the direct operating-company layer. Most endowments outsource all commercial activity; this foundation runs UMRF Ventures as an integrated student-workforce business with a Fortune 500 anchor client, blending workforce development and revenue generation inside the same legal entity that manages the endowment. That operating posture, combined with a board that includes practitioners from venture capital, hedge funds, and regional asset management, gives the foundation a practitioner-governance structure more common in family offices than in university endowments.