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University of Washington Endowment
The University of Washington Investment Management Company was formed in 2015 when the Board of Regents voted to separate investment duties from the Treasury...
University of Washington Endowment
The University of Washington Investment Management Company was formed in 2015 when the Board of Regents voted to separate investment duties from the Treasury Office. UWINCO now manages all investment assets for the university, including the $6.0 billion Consolidated Endowment Fund and $3.4 billion in Invested Funds. CIO Keith Ferguson leads a team of 21 professionals from a dedicated office off the main campus. The board includes Michael Larson, who runs Cascade Investment for Bill Gates, providing a direct line to the thinking of the world's second-largest family-office portfolio. The portfolio splits into two distinct pools. The endowment fund deploys capital across public equities, fixed income, private equity, absolute return strategies, and real assets. The Invested Funds portfolio includes the Metropolitan Tract—11 acres of downtown Seattle inherited from the university's original 1861 land grant—plus Rainier Square Tower, the Fairmont Olympic Hotel, and several other commercial buildings. These directly held real estate assets give UWINCO a hybrid investment office/operating real estate company structure that most endowments lack. In fiscal 2025, the endowment distributed $185 million to the university, funding over 1,500 scholarships and 374 professorships. The investment team runs lean, with Ferguson, Nora Carroll, Kjell Konis, and six other portfolio managers dividing coverage across asset classes. COO Scott Davies handles the operational side. Board meetings occur four times per year under the Finance and Asset Management Committee of the Board of Regents. The university's Foundation handles fundraising, while Treasury Operations manages accounting and administration of the non-consolidated endowment funds, creating a clean three-way separation of duties. UWINCO itself does not disclose detailed asset-class weights, but its direct Seattle property holdings and timberland exposure suggest an above-average real-asset allocation for a public endowment its size. The structural differentiator is the Metropolitan Tract: a fee-simple land position in a top-five US gateway city that has been owned and operated by the same institution since before Washington became a state. That property portfolio generates commercial lease income independent of the financial-market endowment, functioning as a natural diversifier that most competing public-university endowments do not have. Michael Larson's board presence further distinguishes the governance posture—few public endowments have a sitting CIO of a $100B-plus family office on their investment committee.
General information
Firm type
Endowment / Foundation
Year founded
2015
AUM
$9.4B (per the firm, June 2025)
Location
Region
North America
Country
United States
City
Seattle
Corporate office
4311 – 11th Avenue NE, Suite 480, Seattle, WA 98105, United States
Principals
Keith Ferguson
Chief Investment Officer
Scott Davies
Chief Operating Officer
Michael Larson
Board Member
Robert J. Jones
Board Member (ex officio), UW President
Sector focus
Frequently asked questions
Who runs investment decisions at the University of Washington Endowment?
Keith Ferguson serves as Chief Investment Officer of UWINCO and leads a team of portfolio managers covering global public equities, private equity, real assets, absolute return, and fixed income. He reports to the seven-member UWINCO Board, which includes Michael Larson of Cascade Investment and meets quarterly. Final investment authority resides with the Finance and Asset Management Committee of the UW Board of Regents.
How is the endowment's real estate portfolio structured differently from a typical university endowment?
UWINCO directly owns and manages several landmark commercial properties in downtown Seattle—not through funds. The portfolio traces back to an 1861 land grant and includes the 11-acre Metropolitan Tract, Rainier Square Tower, the Fairmont Olympic Hotel, and the Cobb and Skinner buildings. These are held in the Invested Funds pool rather than the endowment and generate lease revenue that supplements investment returns.
What is the relationship between UWINCO and the Gates Foundation's investment operation?
Michael Larson, who has run Bill Gates's personal and foundation money through Cascade Investment since 1995, sits on the UWINCO Board. This gives the endowment direct advisory access to the CIO of one of the world's largest and most influential family-office portfolios. The Gates Foundation is headquartered separately in Seattle, and there is no disclosed co-investment relationship.
Does UWINCO participate in fund commitments or direct deals for the endowment portfolio?
The Consolidated Endowment Fund allocates primarily through external managers across public equities, fixed income, private equity, venture capital, and absolute return strategies. The Invested Funds portfolio, by contrast, holds direct real estate assets. UWINCO does not publicly disclose the split between fund commitments and direct co-investments within the endowment sleeve.
How is UWINCO governed?
The UWINCO investment company operates as a separate, self-sustaining unit of the University of Washington. Its board advises the Finance and Asset Management Committee, a sub-committee of the UW Board of Regents, which holds statutory responsibility for all university investments. The UW President serves ex officio. This structure was established in 2015 to internalize the investment function from the Treasury Office.
How much does the endowment distribute each year?
During fiscal year 2025 the endowment distributed $185 million to the university. Over the last two decades, cumulative distributions have exceeded $2.0 billion, supporting 1,507 scholarships, 1,301 fellowships, 374 professorships, and 1,201 academic programs across the University of Washington.
Which sectors does the endowment explicitly avoid?
UWINCO does not maintain a publicly stated exclusion list. The university's investment policy identifies general ESG considerations but does not name specific sector exclusions. The directly held real estate assets concentrate heavily in Seattle commercial and hospitality properties, which represents an implicit geographic concentration rather than a sector avoidance.
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