William & Mary Foundation (WMF)

William & Mary Foundation (WMF)

The William & Mary Foundation was formed in 1939 to receive, manage, and invest private gifts for the university's benefit. CEO Matthew Lambert leads the foundation's fundraising and strategic direction, while Brian Hiestand serves dual-hatted as CEO and CIO of the 1693 Management Company, the investment office that runs the foundation's multi-asset portfolio. An independent board of up to 40 trustees governs the foundation, with the Investments Committee representing WMF on the 1693 Partners Fund Board. The foundation allocates across a deliberately heterogeneous mix including real estate, natural resources, energy infrastructure, private credit, and hedge fund strategies. Real assets feature prominently: WMF directly holds mixed-use property Tribe Square, the New Town Office Building, and the Corner House in Williamsburg, plus timber and self-storage facilities. The 1693 Partners Fund serves as a pooled vehicle through which the foundation accesses private markets and alternative investments. Confirmed co-investor relationships include Jane Batten's $100 million gift establishing the Batten School of Coastal & Marine Sciences, which may create future marine-science investment adjacencies. Hiestand and his colleague Lauren Jacobson are active participants in the Academy for Institutional Investors, a professional network for endowment and foundation investment staff. The foundation also engages through the Association of Governing Boards' Foundation Leadership Forum. These peer networks often function as shared due-diligence channels at endowments of this scale. The foundation administers three adjacent philanthropic entities: the Muscarelle Museum of Art Foundation, the W&M Athletic Educational Foundation, and the W&M Real Estate Foundation, each with separate but related asset pools. The foundation's hybrid architecture — a 501(c)(3) public charity that is both the primary endowment beneficiary and the controlling entity behind a dedicated investment management company — departs from the typical university model where an in-house investment office reports to the board of visitors. Here, the foundation board and its 1693 Management Company subsidiary hold a concentrated governance mandate, making the foundation the center of financial gravity for William & Mary.