Homegrown CIO at Williams College - Abigail Wattley

**Abigail Wattley** (0:00)
We've been clear-eyed about what our strategy is since day one, and that hasn't changed. By having an internal candidate become the CIO, we can stay laser focused on what it is that we're here to do. There was no time wasted or a lost repointing the ship.
That is a huge benefit. I also, coming into the role, knew the portfolio, especially some of our longstanding relationships, the role that they played, the value that they added, the fact that those were not going to change anytime soon. Having some clear things that we weren't going to be changing was very valuable. On the flip side, there were a couple new people that joined as I became CIO. One of the things that is powerful right now about our team is that we have a lot of people that bring different experience with them from other investment offices.
We understand and respect the history of the portfolio, why we've been able to generate the returns that we have over time, what's important to stay focused on, and yet we're not stagnant in the work that we're doing. That pairing is important and one of the things that's been very fun for me in having this team is the ability to learn from them, to draw from them the best practices that they bring to the table from the different places that they have all worked.

**Ted Seides** (1:33)
I'm Ted Seides, and this is Capital Allocators.
My guest on today's show is Abigail Wattley, the Chief Investment Officer of Williams College, where she oversees the school's $4.5 billion endowment. She became CIO three years ago upon the retirement of Collette Chilton, whose past conversation is replayed in the feed.
Abigail has spent two decades in the Williams Investment Office, and her tenure manifests the benefits of duration and institutional knowledge in the seat. Our conversation traces Abigail's nearly 20-year journey inside the Williams Investment Office, from joining as an early analyst to becoming the internal successor CIO. We discussed the consistent mandate throughout, alongside Abigail's evolution from analyst to deputy to decision maker, including the knowledge retained as an internal candidate, the tension between respecting an institution's history and putting her own stamp on the portfolio, and perspectives on hedge funds, private markets, liquidity management, real assets, team development, and AI.
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