Case Study
Advising a Non-Expert Client
Hiring a Chief Investment Officer for a Charitable Endowment Fund
The new investment strategy and deployment of monies began within six months of the new placement
​The Challenge
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Our client’s core business was non-Financial services: finding new ways for medical research to have greater patient impact.
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The fund had recently received a very significant infusion of assets, propelling it into the top 10 endowments in the UK.
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The board needed to hire a Chief Investment Officer to take lead executive responsibility for the development, monitoring and refinement of overall investment policy, strategy.
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Speed was essential as the new monies had already been onboarded.
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Since the Senior Management team were not investment specialists, they needed a trusted advisor who could help them define the new function and guide them through the hiring process.
“In our opinion Godliman’s team did a great job with our search for a Chief Investment Officer. They conducted very thorough research and provided an insightful evaluation of candidates on a strong shortlist which matched our requirements. We considered Godliman’s service to be excellent with significant personal attention to detail by Rupert Reed”.
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CEO, Top 10 UK Endowment Fund
Empower
Growth
The Results
Within one month, Godliman delivered a ranked short list of 14 Candidates based on overall Candidate Fit. From this we selected the top five for Client Interview, hosting a full day of panel interviews at our offices.
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From this list, one candidate was appointed as CIO, and two further candidates were engaged on an advisory capacity to the Investment Committee.
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Within six months an investment strategy had been agreed and implementation and deployment of the new monies had started.
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The Solution
Defining the Role and the Requirement, and Implementing the Hire
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Godliman worked with the Finance Director and the newly-appointed head of the Investment Committee to create a specification for the role, focusing on investment strategy, monitoring & compliance, and reporting.
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We recommended a combined Search and Selection approach for the recruitment process.
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We advised the client on the functional skills required for this role, defining five quantifiable criteria to help identify potentially-suitable candidates.
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Bearing in mind that the culture of the core organisation was scientific and charitable rather than financial services and commercial, identifying candidates with the right cultural fit was also crucial.
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Godliman’s Best-Fit Assessment interview therefore also focused on personality, temperament, and preferred behaviours in order to identify the candidates most likely to succeed.
