Pete Ricketts

The University of Chicago Booth School of Business is a graduate business school located in Chicago, Illinois, at the University of Chicago. Formerly known as the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business, Chicago Booth is the second-oldest business school in the U.S., the first such school to offer an Executive MBA program, and the first to initiate a Ph.D. program in business. The school was renamed in 2008 following a $300 million endowment gift to the school by alumnus David G. Booth. The school has the third-largest endowment of any business school. The school's flagship campus is located in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago on the main campus of the university. The school also maintains additional campuses in London and Asia (originally Singapore, but in July 2013 a move to Hong Kong was announced), as well as in downtown Chicago on the Magnificent Mile. In addition to conducting graduate business programs, the school conducts research in the fields of finance, economics, quantitative marketing research, and accounting. Chicago Booth is currently ranked first in the United States by Bloomberg Businessweek and first globally by the Economist.

The University of Chicago's Office of Investments (COI) is responsible for managing the University's investment assets, which includes overseeing the endowment to ensure that it benefits both current and future generations of the University of Chicago. COI oversees the broad investment strategy and provides input to the development of the strategic and tactical investment policies of the University & UCMC endowments, pension plans and self-insurance trust assets. Their strategy combines qualitative and quantitative analysis, seeking to achieve superior investment performance on a risk-adjusted basis.COI's approach seeks to evaluate the investment strategy as an integrated part of the operating plans of the University rather than in isolation and focuses the the University's overall success, not investment returns. The endowment is well-diversified across a variety of asset classes, including global stocks and bonds, real estate, natural resources, private equity, absolute return strategies and protection (tail-hedging strategies). Asset class exposure is achieved primarily by selecting and engaging external managers. COI manages the global macro and the overlay portfolio to ensure that the portfolio's overall positioning is compliance with the endowment's investment guidelines.COI's strategies for investing in the public markets include: Absolute Return, Private Debt, Fixed Income and Credit. and Global Equities.COI's real assets team invests globally in real estate and natural resources using outside managers. The real estate portfolio invests globally in value-added and opportunistic strategies using both private partnerships and public vehicles. The natural resources portfolio invests globally in strategies that include, but are not limited to: oil and gas exploration & production; power generation; infrastructure; timber; mining and minerals; and agriculture.