PASADENA, Calif.-The California Institute of Technology (Caltech) announced today that Scott Richland will become Caltech's new chief investment officer, effective September 13, 2010. In this role, he will work closely with the Investment Committee of the Board of Trustees and the team in the Institute's Investment Office to manage Caltech's increasingly diverse array of security holdings and investment properties. Richland's financial acumen and personal integrity will be tremendous assets as he provides leadership for the Institute's investment team and enhances the performance of Caltech's endowment, which provides vital support for Caltech's research and teaching activities.
"Caltech was fortunate to find an individual with Scott's skills and experience to fill the valuable role of chief investment officer," says Caltech's president, Jean-Lou Chameau. "It takes a tremendous amount of resources to conduct cutting-edge research and provide students with a world-class education. While financial markets may fluctuate, Caltech's commitment to these goals remains constant. Scott and his team will help ensure Caltech faculty and students have the resources they need to continue to confront our greatest scientific challenges."
Richland has a track record of sound investing and providing valuable financial counsel. Most recently, he served as president of Lunada Bay Investors, LLC, a private investment firm with interests in equities, fixed income, hedge funds, private equity, venture capital, and real estate. In addition, he serves on the board of directors of several companies, including First SunAmerica Life Insurance Company and the United States Life Insurance Company in New York City. He is also an advisor to Evolved Alpha, a multi-strategy hedge fund. From 2003 to 2009, Richland served as president of private investment manager and family office Andell Holdings, LLC, and served as vice chairman of Major League Soccer's Chicago Fire, which Andell owns. Prior to his time at Andell, he spent 12 years in senior management roles at SunAmerica Inc. and AIG (which acquired SunAmerica in 1999).
Richland received his MBA from Stanford University and BA in political science from UCLA. He recently completed a six-year term on the board of trustees of the Stanford Business School Trust, which manages approximately 20 percent of the graduate school's endowment in an alumni-led, independent investment fund.
A lifelong Californian, he is very active in area community groups. He serves as a trustee of the Jewish Community Foundation of Los Angeles and as co-chair of the Los Angeles Regional Council of Birthright Israel. Scott was also a one-time trustee of United Way of Greater Los Angeles.
He was selected as chief investment officer following a search that yielded many qualified candidates, reviewed by a search committee headed by Board Chair Kent Kresa.
With Richland's arrival, current chief investment officer Sandra Ell will be proceeding with her plans, announced earlier this year, to retire to pursue other career opportunities. Ell joined Caltech's Investment Office in 1989.
"I am looking forward to working with Scott as we develop plans for the management of Caltech's endowment," adds Chameau.
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Caltech is recognized for its highly select student body of 900 undergraduates and 1,200 graduate students, and for its outstanding faculty. Since 1923, Caltech faculty and alumni have garnered 32 Nobel Prizes and six Crafoord Prizes.
In addition to its prestigious on-campus research programs, Caltech operates the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), the W. M. Keck Observatory in Mauna Kea, the Palomar Observatory, and the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO). Caltech is a private university in Pasadena, California. For more information, visit .
