Case Study

Advising a Non-Expert Client

Hiring a Chief Investment Officer for a Charitable Endowment Fund

  • Our client’s core business was non-Financial services: finding new ways for medical research to have greater patient impact
  • The fund had recently received a very significant infusion of assets, propelling it into the top 10 endowments in the UK
  • 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
  • Speed was essential as the new monies had already been onboarded
  • 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

The new investment strategy and deployment of monies began within six months of the new placement

“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 short list which matched our requirements. We considered Godliman’s service to be excellent with significant personal attention to detail by Rupert Reed”

CEO, Top 10 UK Endowment Fund

The Solution

The Solution – Defining the Role & Requirement and Implementing the Hire

  • 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
  • We recommended a combined Search and Selection approach for the recruitment process
  • We advised the client on the functional skills required for this role, defining five quantifiable criteria to help identify potentially-suitable candidates
  • 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
  • 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

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

From this list, one candidate was appointed as CIO, and two further candidates were engaged on an advisory capacity to the Investment Committee

Within six months an investment strategy had been agreed and implementation and deployment of the new monies had started

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