W.J. (Jerry) Burroughs was hired as CIO of the trust funds of DePauw University, Greencastle, Ind., and the Indianapolis Museum of Art to coordinate their investments in order to improve performance and reduce costs.
Mr. Burroughs, who retired this summer as director-portfolio investments of Dow Chemical Co., Midland, Mich., was hired after a search by Korn/Ferry International. Mr. Burroughs oversaw Dow’s $9 billion pension fund and $4 billion 401(k) fund for 11 years.
The coordination could lead to restructuring the investment manager lineups of both funds. The DePauw endowment has $425 million in assets, and the IMA foundation, $325 million.
Mr. Burroughs plans to present recommendations to trustees of each fund in January. The funds now have 26 managers, of which only two — PIMCO and Alliance Bernstein — overlap. "At some point we will have fewer managers and more overlaps,” he said. Mr. Burroughs declined to say if the funds eventually will be combined into a single pool. "Long term, we will look at a lot of ideas,” he said.
At Dow, Christopher Li, who was director-equity investments, was named corporate director-portfolio investments to succeed Mr. Burroughs. Dow is searching for a replacement for Mr. Li; he couldn’t be reached for comment.