Rebecca Carland has been named the chief investment officer of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, according to an April 7 news release.
She will be responsible for overseeing the $2.6 billion endowment of the Miami-based foundation, which provides funding for journalism organizations, community-based arts and culture initiatives, as well as research on media and democracy.
In the newly created role, Carland will serve as the foundation’s first in-house investment chief since the 2005 retirement of Timothy Crowe, who served as vice president and CIO.
After Crowe retired, the Knight Foundation tapped Cambridge Associates, which had served as the organization’s consultant, for its outsourced CIO services. Juan Martinez, vice president, chief financial officer and treasurer at the foundation, had led relationships with the organization’s OCIO.
“We are thrilled to have Rebecca at the helm of our investment office,” said Maribel Pérez Wadsworth, president and CEO of the Knight Foundation, in the news release. “Building an in-house investment team allows us to manage our assets with greater strategic flexibility, ensuring that we continue to support Knight’s mission in perpetuity.”
Carland will report to Pérez Wadsworth, a spokesperson for the foundation said in an email.
Before joining the Knight Foundation, Carland most recently served as a senior adviser at Builders Asset Management, the investment arm of Builders Vision, which is the impact investment platform of the heirs of Sam Walton, the founder of Walmart. The $4 billion Chicago-based organization supports the Walton family office through three branches — direct lending, asset management and philanthropy.
Carland has served as senior adviser since January, taking the role after working as chief investment officer for the asset management unit. She will continue as senior adviser through the end of the month, a spokesperson for Builders Vision noted in an email.
Carland also worked for the $225 billion Walton Enterprises, the Bentonville, Ark.-based family office of the Walton family, as well as Cambridge Associates and Goldman Sachs.
In addition to naming a new CIO, the Knight Foundation announced Shanna Charles as director of investment operations, a newly created role.
Charles previously served as senior manager of investment operations at an ultra-high-net-worth private family office that was unnamed in the news release. She was responsible for creating investment policies and procedures, as well as expanding the staff.
She also worked at Cambridge Associates, where she managed the trust, taxable entity and foundation portfolios for organizations including the Knight Foundation.
Alongside Carland, Charles will join the foundation later in April, the Knight Foundation spokesperson said.
Earlier in March, the Knight Foundation also announced that Kevin Stephenson, president of the investment team at Walton Enterprises, joined the foundation’s board of trustees. Prior to founding the team in 2019, he has provided OCIO services to foundations and university endowments for Cambridge Associates, one of his clients including the Knight Foundation.
As of Dec. 31, the target allocation of the Knight Foundation was 45% to global public equity, 25% to private investments, 15% to hedge funds, 10% to U.S. core bonds and 5% to U.S. TIPS.
