Geraldine Fabrikant, NY Times, features Paula Volent, head of the Bowdoin College endowment in “A College Investor Who Beats the Ivy’s”, here…

”Ellen Shuman, a former Bowdoin trustee and Investment Committee member, said skilled, full-time portfolio managers like Ms. Volent tended to do better than committees.

“Investment committees are poor stewards of capital,” said Ms. Shuman, a partner at Edgehill Endowment Partners, where she manages money for nonprofits. “They each want people they know as managers. They are not there watching the managers day to day and monitoring the portfolio.””

And, this:

”Mr. Druckenmiller said Ms. Volent’s background in art might have made her more creative than most financial managers.

“It can’t be overemphasized,” he said. “She does not have a cookie-cutter financial background.”

He added that she liked to develop younger managers and stick with them.”

I love this:

”Ms. Volent said her work in art restoration had taught her the need for concentrated study before plunging into action.

“Art conservation and investment management are similar,” she said. “You do a lot of preliminary work. You don’t want to drop an artwork in a solution and it disappears. The same is true in investments.””

Do read the whole thing… I continue to think that The NY Times business section is underrated…