By David G. Barry
Edgar Smith has left his
longtime role as a managing director in the University of Southern
California Investment Office.
Smith’s plans are not known and neither he, USC Chief Investment Officer Amy
Diamond, or a university spokesman, Ron Mackovich, immediately returned
messages. USC’s endowment was at $8.1 billion as of June 30, 2021. For the
fiscal year ended June 30, 2021, it generated a 43.2% return. It has not yet
released results for its 2021-2022 fiscal year.
Smith, who joined USC 10 years ago, was, according to his LinkedIn profile,
part of the school’s senior investment team with responsibility across asset
classes and strategies including equities, hedge funds venture capital and
credit.
Prior to USC, Smith was a senior research analyst with the Archstone
Partnerships. He also has held roles with Lasair Capital, Paamco and JPMorgan.
Smith is the second managing director to leave the USC Investment Office in the
past six months. Earlier this year, Samantha Cooper left after 10 years
to become a managing director of non-profit OCIO solutions for Russell
Investments.
According to a website listing, the investment office currently has two
managing directors: Hailey Liu and Brian Johnson. Liu, who has
been at USC since 2015, focuses on equities and real estate. Johnson joined USC
in 2014 from UC Regents, where he was director of real assets.
Diamond replaced the retiring Lisa Mazzocco as CIO in the fall of 2020.
She previously had served two decades as managing director of private
investments and real assets with Northwestern University’s Investment Office.
USC’s asset allocation consists of 45.5% in global equity, 18.4% in venture
capital, 9.4% in absolute return, 8.4% in private equity, 5.6% in natural
resources, 5.2% in fixed income, 4.4% in real estate and 3.2% in cash.
