Xander Perry to Succeed May Ng as Chief Investment Officer

Xan­der Per­ry, direc­tor of Pri­vate Cap­i­tal Invest­ments at the Annie E. Casey Foun­da­tion, has been pro­mot­ed to vice pres­i­dent and chief invest­ment offi­cer, suc­ceed­ing May Ng, who is leav­ing to lead the invest­ments team at the Robert Wood John­son Foun­da­tion.

Per­ry joined the Casey Foun­da­tion in 2013 and leads the invest­ment and man­age­ment of a $1.5 bil­lion pool of diver­si­fied pri­vate cap­i­tal invest­ments. As a senior mem­ber of the invest­ments team, he pro­vides guid­ance to sup­port the man­age­ment of oth­er asset classes.

Since join­ing the Foun­da­tion 10 years ago, Per­ry has eval­u­at­ed, select­ed and mon­i­tored hun­dreds of invest­ments across asset class­es. He has con­tributed broad­ly to the lead­er­ship of the invest­ment team and the man­age­ment of the Foundation’s endow­ment, includ­ing the devel­op­ment of the Foundation’s invest­ment pol­i­cy state­ment and asset allo­ca­tion frame­work that guide invest­ment deci­sions. Pri­or to join­ing Casey, Per­ry was a part­ner at a ven­ture cap­i­tal firm where he worked for 15 years invest­ing in ear­ly-stage soft­ware and health care businesses.

“Xan­der brings the exper­tise we need at the Foun­da­tion to lead a tal­ent­ed invest­ments team and ensure that our endow­ment will sup­port Casey’s mis­sion to improve the lives of chil­dren, youth and young adults in our nation,” said Lisa Hamil­ton, pres­i­dent and CEO of the Casey Foun­da­tion. ​“I am grate­ful to May Ng for her wise stew­ard­ship of our invest­ments team for the past sev­en years. We are so for­tu­nate to have the per­fect suc­ces­sor to May right under our roof.”

Per­ry earned a Mas­ter of Busi­ness Admin­is­tra­tion degree from the Whar­ton School of the Uni­ver­si­ty of Penn­syl­va­nia and a Bach­e­lor of Arts degree in Eng­lish and his­to­ry from Emory Uni­ver­si­ty. He gained his ini­tial work expe­ri­ence sup­port­ing a mis­sion-guid­ed orga­ni­za­tion while at Emory, work­ing as a finan­cial ana­lyst intern for The Carter Cen­ter’s Democ­ra­cy Pro­gram at the Jim­my Carter Pres­i­den­tial Library and Muse­um.

In his new role as leader of the invest­ment team, Per­ry will pro­vide vision and over­sight to man­age the strate­gic growth of the Foundation’s $3.5 bil­lion endow­ment, includ­ing the rig­or­ous review of exist­ing and prospec­tive invest­ments and strate­gies. He will help the team direct research and man­age­ment of active port­fo­lios that are expect­ed to pro­vide the great­est ben­e­fit for assets under their area of responsibility.

Per­ry will also pro­vide the pres­i­dent, chief exec­u­tive offi­cer and Board of Trustees with reg­u­lar analy­sis of the glob­al eco­nom­ic sit­u­a­tion relat­ed to the Foundation’s invest­ment program.

“I am excit­ed and grate­ful for this oppor­tu­ni­ty,” Per­ry said. ​“Over the past 10 years, I have gained a tremen­dous appre­ci­a­tion for how per­son­al­ly reward­ing it is to mar­ry my expe­ri­ences and inter­ests as an investor with the oppor­tu­ni­ty to sup­port the Foundation’s mis­sion to improve the future of the nation’s chil­dren, fam­i­lies and com­mu­ni­ties. Guid­ing the Foundation’s invest­ments to serve that pur­pose is a respon­si­bil­i­ty I take very seri­ous­ly, and I look for­ward to lead­ing a team to help Casey ful­fill its mission.”

Ng led Casey’s invest­ments for the past sev­en years. After work­ing as a senior invest­ment offi­cer at George Wash­ing­ton Uni­ver­si­ty, she joined the Foun­da­tion in 2013 and was pro­mot­ed to vice pres­i­dent and chief invest­ment offi­cer two years lat­er. Dur­ing Ng’s tenure as CIO, the Foundation’s endow­ment grew by near­ly $1 bil­lion while invest­ing in assets aligned with Casey’s mis­sion. She also devel­oped a frame­work for under­stand­ing and mea­sur­ing diver­si­ty in endow­ment investments.

Per­ry com­mend­ed Ng’s lead­er­ship style of part­ner­ship and shared account­abil­i­ty across the team, which he said he plans to continue.

Per­ry and his wife, Lau­rel, live in Bal­ti­more and have three chil­dren, ages 17, 20 and 22. He will assume his new role on March 24.