Abigail Wattley – Inside the $4.5B Williams Endowment | Capital Allocators EP.507

Abigail Wattley is the Chief Investment Officer of Williams College, where she oversees the $4.5 billion endowment. She's one of the rare CIOs who rose entirely from within — joining the Williams Investment Office as an analyst in 2007 when it was newly formed, and succeeding founding CIO Collette Chilton in 2023 after nearly two decades inside the office. Ted and Abigail trace that twenty-year path: writing her own job description, learning the asset classes nobody else wanted, and the tension between honoring an institution's history and putting her own stamp on a $4.5B portfolio. They cover hedge funds and why they're still 27% of the book, private markets, liquidity management against a 5% annual spend, real assets, building and developing the team, and where AI fits. Chapters: 00:00 Introduction 00:10 From Williams undergrad to the investment office 01:45 Twenty years of learning inside the office 03:33 The asset classes nobody wanted 09:05 How Collette Chilton let her make mistakes 11:29 Earning the right to win as an LP 14:19 The CIO transition and internal succession 18:14 Building a team with outside perspectives 22:45 Hedge funds: still 27% of the book 25:40 Private market liquidity and the spending math 31:46 Bonds and real assets, revisited 36:19 Mistakes coming into the CIO seat 38:50 Running a 7-person team and the analyst program 45:07 Where AI fits in the portfolio 50:42 What success looks like 52:32 Closing questions — Editing and post-production by The Podcast Consultant: https://thepodcastconsultant.com Follow Ted on Twitter/X:   / tseides   Follow Ted on LinkedIn:   / tedseides   Subscribe to the mailing list: https://capitalallocators.com/ Access the transcript with Premium Membership: https://capitalallocators.com/signup