Author: Amy Paterson

This article appeared in Institutional Investor on June 10, 2020
Written by Alicia McElhaney

Kane Brenan joined TIFF in April, just as Pennsylvania’s coronavirus cases peaked. He talked with Institutional Investor about how he started a new job, completely online.

When Kane Brenan was hired as TIFF Investment Management’s new president, he made a plan.

He was going to spend his first week at TIFF’s Radnor, Pennsylvania office, getting to know his new colleagues. Then, he’d hit the road, spending the next month meeting with TIFF’s nonprofit clients across the country.

“One, it gives you fodder to make changes,” Brenan said on his plan to meet with clients. “But also, you are kind of a blank slate. You can go and listen and learn.”

The Covid-19 pandemic, though, derailed that plan. Brenan’s first day at the firm was April 13, just days after Pennsylvania’s new coronavirus cases peaked. All travel was put on hold, and Brenan’s first day was conducted from his family’s home.

“It’s actually gone much better than I feared in mid-March,” Brenan said by phone Monday. “I couldn’t imagine not being in the office.”

Brenan, who previously led Goldman’s global portfolio solutions group, left the firm in the fall of 2019 to return to the Philadelphia area, where his family lives. At the same time, TIFF began its search for a new president, according to TIFF’s April announcement, which noted that “the stars aligned” so that TIFF was able to hire Brenan.

According to Brenan, working for a nonprofit that also serves as an investment manager for consultants is exciting to him.

“At my age and experience, to try something that rhymes with what I’ve done but has a different bent is really cool,” he said.

When Kane Brenan was hired as TIFF Investment Management’s new president, he made a plan.

He was going to spend his first week at TIFF’s Radnor, Pennsylvania office, getting to know his new colleagues. Then, he’d hit the road, spending the next month meeting with TIFF’s nonprofit clients across the country.

“One, it gives you fodder to make changes,” Brenan said on his plan to meet with clients. “But also, you are kind of a blank slate. You can go and listen and learn.”

The Covid-19 pandemic, though, derailed that plan. Brenan’s first day at the firm was April 13, just days after Pennsylvania’s new coronavirus cases peaked. All travel was put on hold, and Brenan’s first day was conducted from his family’s home.

“It’s actually gone much better than I feared in mid-March,” Brenan said by phone Monday. “I couldn’t imagine not being in the office.”

Brenan, who previously led Goldman’s global portfolio solutions group, left the firm in the fall of 2019 to return to the Philadelphia area, where his family lives. At the same time, TIFF began its search for a new president, according to TIFF’s April announcement, which noted that “the stars aligned” so that TIFF was able to hire Brenan.

According to Brenan, working for a nonprofit that also serves as an investment manager for consultants is exciting to him.

“At my age and experience, to try something that rhymes with what I’ve done but has a different bent is really cool,” he said.

Download the PDF above to read Institutional Investor’s article on TIFF’s appointment of Kane Brenan as President.

TIFF Investment Management has appointed a new President as part of the firm’s succession planning.

Kane Brenan, who most recently served as Global Head and Co-Chief Investment Officer of the Global Portfolio Solutions (GPS) group for Goldman Sachs, will become TIFF’s President effective Monday, April 13, 2020. Kane and TIFF CEO, Dick Flannery, will work closely together to ensure a smooth leadership transition for the firm and the charitable organizations it serves.

Brenan had been with Goldman Sachs for over 20 years, was a partner in the firm, and had worked with some of Goldman’s largest pension and endowment clients in an outsourced chief investment officer (OCIO) capacity.

In a joint statement, Neal Triplett (Chair of the TIFF Board and President of Duke University’s endowment office) and Dick Flannery said: “We are delighted to add someone with Kane Brenan’s extraordinary qualifications to the TIFF senior management team. His knowledge and experience, when combined with his distinctive ‘values first’ ethos, will serve TIFF’s non-profit members well for many years to come.”

TIFF announced its formal search for a President last fall.  At almost the same time, Mr. Brenan announced his intention to leave Goldman Sachs to return to the Philadelphia area, where his family lives.  The stars aligned and TIFF identified a talented industry veteran, who sits on multiple boards, and has a passion for non-profit work, to add to the firm’s executive team and eventually replace Mr. Flannery.

“I have had an extraordinary experience at Goldman Sachs and I am now excited to join TIFF and pursue the firm’s important mission. I look forward to meeting TIFF’s members and helping each of them achieve their investment and organizational goals. TIFF represents two remarkably motivating pursuits – non-profit work and investing.  I am looking forward to getting started on those pursuits.” – Kane Brenan

Now seems like a good time to share our view on where markets and investors are on the topic of Sustainable Investing today. To start, investor confusion around the terminology and why we should care seems to be ebbing. Yes, sustainability is still defined and perceived in myriad ways, but what it boils down to largely is the efficient use of resources. Any system—a company, an industry, a market, an ecosystem—requires resources to survive. To the extent those resources are harmed or depleted, the survival of that system is at risk. To the extent those resources are maintained or renewed over time, that system has what it needs to sustain itself at least and potentially even thrive. The sustainability movement is a call for change in how we manage our resources, in particular our environmental, human and social resources. Thoughtless exploitation of those resources can work for some period of time and for some portion of the population, but in the end that approach is unsustainable.

Sustainable investing is an extension of this concept. The basic idea is to invest in businesses that employ best practices around the use of all forms of capital: financial, environmental, human, and social. Those businesses possess the best chance not just to survive, but to thrive. And of course sustainable investing also means avoiding businesses with high costs and headline risks due to poor governance and exploitative behaviors. Such behaviors are less and less tolerated by consumers, governments, and regulators. Increasingly, these behaviors make them less attractive to investors, too.