Photo by Chris Sorensen

The daughter of teenage parents, Kim Lew (MBA 1992) grew up in public housing in Harlem and the Bronx. Her father, a Chinese immigrant, worked in the mailroom of AT&T, where the CEO was a graduate of Penn’s Wharton School of Business. Lew senior urged his daughter to apply—and she graduated from Penn at age 20.

Today, as president and CEO of Columbia Investment Management Company, Lew has come full circle, overseeing a university endowment of approximately $11 billion that helps fund students for whom college is far from a given. “Playing a role in that is so important to me because I was that kid,” she says. “I do still believe that higher education can be a way to propel people into different socioeconomic brackets.”

Lew stepped into her new role last November. A 13-year veteran of the Carnegie Corporation, most recently as chief investment officer, she wasn’t looking to leave. But when a headhunter reached out, Lew decided to explore the opportunity at Columbia. “I’ve always encouraged members of my team to openly interview for positions that seem interesting,” she says. “When you interview for a job, you either end up feeling really, really good about the job you have, because there isn’t a better fit out there, or you realize there is something else you should pursue.”

Before the Carnegie Corporation, you were at the Ford Foundation for 13 years, as a portfolio strategist and senior manager of private equity. How is working in higher ed different?

At Carnegie, I supported 100 percent of the budget, so I had to do my job well; but the biggest expense of a foundation is its grants, which is a variable cost, allowing the leeway to handle more investment volatility. At a university like Columbia, we obviously don’t support 100 percent of the budget, but most of the costs are fixed. The pandemic has made it a very challenging time in the life of universities. People are thinking really hard about the value proposition of tuition costs when many students are virtual.

I wasn’t deterred by any of this, though. It felt like a good time to join, although I know this is a much higher-profile position that will put a spotlight on decisions in a way that didn’t exist to the same degree at Carnegie. As an investor, you’re held to the quality of your returns. It’s my job to ensure that everyone understands the available tools, as well as any constraints, and how that relates to team performance. With that said, I have a great team of individuals who are incredibly focused and dedicated, so I feel good about what’s to come.

You were a team of about 10 people at Carnegie; at Columbia, it’s closer to 30.

That was part of why I wanted to try this role. I thought the challenge of managing an organization that was larger and arguably more complex would be good for me. For example, we have a team involved in automating performance metrics, which makes reporting very quick and seamless. We can also check how a portfolio or a particular type of investment manager will perform in different environments.

Essentially, we can boil the ocean in a way that would be much more difficult if we didn’t have this infrastructure, which saves a huge amount of time and resources. The quicker you can make a decision about something you want to pursue, versus something you don’t, the better. Data is the differentiator and will only become increasingly important.

Can you give an example?

For the past 30 years we’ve operated in an environment where interest rates have slowly declined. I don’t know what the future looks like, but I know we’re not in an environment where that will continue. You can’t fall off the floor, as they say. You have to think about historical data in the context of that information and how investing will be impacted.

Another point is that the market used to be much more retail-focused; now the majority of investing is done through institutions, so that’s different too. However, while the retail investors are smaller, they are also better armed because of social media. As we’ve seen with GameStop, this allows them to mobilize in ways that make them better able to impact markets then previously. You have to take the data and think about it in the context of what is different; the art comes in assessing how it will play out going forward.

What was your first order of business when you came aboard in November?

It was a listening tour. I felt it was important for me to understand my team—they’re the ones who are choosing managers, and success comes with a consistent strategy. I wanted to understand what motivated them. I also spent a lot of time with the board to get a sense of their shared vision of Columbia and how they want its investment management company to be in support of the university. What does success look like for them? I’m still on the listening tour.

Do you have a particular approach when it comes to motivating people?

I believe people are motivated by being given responsibility, authority over their development, and the freedom to be creative. I want them to be able to explore ideas that maybe don’t seem like they add value to our portfolio in this minute but could in the future. One of the tech firms—I think it’s Google—gives everyone 5 percent of their time to do whatever they want. I did the same at Carnegie.

Some decided they wanted to learn a new language; some found a sector they thought was interesting to research. What comes out of this is that you could be looking at one thing, and it will infuse your decision-making in a completely different area. It’s never a waste of time: If you are making your brain bigger, then that will serve everything else you do. The world is wide, and you have to see it that way.

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