UFICO appoints its next Chief Executive Officer and Chief Investment Officer

The University of Florida Investment Corporation, or UFICO, has named Mark Baumgartner, a 25-plus-year veteran of the investment industry, to be its next chief executive officer and chief investment officer starting in January 2025.

Baumgartner will succeed Bill Reeser, UFICO’s current CEO/CIO, who is retiring at the end of this year. Reeser announced his retirement to the UFICO Board of Directors earlier this year to provide sufficient time for a successful leadership transition.

Reeser has served as UFICO’s CEO/CIO since 2014. During his leadership, UFICO’s assets under management grew from $2.7 billion to over $6 billion today, and the university’s long-term pool was able to fund over $1 billion in support for the university and its programs.

Baumgartner’s previous experience includes serving as the chief investment officer for the Carnegie Corporation of New York and for the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. He also co-led Morgan Stanley Investment Management’s institutional solutions group and served as director of asset allocation and risk for the Ford Foundation.

“Mark Baumgartner’s decades of experience in investments make him an excellent choice to lead UFICO,” UF interim President Kent Fuchs said. “He is well known in the industry, and I am confident he will provide the steady and assured guidance that is needed in such an important position.”

Baumgartner received his doctorate in aerospace engineering and a certificate in public policy from Princeton University and his bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Florida. Baumgartner also holds the Chartered Financial Analyst designation.

“I’m thrilled to be returning to my hometown to serve my undergraduate alma mater and look forward to supporting the incredible growth trajectory the University of Florida has been on for many years to come,” Baumgartner said.

UFICO was established in June 2004 by the University of Florida Board of Trustees as a direct support organization of UF. The UFICO mission is to promote the educational and research purposes of UF by providing investment research, advice and management services to UF and its affiliated organizations. In doing so, UFICO serves as a fiduciary for the financial assets that have been entrusted in its care.