The Berkeley Endowment Management Company, or BEMCO, announced David McAuliffe as its new president and chief investment officer Tuesday.

McAuliffe, a former senior investment officer at the University of Washington Investment Management Company, will oversee the UC Berkeley Foundation endowment, which is currently valued at $1.8 billion, according to a press release by the UC Berkeley Foundation. He will formally take over the position on Dec. 1.

BEMCO was founded by the UC Berkeley Foundation in 2009 to manage the campus’s endowment fund and support “Berkeley’s mission of teaching, research and public service,” according to campus spokesperson Roqua Montez.

Montez said in an email that BEMCO, a full-time investment team, ensures “the highest quality stewardship” of private donations made to the UC Berkeley Foundation and of revenue generated by ongoing fundraising efforts.

Former BEMCO president John-Austin Saviano resigned in March to create his own investment advisory firm. Montez confirmed that there “was nothing going on at BEMCO that instigated a change in leadership.”  

McAuliffe has a master’s degree in international relations from Johns Hopkins University and an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, according to the press release. He also has experience in investment banking, strategy consulting, private equity and corporate development.

According to Montez, it is too soon to say what McAuliffe will do differently as president and CIO, as the success of BEMCO is measured over extended periods of time. Montez added in his email that the campus is confident that McAuliffe’s leadership abilities and investment knowledge will lead to the growth of the campus’s endowment.

“The endowment is an important tool in ensuring Berkeley’s ability to sustain its excellence in world-class research and discovery by its faculty and to serve as an engine of social mobility for students for generations to come,” Montez said in his email.