UCLA names interim president and CIO; will guide $300mln PE program

Justin Barton  has been named interim president and CIO at the UCLA Investment Company, which manages a $297 million portfolio of PE assets, Buyouts has learned.

Barton, who has been an investment director at UCLA Investment since May 2016, replaces Srinivas Pulavarti, who left earlier this year for Emory Investment Management, the $6.9 billion endowment of Emory University. Pulavarti was named vice president and CIO of Emory Investment Management effective July 1.

UCLA Investment Co manages $2.7 billion in investments for the UCLA endowment and other assets of the UCLA Foundation. The endowment’s investment pool was $2.1 billion in 2017 and returned 15.81 percent for the year ended June 30, 2017.

UCLA Investment’s PE allocation was 11 percent as of June 30, 2017.

Barton’s biography states that he began his investment career in Brown University’s investment office, then joined Old Square Capital, an investment firm based in New York. Later, he moved to London in 2011, where he worked for Investec Asset Management, an institutional investment manager.

Barton has a bachelor’s degree from Princeton University and a master’s degree in international relations from the University of Cape Town.

Other investment professionals at the UCLA Investment Co include Michael Marvelli, senior managing director responsible for the private markets portfolio, and Joe Bryant, investment director responsible for sourcing, and investing in private equity, venture capital and emerging markets.