David Holmgren of Hartford Healthcare: a Portfolio Story with Performance at the Heart

David Holmgren is Chief Investment Officer at Hartford Healthcare, based in Connecticut, and has had over 30 years of experience in running both internal and external investment portfolios in a range of settings. Aside from being a nonprofit CIO, David also serves on the investment board for the Hartford Community Foundation. 

Our podcast starts with David's journey into investing, his early work in education and what that taught him about communication, conveying complex concepts and patience. We hear about various detours his career took, and his reflections on these. He discusses the sense of duty he feels as CIO of a Non-Profit that is one of the largest employers in the area, and the pressure to perform, because an operating budget is depending on it. 

We spend some time discussing how the changing needs of a healthcare institution impact the portfolio and how he has had to flex the portfolio in the current macro environment.  He discusses adding to private credit to enhance income, and the kind of inflation protection that he has built through investing in asset-based infrastructure. 

We move then to examining the current mix of internal and external managers in the portfolio and how David has managed to achieve high-performance while pursuing certain responsible investing goals.  This gets us to a broader discussion of fees and governance, as well as team motivation and retention, and diversity across the investment world as a whole.

We end by returning to some personal reflections and we look at the overlap between parenting skills and tending a portfolio. There are more than you may think!