Nickol R. Hackett

The Joyce Foundation

In 2020, the Joyce Foundation launched an initiative to help seed the next generation of investment managers. The $1 billion foundation already had 15% of its assets with diverse firms and committed to investing another $100 million with five years. “Too often talented investment managers and strategists lack access to early-stage capital sources to help them achieve lift off, especially in the institutional investing space.” said Nickol Hackett, the Foundation’s Chief Investment Officer and Treasurer. “We know that by activating this segment, we not only benefit from differentiated strategies for our portfolio, but we participate in the benefits of human capital development and economic reinvestment consistent with the Foundation’s mission of advancing economic mobility,” she said in a statement on the foundation’s website. Hackett is responsible for overseeing the investment program for endowment assets of $1 billion in support of the Foundation’s grant making. Prior to joining Joyce, Ms. Hackett served as the executive director and chief investment officer of the $10 billion Cook County Pension Fund. Reporting to the Board of Trustees, she was charged with directing strategy and policies for the governance and administration of the fund. Before becoming executive director, Ms. Hackett served as the fund’s first chief investment officer establishing investment policy, asset allocation strategy, and operational structure for the combined plans since 2008.