TIAA-CREF Endowment Management Business Names CEO

Covariance Capital Management is a wholly-owned subsidiary of TIAA-CREF that provides outsourced endowment management services to educational, health care and other nonprofits. Nee will be responsible for the strategic leadership of the business, including new business development and day-to-day oversight of operations and finance. Scott W. Wise, who has led Covariance as president and chief investment officer since its launch in 2011, will remain in those roles.

Covariance offers clients fully integrated outsourced chief investment officer (OCIO) functions, including asset allocation, investment of capital with third-party managers, performance and risk reporting, as well as operational and accounting support related to investment services. In addition, Covariance manages dedicated portfolios of alternative assets.

Nee brings more than two decades of investment management, global business development and leadership experience to Covariance. He joins the firm from Wilshire Private Markets, where he led a team of 40 professionals across the U.S., Europe, Asia and Australia and oversaw the management of approximately $5 billion in discretionary client assets across commingled funds and separate accounts in the private markets. He was previously a managing director at BlackRock Alternative Advisors and a principal and portfolio manager at Quellos Private Capital Markets. Prior to those roles, he worked at Capital Z Partners and Invesco Private Capital, where he also managed private equity assets. 

Nee holds an MBA from Columbia University’s Columbia Business School and a B.S. in business administration from Villanova University.