Episode summary
Meet the OCIOs: Alison Davis - Makena Capital
The Solutions Scoop
· · 39 min · Guests: Alison Davis
Summary
Alison Davis described Makena Capital as an OCIO specialist built from the former Stanford endowment team, with a model that extends beyond full discretionary portfolio management into stand-alone venture, buyout, and public equity vehicles. She said the firm began with $7 billion in cash in 2006 and has grown to $23 billion under management, while keeping its endowment-style approach as the core of the business.
She emphasized that Makena’s OCIO offering is tightly integrated: clients invest alongside the firm under the same terms, the team oversees legacy assets, writes customized investment policy statements, and manages a separate liquidity pool for operating needs. Davis also said the firm uses evergreen structures, immediately deploys new capital, and maintains annual private-asset budgets and distributions to keep the portfolio aligned with client needs.
On the market side, Davis said family offices have become more institutional and that Makena increasingly partners with other firms and distribution platforms, especially for venture access. She also discussed benchmarking, saying Makena uses a 70/30 global market portfolio as a passive risk equivalent, plus CPI + 500 and Cambridge Associates comparisons. Finally, she said Makena has leaned into AI and data tooling, rebuilding its tech stack around Databricks, Claude, ChatGPT, and Sigma to improve efficiency without expanding headcount.
Key takeaways
- Alison Davis said Makena grew from the Stanford endowment spinout in 2006 to $23 billion under management, with the endowment portfolio still at the center of the platform.
- She said Makena’s OCIO model is fully discretionary, with clients invested alongside the firm and with customized IPS, liquidity, and legacy-asset oversight.
- Davis said the firm’s stand-alone venture and buyout funds let families and other partners access private markets without waiting for a traditional private-fund J-curve.
- She said Makena benchmarks itself against a global 70/30 passive portfolio, CPI + 500, Cambridge Associates, and top endowments like Yale, Princeton, MIT, and Stanford.
- Davis said Makena has turned to Databricks, Claude, ChatGPT, and Sigma to improve efficiency and support a lean team of about 75 people.
Notable quotes
“the the firm started with $7 billion in in cash. They had to build out a global multi-asset class investment portfolio from scratch”
“all of our vehicles are perpetual or evergreen in nature, and so they're living, breathing organisms that the team constantly, you know, manages”
“So, we for the endowment portfolio, we have what we call our passive risk equivalent benchmark. So, that is the the global 70/30”
“we're very heavy users of both Claude and ChatGPT”
How the episode opens
Hi, I'm Ravi Venkatraman, co-founder of the Investment Solutions Institute and host of the Solutions Group podcast. The Institute is an independent forum dedicated to advancing the future of the Investment Solutions and OCIO industry. Here at the Scoop, we examine the latest solutions, marketplace developments, and speak directly with solutions industry leaders.
Our guests span the investment ecosystem from OCIOs to asset owners, investment consultants, asset managers, and other key industry stakeholders. These conversations are an important part of the Institute's mission to improve transparency and help establish standards and best practices across the solutions industry by educating asset owners, providers, and all other industry stakeholders. Let's get to today's scoop.
Hi, and welcome to the Solutions Scoop. Today, I'm really excited to have Allison Davis as our guest. Hi, Allison. — Hi, Ravi. Thanks so much for having me.
Absolutely. Allison Davis is a managing director in Meketa Capital's client strategy group. She joined the firm at the beginning of 2016.
She works closely with both domestic and international clients across different segments, including family offices, endowments and foundations, and sovereign wealth funds on their multi-asset investment portfolio. Allison also helps lead Meketa's efforts with wealth channels, partnering with their advisors and clients to integrate private investment strategies into their portfolios. Prior to joining Meketa, Allison worked at NEPC in Boston as an investment analyst in their E&F practice.
She has a BA in political economy from Williams College and attended the London School of Economics and now lives in the Bay Area with a husband and two young children. Welcome again, Allison.
Thanks, Robbie. Happy to be here. Appreciate it. — Great. Allison, tell us a little bit about your background. You grew up in in my neighborhood in Boston and then made your way to the West Coast.
From the episode’s captions: roughly the first two minutes, lightly cleaned. Keep watching on YouTube →
Topics
- ocio model
- governance
- family offices
- liquidity and risk management
- ai and tech stack
Companies and tickers mentioned
- Makena Capital
- NEPC
Watch the episode
Watch “Meet the OCIOs: Alison Davis - Makena Capital” on YouTube
Summary, takeaways and quote selection by Octagon. Quotes are short excerpts; the full conversation is in the episode.
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