Brown University announced that Jane Dietze, its chief investment officer, will step down at the end of the year after overseeing a period of significant endowment growth and financial challenges. Dietze, who has led the university’s $8 billion investment fund for eight years, will be succeeded by her current deputy, Joshua Kennedy.

During Dietze’s tenure, Brown’s endowment more than doubled over the decade ending in June 2023, reaching $8 billion and generating $5.6 billion in investment returns, according to the university’s most recent disclosures. The fund posted an annualized return of 11.4 percent during that period, surpassing the Ivy League average by over two percentage points. Although Brown’s endowment remains the smallest among the eight Ivy League schools, these gains have enabled the university to allocate more than $2.2 billion toward scholarships, professorships, teaching initiatives, and research.

Dietze, one of the few women managing investments at elite U.S. universities, will transition to become the first chief investment officer of the Fund for Science and Technology, a philanthropic organization associated with the late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen.

Brown’s financial landscape has been marked by increased spending on faculty and students, alongside external pressures. In 2022, the Trump administration’s freeze of certain research funding added to the university’s fiscal challenges, though Brown later secured an agreement to restore the funding. That same year, the university took on $800 million in loans through two separate financings. Moody’s Investors Service downgraded Brown’s credit outlook to negative in July 2023.

The university is expected to release a financial report in the coming weeks that will include updated endowment performance figures. This leadership change at the university’s investment office comes amid broader transitions, with President Christina Paxson, who has led Brown since 2012, announcing plans to step down in mid-2027.