Six years ago, Donna Snider built Hackensack Meridian Health's investment office from scratch just as the Covid pandemic began. Now, the New Jersey-based healthcare system’s first dedicated investment chief is ready to “take advantage of some stress in the market and spend some of our liquidity capacity if the price is right.”
“Where others are overallocated to private markets, we have a lot of liquidity,” Snider told Institutional Investor. “That’s a great opportunity we’re acting on.”
The move comes as the organization announced in June its intention to merge with Hunterdon Health, another New Jersey-based healthcare system with nearly $600 million in assets.
Snider, who oversees the healthcare system’s $6 billion balance sheet and $1.5 billion in pension funds, started with a completely liquid portfolio, giving the healthcare system a leg up on other allocators facing cash constraints tied to legacy private market portfolios.
While the 10-person global investment office is open to all asset classes, Snider’s “vision for the team was to ask two questions: Do we have the dollars in the right corners of the globe? And do we have the dollars with the right partners? It’s exciting to have this young portfolio that still has a lot of optionality in it.”
When Snider joined HMH as CIO in March 2020, just as the pandemic and market turmoil began, the former Kresge Foundation managing director had never been an investment chief or worked in healthcare. Amid the crisis, the finalist for II's public healthcare CIO of the year award had to learn the nuances of both roles while helping steer a large healthcare organization through an unprecedented period. She built a lean, generalist investment team—none of whom came from healthcare ("They took a leap of faith joining me," she said)—created a new asset allocation, and transitioned manager oversight in-house, with plans to expand into private equity and real estate.
However, Snider argues the real key to the fund’s success is the open lines of communication between senior leaders. “It’s a big and complex operating platform,” she said. “Integration and coordination between the CFO and CIO are so incredibly important for a long-term program.”
After joining HMH, Snider learned that healthcare institutions are more complicated and bespoke than any foundation or endowment. “We’re a different animal where needs can pop up unexpectedly,” she said. So, you need to be aware of what’s happening at all times.”
She added: “Working in a complicated entity, I’ve learned so much more about capital allocation. I’m 100 percent a better investor for being an allocator to a healthcare system.”
