THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, November 19, 1995 TAG: 9511171175
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: CHARLOTTESVILLE LENGTH: Long : 136 lines
You think it's tough trying to invest for your future?
Imagine being responsible for more than $725 million, with your performance reviewed quarterly. That's the challenge that Alice W. Handy, treasurer of the University of Virginia, faces every day.
``There's immediate gratification,'' Handy said. ``You know right away if you've done well or you haven't done well.''
And according to university officials and others in a position to know, she has done very well.
Handy, 47, has managed the university's endowment and operating funds for the past seven years. Since then, the endowment has grown from about $500 million to more than $725 million, due partly to contributions, but mostly from market returns, said Ray C. Hunt Jr., formerly the university's vice president for business and finance and now a professor at the McIntire School of Commerce.
``Handy has been primarily responsible for those achievements,'' Hunt said.
Indeed, Handy consistently has shown herself to be an outstanding steward of the university's funds, said Robin E. Jenkins, director of the Center for Institutional Accounting, Finance and Management at the Washington-based National Association of Colleges & Universities.
``The University of Virginia's portfolio performance is one of the best in the country,'' Jenkins said. ``U.Va. is consistently close to No. 1.''
Jenkins' organization counts 2,700 of the country's 3,200 public and private colleges and universities as members. And the university's fund is not small potatoes.
It has the fifth-largest endowment of any public university in the country, after the University of California system, the Texas A&M system, the University of Texas system and the University of Michigan, according to the association.
Handy's work at the university, and as treasurer of the commonwealth of Virginia in the late 1980s, has brought her to state and national prominence. First Union National Bank of Virginia named her to its board of directors this year.
Also this year, Handy became the first woman to chair the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board. The Washington-based rulemaking board is a high-profile agency in the national securities industry that sets standards and rules for states, cities, counties, public universities and other agencies that sell bonds to fund public projects.
``We're appreciative every day of what she does for the university,'' said Leonard W. Sandridge Jr., the university's executive vice president and chief financial officer. ``Few people at universities, especially public universities, have her experience.''
A native of Wilmington, Del., Handy earned a bachelor's degree in economics at Connecticut College for Women in 1970 and later completed another 24 hours of graduate studies in economics at the university, falling just a thesis short of a master's degree. Why not finish the degree?
``I had children,'' she said.
Handy is married to Peter Stoudt, a writer, and has three children from a previous marriage, Nicholas, 16, Jennifer 14, and Abigail, 10.
By now, she believes another diploma would add little to her reputation. Although she keeps a relatively low profile in Charlottesville, Handy is respected in financial circles in Richmond, Washington and New York.
Directly after finishing college, she became one of three managers of the $1 billion to $2 billion public-bond portfolio of Travelers Insurance in Hartford, Conn.
``I was 22 years old and being called on by the biggest brokers in New York,'' she said, in a voice still tinged with amazement. ``It was great fun.''
In 1974, she moved to Virginia and the university quickly created a position for her, signing her up as the university's first investment officer, Hunt said. Handy arrived in the midst of a stock market drop, which had withered the university's endowment from more than $80 million to about $60 million.
``She helped us turn that situation around,'' Hunt said.
Handy grew in her job and as the endowment swelled, so did her responsibilities, he said. In 1983 she was promoted to assistant vice president and investment officer, holding that job until 1988, when she was named treasurer of the university and then-Gov. Gerald L. Baliles appointed her treasurer of Virginia. Handy took a leave of absence from the university to take the state job.
In that position, she was responsible for keeping track of cash collected and disbursed by the state government and managing debt issues to cover the government's short- and long-term financing needs.
``She quickly impressed officials at the state and national levels in the banking and bond communities,'' Baliles said. ``She was clearly among the best and brightest of my administration.''
Back in Charlottesville, Handy oversaw the refinancing of the $150 million debt the university issued to build its new hospital facilities, saving the university about $20 million in the process.
Baliles and university officials say the university is lucky to have someone of Handy's caliber in her post. Officials say she has received other job offers, but has turned them down.
``You always worry about losing outstanding talent,'' Sandridge said.
Others in her position already might have left. As of last December, Handy earned an annual salary of $130,000, without any bonuses. That's considerably less than she could earn for managing a portfolio of a similar size in the private sector.
She is not involved in the minute-by-minute investment decisions for the endowment funds - professional portfolio managers and one in-house bond trader take care of that. But she ultimately is responsible for their performance. She must monitor their activities along with attending meetings, giving talks, teaching, reporting to the university officials and the board of visitors, and serving as a financial consultant to a number of university-affiliated boards at the Charlottesville university and to Virginia State University in Ettrick and Old Dominion University in Norfolk.
Along with her university work, Handy spends considerable time sharing her professional skills with not-for-profit organizations throughout the state, which Jenkins said is unusual.
``It's a cutthroat business,'' Jenkins said. ``Many of her peers are too busy optimizing returns to volunteer their time.''
Handy helps supervise the investments made on behalf of state employees as a member of the Virginia Retirement System Investment Advisory Committee since 1994. She serves also on the boards of the Preservation Alliance and the Virginia Discovery Museum, and on the finance committee of Thomas Jefferson Memorial Church.
Despite her heavy responsibilities and a schedule tailor-made for ulcers and high blood pressure, Handy is confident, unpretentious and excited about what she does.
``I've always had a wonderful job and worked for great people,'' Handy said. ``It's been a great ride.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Alice W. Handy, 47, has managed the University of Virginia's
endowment and operating funds for the past seven years. Since then,
the endowment has grown from about $500 million to more than $725
million, due partly to contributions, but mostly from market
returns.
KEYWORDS: PROFILE BIOGRAPHY UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
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