In December, the manager of the University of Utah’s endowment formed a landmark partnership with New York private equity firm Otro Capital. The two created a for-profit entity called Utah Brand Initiatives, which will manage what the university hopes will be a flood of revenues generated by its athletics program.
In the background, as with many things that occur at the University of Utah, is the Eccles family. The Eccles name is on the university’s stadium, the business school and the medical school.
The family’s foundation is one of the largest donors to the university, according to public records. In 2024 alone, the George S. and Dolores Doré Eccles Foundation contributed more than $9 million, including several donations to its athletics department, museum and schools of business, law and music. The family is also a major sponsor of the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah.
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The Eccles family traces its wealth back to David Eccles, born in Scotland in 1849 and considered Utah’s first multimillionaire. Descendants include Marriner Stoddard Eccles, the former chairman of the Federal Reserve, and George Stoddard Eccles, who founded First Security Corporation and established the George S. and Dolores Doré Eccles Foundation with his wife in 1925.
While the family’s largess has undoubtedly benefited the university and the state of Utah, its close ties to one of the state’s largest pools of capital highlight a web of potential conflicts.
In 2022, the school transferred management of its endowment’s funds to the University of Utah Growth Capital Partners Foundation after the retirement of its longtime CIO, Jonathan Shear. The new entity, led by CEO David Anderson, oversees the management of the university’s roughly $1.8 billion endowment and a smaller pool that comprises its foundation.
In 2024, the University of Utah Growth Capital Partners began a selection process for an external fund manager, and in April 2025, went with Cynosure Capital Management, a firm that invests on behalf of family offices, foundations and endowments. According to the firm’s website and regulatory filings, the co-founder and managing director of Cynosure is Spencer P. Eccles, the son of Spencer Fox Eccles, chairman and CEO of the George S. and Dolores Dore Eccles Foundation.
That’s not the only direct link between one of the biggest donors to the University of Utah and the outsourced CIO chosen to manage its endowment.
Cynosure’s other co-founder and chairman, Randal Quarles, is married to C. Hope Eccles, the daughter of Spencer Fox Eccles and sister to Spencer P. Eccles. Quarles was a Federal Reserve governor and head of the Financial Stability Board, where he oversaw bank supervision until 2021.
Shareholders of The Cynosure Group, the OCIO’s parent company, include the Randal Quarles and Hope Eccles Legacy Trust, and Spencer P. Eccles and Kristine L. Eccles GST Legacy Trust. Each owns 25% of the firm.
Katie Eccles, daughter of Spencer Eccles, is the chair of the board of trustees at the University of Utah and also serves on the advisory committee of the George S. and Dolores Doré Eccles Foundation. She and her husband, David Burnett, are indirect owners of Cynosure as trustees, regulatory filings show.
According to the University of Utah’s investment policies and procedures for its endowment, officers, directors, trustees, the university, the foundation and its OCIO must be free of conflicts of interest or the appearance of one. This includes prohibiting these individuals from owning interests or having personal stakes in organizations that might be involved in endowment decision-making.
“A conflict of interest occurs when an individual’s private interests interfere in any way—or even appear to interfere—with the interests of the Endowment Pool,” the guidelines read.
Rebecca Walsh, director of communications at the University of Utah, refuted the suggestion that the selection of Cynosure represents a conflict of interest.
“University of Utah Growth Capital Partners (UUGCP)—is an independent organization separate from the university with its own independent board of directors,” Walsh said in an emailed statement. “UUGCP ran a formal RFP process to find an OCIO to manage the endowment. UUGCP vetted many firms, and ultimately, the board of the UUGCP (not the University of Utah Board of Trustees) selected Cynosure Capital Management as the OCIO for the endowment.”
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Katie Eccles, then the vice chair of the university’s board of trustees, was not involved in the decision to hire Cynosure, and no members of the Eccles family sit on UUGCP’s board of directors or management, Walsh added.
Katie Eccles did, however, oversee the board that voted unanimously to partner with Otro Capital.
The university’s foundation said in an April statement that it reviewed “nearly 50" OCIO firms during the selection process.
“Notably, Cynosure has been able to achieve returns in excess of 14% per annum over the past five years for clients with portfolios similar to ours,” Anderson said in the statement. “We were also impressed by the creative structure they proposed regarding fees.”
Shortly after the close of the Otro partnership, Cynosure formed a joint venture with sports mogul Dave Checketts’ PE firm, Checketts Sports Capital. Its main function is to provide investment advisory services to clients that “focus on institutional investment in sports,” according to regulatory filings. This means the firm focuses on advising its clients on investments in media rights, stadiums, arenas and sports technology.
In an email to PitchBook, Anderson said Cynosure will not play a role in the Otro Capital Partnership, nor will Cynosure or any members have the Eccles family have ownership ties to Utah Brand Initiatives.
Featured image of Rice-Eccles Stadium at the University of Utah by Desertsolitaire/Getty Images
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