Richard Hisey

Richard Hisey is Berklee's chief investment officer. He previously served as senior vice president of Administration and Finance, chief financial officer, and chief investment officer, with overall responsibility for operations, finance, and administration, including: accounting and finance, human resources, legal and compliance, real estate and facilities, community and governmental affairs, campus safety and security, campus business services, and risk management. He was a key architect of Berklee’s 2016 transformative merger with the Boston Conservatory. As chief investment officer, he is responsible for investment management of the institution's endowment and pension plan. Hisey has over 30 years of experience in both for-profit and nonprofit organizations spanning banking, insurance, investment management, and higher education in a number of senior business, operational, financial, and administrative roles. His significant global experience includes deep knowledge of Russia and Eastern Europe.

Prior to joining Berklee in 2010, Hisey served as president and chief investment officer of AARP Financial Inc. (a subsidiary of AARP) and the AARP group of mutual funds, where he focused on providing retirement security solutions (financial education and advice and banking, investment, and protection products) to AARP’s 35+ million members. Previously, as EVP and chief investment officer at Cole Management, he led the investment efforts for this venture capital firm, which specialized in early-stage investments in Russia and the former Soviet Union, including the leading internet search engine in Russia. Prior to joining Cole Management, Hisey gained extensive experience as a chief financial officer, serving as the treasurer and chief financial officer of the MFS Group of Mutual Funds, where he was responsible for over 190 investment products with over $140 billion in investor assets; he also served as Senior Vice President at The Bank of New York, with responsibility for global investment fund accounting and administration for over $400 billion in client assets. His experience includes 15 years at Lexington Global Asset Managers, Inc. (now part of Voya) as executive vice president and chief financial officer. During his tenure, he created the first open-ended Russian equity mutual fund in the United States and served as the fund’s portfolio manager and investment strategist; the fund was twice named top performing emerging markets fund by Lipper Analytical.

Hisey serves as chair of the board of the Boston Consortium for Higher Education, which is comprised of the chief financial officers of 19 colleges and universities in Boston and New England, and which is dedicated to the improvement of financial and operational performance. He is a member of the New England Commission of Higher Education’s Financial Monitoring Advisory Committee and serves on its oversight committee for financially challenged institutions. He previously served as founding cochair of the Investor Advisory Committee to the Securities and Exchange Commission, providing advice and recommendations to the SEC chair and commissioners on a broad range of investor priorities, concerns, and perspectives.

Holding the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation, Hisey is a member of the CFA Institute and the Boston Society of Security Analysts. He received an M.B.A. and a B.A. with distinction in Soviet and East European Studies from the University of Connecticut. His undergraduate education included studies in Russian language, economics, and culture at Middlebury College and Leningrad State University in the former USSR.