Shaped by Fletcher’s outlook on global business, Rishad Sadikot returns to Tufts as chief investment officer
Rishad Sadikot, F12, was an intern at an investment firm in India when the BSE (formerly the Bombay Stock Exchange) underwent one of its sharpest drops in history.
“This was back in 2004,” Sadikot said. “I was going into the office one day, there had been general elections in India, and the stock market opened down 20%.”
Trading was halted as the market reacted to the unexpected underperformance of the governing National Democratic Alliance.
“It was the first instance when I realized that, beyond basic financial metrics and economic indicators, there’s a whole slew of other factors that impact business and the stock market,” Sadikot said.
Years later, when applying to graduate school, Sadikot wanted to continue building on that realization.
“When I found out about The Fletcher School’s Master of International Business (MIB) program, I was so drawn to it,” Sadikot said. “I love investing and I love business, but I also love the broader ecosystem in which they operate. I could get the best of both worlds at Fletcher.”
Theory Grounded in the Real World
At Fletcher, Sadikot gravitated toward coursework that traced how politics shaped economic policy. One of his favorite courses was a two-part sequence with Professor Laurence Krohn, beginning with the theory of macroeconomics and continuing into a course looking at the macroeconomic crises of Latin American countries.
“We applied the theory of the course we learned in year one to individual countries in that part of the world,” Sadikot said.
Sadikot also studied Islamic finance with Professor Ibrahim Warde, and took Professor Laurent Jacque’s global finance course on hedging interest rate and currency risk across multiple jurisdictions. Professor Jacque remains a mentor to Sadikot today.
“Every single course, even if in theory it sounded removed, was grounded in the real world,” Sadikot said, “and often taught by practitioners.”
A Global Citizen’s Approach to Investing
For Sadikot, Fletcher’s interdisciplinary lens proved valuable in his career and beyond.
“It makes you a better global citizen,” he said. “All the debates that are happening now—everything you think about artificial intelligence, the discussions about China—are all so wedded into understanding the broader picture,” he added. “You’ve got to understand economics. You’ve got to understand technology. You’ve got to understand politics.”
That same idea critically taught him something less obvious: what not to focus on in investing. Learning how many forces move currencies, for example, convinced him that short-term predictions are an impossible game.
“You realize just how complicated and multifaceted the drivers of things are, and that it's almost impossible to predict and make investment decisions based on that,” Sadikot explained. “So we don’t. We try to focus on the micro that we think we can control, the underlying business.”
A Celebrated Return to Medford
In May, Sadikot brought this investment approach back to Medford as the new chief investment officer of Tufts. He came to the role after 12 years at Cambridge Associates, where he advised universities and foundations on portfolio construction and investment strategy.
Now, Sadikot manages the university’s endowment and all related investment activities. As Tufts’ CIO, he oversees approximately $3.3 billion in assets that help fund financial aid, faculty and research, and the continued development of academic programs, providing important stability even when other revenue sources fluctuate.
“I love the work,” Sadikot said. “Fundamentally, it sounds bizarre. Who grows up wanting to be the CIO of an endowment? But there's no other job in the world I would enjoy as much.”
For Sadikot, this new position allows him to not only do the work he loves, but also to strengthen an institution that means so much to him.
“Tufts changed my life,” Sadikot said. “I wouldn't have the career I had without Fletcher. I wouldn't have the family I have without Fletcher. I met my wife there.”
“There’s nothing I can do to give back in sufficient quantity what Fletcher has given me,” he added. “But if I can help the endowment compound at a slightly higher rate over the next 20 or 30 years, and help it support the experience of future students, that’s about as meaningful a thing I can imagine doing professionally.”
Read more about Fletcher's Master of International Business (MIB) degree program.