After leaving Brown, Dietze will become the first chief investment officer for the Fund for Science and Technology, a nonprofit foundation and part of the philanthropic ecosystem of the late Microsoft co-founder, business leader and philanthropist Paul G. Allen. Launched in 2025, the fund supports organizations working to advance bioscience, strengthen the environment and natural world, and harness the power of AI for the public good. Even as she prepares for an exciting transition in December, Dietze said she is proud of the work she has done with the team at Brown. 

“I have been part of this community for 13 years, and it has been the privilege of my lifetime to serve as chief investment officer for the past eight of them,” Dietze said. “None of what we have accomplished could have been achieved without the talent and dedication of our incredible team of investment professionals, trust and guidance from our investment committee, support from our alumni community, and partnerships with our exceptional investment managers. I am deeply grateful for the opportunity to have worked alongside these people and am confident that our team, led by Josh and Pete, will continue to serve Brown exceptionally well.”

Dietze, who holds a bachelor’s degree from Princeton University and a master’s degree from Johns Hopkins University, joined the University in December 2013 as managing director of the Investment Office. Previously, she served as the director of private equity at Bowdoin College. Prior to her work in higher education, Dietze was a managing director at Fortress Investment Group, a general partner at Columbia Capital Corporation and, earlier in her career, worked throughout Russia and Central Europe at the private investment arm of the World Bank, and as an analyst at Goldman Sachs.

Building on a tradition of leadership and success

Since joining Brown’s Investment Office in 2016, Joshua Kennedy has served as managing director and deputy chief investment officer with a focus on selecting investment managers, constructing Brown’s investment portfolio and managing direct investments. With the Investment Office’s success in preserving and increasing the core value of the endowment, its payouts to the University that fund faculty and student work, as well as facilities, support and services, have grown over time.

“I'm excited to have the opportunity to lead the office responsible for investing Brown's endowment in support of the University’s mission,” he said. “It is particularly meaningful to me to do this work for my alma mater, with colleagues I respect deeply, in a city I first lived in as an undergraduate and now call home.”

Kennedy earned a bachelor’s degree in religious studies from Brown in 1997 and began his career on the news staff of the Wall Street Journal. He completed an MBA with concentrations in accounting and finance from New York University’s Stern School of Business and served as portfolio manager and director of research at Liberty Square Asset Management in Boston. Subsequently, he was a managing partner of Sonian Capital Management, a long/short global value manager also based in Boston.

He said that when he joined Brown’s Investment Office in 2016, the University’s investment program was in the early stages of a transformation under the leadership of former chief investment officer Joe Dowling and Jane Dietze.  

“Today, it is a program of the highest quality, characterized by a culture of curiosity and rigor,” Kennedy said. “Investment returns are pursued by a team of professional investors devoted to ensuring that the endowment provides a durable financial resource for Brown's scholarship and research. The endowment's portfolio is a diversified pool of financial assets managed by world-class investment partners and overseen by a constructive and engaged Investment Committee.”

Peter Levine earned his bachelor’s degree from Brown in 1995 with a concentration in modern European history. He began his career in the mergers and acquisitions group at JP Morgan and spent more than a decade in senior finance and operational roles in both publicly traded and private equity-sponsored businesses.

Levine is an accomplished pilot who, before joining Brown as an investment director in 2018, founded and managed a distressed asset trading firm specializing in corporate aircraft transactions. Previously, he served as a portfolio manager at New Holland Capital, an investment advisory firm focused exclusively on absolute return and uncorrelated hedge fund strategies.

In addition to his role in the Investment Office, Levine played a key role in 2019-20 — a period when Brown’s former chief investment officer served as interim chief financial officer — in the development of the University’s FY21 budget and in the search process that resulted in the hire of Brown’s current chief financial officer.

“I returned to Brown eight years ago because I believe the most gratifying investment management position is supporting the University that has played such a consequential role in my life,” Levine said. “Since then, I have had the pleasure of working alongside the exceptional team that Jane and Joe assembled. I value the trust the Investment Committee has placed in Josh and me to manage that team. The Investment Office remains laser-focused on managing our durable all-weather portfolio to support Brown through full market cycles, and we are excited about what we can achieve for the University in this next chapter.”