(Bloomberg) -- Northwestern University hired Amy Falls as chief investment officer of its endowment, one of the biggest in the U.S. with a $12.2 billion portfolio at year-end.Falls, 56, will become the first woman to hold the post when she joins this spring, the Evanston, Illinois, school said Friday in a statement.

“We have great confidence in Amy’s ability to build the financial strength we need to invest further in our academic community and to carry out every aspect of our mission at a truly world-class level,” Northwestern President Morton Schapiro said in the statement.

The endowment provides the school with about a quarter of its annual revenue.

Falls, a native of suburban Chicago, is stepping down from her job at New York’s Rockefeller University, where she was named CIO in 2011. She’s also a member of the board of Harvard Management Co., which runs the school’s $41.9 billion endowment, the largest in the U.S.

Falls succeeds Will McLean, who left in October after 18 years to run the University of Richmond’s endowment. McLean said previously that he was relocating to Virginia to live closer to his children and grandchildren.

Northwestern lost another veteran portfolio manager last year, when Amy Diamond was hired to run the University of Southern California’s endowment. She had served as managing director of private investments and real assets at Northwestern.

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