Queensland Investment Corporation has become the first Australian investor with the new US firm run by former investment managers at the Stanford and other academic endowment funds.

The new manager, Makena Capital Management, based in California, is being run by former Stanford chief executive Mike McCaffery. QIC is understood to have invested about $650 million through the manager in a range of largely alternative investments, in which the Stanford endowment – like a lot of US endowments – tended to specialise. General manager of strategy at QIC, Brad Holzberger, declined to provide details but he said a joint press release was being prepared with Makena that would be released “soonish”. Makena is an investment management firm founded in 2006 by principals from leading North American endowments and foundations, with executives including Stanford’s McCaffery. According to its website, it offers only one product, a single pooled private endowment fund, which has an investment strategy similar to that used by the top academic endowments in North America. It is understood the fund sources alternative opportunities and directly co-invests in a number of target return portfolios including hedge funds and infrastructure.