James Martin

Jim Martin served as Chief Investment Officer of the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust for more than 30 years, joining in the late 1980s and announcing his retirement in 2017 (effective 2018). Over his tenure he was the primary steward of the Trust's endowment, growing its assets from roughly $90 million at its 1975 founding to nearly $1.2 billion by the time he stepped back. The Trust was created from the estate of Melvin J. "Jack" Murdock, co-founder of Tektronix, and today holds close to $2 billion in assets and distributes well over $100 million a year in grants to Pacific Northwest nonprofits.

Before his investment career, Martin trained as an accountant — he became a CPA in 1973 and spent roughly 18 years at Deloitte & Touche (public accounting) prior to moving into institutional investment management at the Trust. Colleagues have credited him not just with financial results but with relationship-building; then–Executive Director Steve Moore said "his impact on the financial health of our organization is immeasurable — but he is much more than a numbers guy."

Following his retirement, Martin transitioned into an emeritus role, providing continuity and mentoring his successor, Elmer Huh (a former Ernst & Young Capital Advisors banker and Columbia University engineer/MBA who became CIO in August 2017). Alongside this, Martin runs his own private investment advisory practice — JRM Capital Management (also operating as James R Martin Consulting, Inc.) — through which he provides financial counsel to nonprofits across Oregon and Southwest Washington. His continued Murdock Trust email extension reflects an ongoing advisory/emeritus association with the organization.

• Manager-first, not product-first. The Trust describes its philosophy as a "long-term, somewhat unusual approach to investment management" — it prioritizes *the people* running the money and aims to be the "best client" of a small set of best-in-class managers.
• Long-term relationships. Selection criteria emphasize prior long-term interaction with the Trust, a market-tested track record, an established institutional client base, and acceptable performance/risk characteristics — it is a patient, relationship-driven allocator, not a transactional one.
• Three-bucket allocation. All holdings are sorted into three buckets by risk/reward and liquidity profile, spanning most asset types (public equity, private equity/alternatives, fixed income).
• Endowment discipline in service of mission. Investment returns exist to fund the grantmaking mission — the Trust has funded well over $1.5 billion of investments into Pacific Northwest nonprofits since 1975.
• Not actively soliciting new managers. The Trust publicly notes it is generally "not seeking new investment managers," reinforcing that access comes through long-standing relationships.