Nickol R. Hackett

Nickol Hackett is Chief Investment Officer and Treasurer at the Joyce Foundation, a 
private foundation advancing critical policy initiatives for the Great Lakes region. Ms. 
Hackett is part of the executive leadership team and manages the endowment in support 
of the foundation’s strategy and grantmaking. 

Prior to joining Joyce, Ms. Hackett served as Executive Director and Chief Investment 
Officer of the $14 billion Cook County Pension Fund. Before becoming Executive 
Director, Ms. Hackett served as the fund’s founding Chief Investment Officer, 
establishing its first investment office in 2008. Additionally, as a member of the deferred 
compensation committee, she reviewed policy and investment strategy for plan 
participants. Under her leadership, the pension fund was recognized as small public 
plan of the year by Institutional Investor and was featured as part of the Harvard 
Business School Case Collection. Ms. Hackett has over 25 years of expertise in 
investment management and capital markets. 

An avid supporter of civic and cultural engagement, she serves as Treasurer of the 
Economic Club of Chicago, former Vice Chair of the Museum of Contemporary Art 
Chicago, and as a trustee of the University of Chicago Medical Center. She’s been 
recognized as Foundation CIO of the Year with the Chief Investment Officer’s Industry 
Innovation Award, and by Women Investment Professionals with the Distinguished 
Investment Professional Award, among others. 

Ms. Hackett earned her M.B.A. in finance and economics from the J.L. Kellogg Graduate 
School of Management and earned her B.A. in History from Northwestern University in 
Evanston, Illinois.