David Renton

MA (Camb) MA (Oxf)

Estates Bursar

Official Fellow and Estates Bursar since 2021

As Estates Bursar, I am responsible for investing the College's £600m Endowment. I work with the College's investment and property advisers to achieve this. I am also the lead Fellow for the College's project to create new academic space on Oxford's High St near the Covered Market. My journey here has taken me from investment banking in London for 25 years and a decade looking after the investments and finances of the UK's largest hospital charity endowment at Guy's and St Thomas' on London's South Bank. I also have some external roles as a Trustee of Oxford Playhouse, an external member of Nesta's Investment Committee and as a member of the Remuneration Committee of Downing College, Cambridge. Outside of all that, I enjoy food, wine and the outdoors - sometimes in the guise of a round of golf!

High Street Project

I am fortunate to lead a brilliant team of architects, project managers, designers, engineers and contractors to create some new academic space for All Souls in Oxford's busy commercial centre near the historic Covered Market. The lecture theatre, seminar rooms and academic studies will be the first major such increase in academic space since Great Quad was designed and built by Nicholas Hawksmoor, 300 years ago. No pressure then!

Land management

We have inherited and acquired significant holdings of rural land over many years. We try to be both good investors and good stewards of this land. We look for opportunities to add value to the land in line with national and local needs for more housing, sustainable energy and commercial space. We also try to be a supportive landlord to our tenants as they make productive use of the land.