Founder & Managing Partner

John-Austin Saviano

John-Austin is a trusted advisor to leaders in the investment management industry as they address their most pressing strategic challenges.

For more than 20 years, he has invested in or advised dozens of investment firms while they were in their formative stages and has been a part of the founding moments for asset owners (endowments, foundations and family offices). Likewise, his years as an institutional LP have given him the chance to learn from and invest in some of the world’s most prominent investment organizations.

Since launching High Country Advisors, investment firms advised by John-Austin have scaled by over $5Bn across a wide diversity of investment strategies. Likewise, he has been called upon to support a broad set of multi-billion-dollar institutions and institutional scale family offices on governance and oversight of their investment programs.

Prior to his advisory work, John-Austin served as the founding President and Chief Investment Officer for UC Berkeley's endowment management company. Before joining Berkeley in 2009, he advised a wide range of institutions and institutional-sized families at Cambridge Associates and served on the founding investment team at the Gordon & Betty Moore Foundation. He began his career financing the growth and operations of public and private companies, as both a senior creditor at a commercial bank, and as venture investor.

John-Austin earned a BA in Economics from UC San Diego, an MBA from Duke University and is a CFA Charterholder.