Trust Company of the West
Under Robert’s leadership, Trust Company of the West became one of the world’s leading global asset management firms. Over the years, TCW’s clients included many of the largest corporate and public pension plans, financial institutions and endowments and foundations in the United States, along with investors and high-net-worth individuals from around the world. 

W. M. Keck Foundation
Robert led the many contributions made by the W. M. Keck Foundation, founded by his grandfather, William Myron Keck, in 1954.  As Chief Executive Officer from 1995 through 2021 and Chairman from 1995 through his passing, Robert guided large projects throughout California and around the United States, including:

Keck Medicine of USC, UCLA’s Keck Biomedical Initiative, the National Academies Keck Futures Initiative, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Keck Institute for Space Studies at California Institute of Technology, Chapman University’s Keck Center of Science and Engineering, the Keck Graduate Institute at Claremont Colleges, COVID-19 research at USC and UCLA and safety net grants.

Claremont McKenna College
Robert remained a steadfast supporter of Claremont McKenna College from his graduation in 1965, most notably through his visionary philanthropy and as CMC’s longest-serving member of the Board of Trustees which he chaired from 1990 to 1998.

In 2007, Robert made a transformative $200 million gift that established CMC’s Robert Day Scholars Program. At the time, it was largest ever recorded gift to a liberal arts institution. The College also renamed the economics department in his honor — the Robert Day School of Economics and Finance. In recognition of a lead gift from the W. M. Keck Foundation, and Day family foundation investments, in 2021 CMC established the Robert Day Sciences Center that will serve as home to CMC’s new integrated sciences program and expand the College’s commitment to preparing future leaders.

Additional Business and Philanthropy
Robert was an active investor. He established Cypress Partners (one of the industry’s first hedge funds) in 1969 and Oakmont Corporation, his family office, in 1980.

Among his largest private investments, Robert and his extended family invested more than 30 years ago in Cabo Del Sol, an 1,800 acre master planned community, which in 2021 announced plans for a Four Seasons Resort and Residences.  From 1994 until 2015, Robert, his extended family and partners, through Foley Timber and Land Company, were the largest landowners in Florida with 560,000 acres, then one of the largest contiguous parcels of undeveloped land east of the Mississippi River.

Other philanthropic work included the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress, the Board of Overseers of USC’s Keck School of Medicine and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.  Robert was a Life Trustee at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; an Honorary Trustee of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Saint John’s Health Center; a Founders Circle Member of the James A. Baker, III Institute for Public Policy at Rice University; and a Member of The Broad Foundations Board of Governors.

Robert Day earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from Claremont McKenna College in 1965 and started his career with the investment banking firm White, Weld and Company in New York.