Dow Jones Newswires-Wall Street Journal | Oprah Winfrey has made a fortune in television, magazines and movies. Now she has hired someone to manage it.

Winfrey, one of the most powerful brands in media, has begun setting
up a so-called family office to handle her personal investments,
according to people familiar with the situation. Her first hire: Peter
Adamson, a well-regarded investor who currently serves as chief
investment officer for Eli Broad, the Los Angeles billionaire and
philanthropist.

The move comes as Winfrey begins a new chapter in her professional life. In January she plans to launch her own channel, the Oprah Winfrey Network, a joint venture between  Winfrey’s Harpo Inc. and Discovery Communications Inc. that aims to reach 80 million homes in the U.S.

A spokeswoman for Winfrey confirmed the hire but declined to elaborate.  Adamson didn’t return emails and telephone calls seeking comment.

Winfrey historically has been private about her financial affairs, but this is believed to be the first time she has established a full investment organization around her fortune.

Wealthy investors typically hire managers at banks and brokerage firms to handle their financial affairs. A family office is considered a step up from such an arrangement, with a team of advisers working exclusively, and directly, for the client.

The move is akin to starting a personal money-management firm. Computer mogul Michael Dell, for instance, has a team of 80 people at MSD Capital, a New York-based operation overseeing more than $10 billion of  Dell’s personal assets.

Winfrey was one of the richest African-Americans of the 20th century, with an estimated net worth of $2.4 billion. Her philanthropic endeavors include contributing more than $40 million toward educating women in South Africa and raising $80 million through Oprah’s Angel Network for charitable projects world-wide.

Winfrey tapped her longtime law firm, Los Angeles-based Ziffren Brittenham LLP, to spearhead the hiring of a chief investment officer, according to people familiar with the search.

Bringing on  Adamson is considered a coup for  Winfrey. Adamson, a 47-year-old Stanford University business-school graduate, has served as  Broad’s investment chief since 2001. Before that, he was an adviser to the billionaire Bass brothers in Fort Worth, Texas, an operation that became a model for family-office investment vehicles around the U.S.

With the Broad Foundations, Adamson has a record of earning 3% to 4% above the “appropriate indices,” according to a foundation email discussing its results. On Monday,  Adamson was in New York accepting an award from Institutional Investor magazine for Large Foundation Manager of the Year.

 Adamson oversaw $2.5 billion in investments for the Broad Foundations and  Broad, who made his fortune building two large companies–KB Home (KBH) and SunAmerica, the latter of which in 1999 was sold to American International Group Inc. (AIG) for $18 billion. The Eli & Edythe Broad Foundation was the eighth-largest U.S. family foundation by giving in 2008, the last year for which data is available, donating $116.5 million to various causes, according to the nonprofit Foundation Center.

Under  Adamson’s direction, the Broad family office has practiced an investment style pioneered by Yale University and its chief investment officer David Swensen, de-emphasizing stocks and bonds while embracing less-traditional fare like hedge funds, private equity and distressed debt.  Adamson also oversaw  Broad’s direct investments, including a failed bid in 2007 to buy Tribune Co. (TRBCQ), the newspaper chain that collapsed a year later.

 Broad began investing in hedge funds in the late 1980s before they were popular investments. He was an early investor in financier Eddie Lampert’s hedge fund, and also has invested with large firms including Maverick Capital and Perry Capital Management.

A spokeswoman for  Broad’s organization, which is searching for a successor for  Adamson, didn’t respond to requests for comment.