The CFO was asked whether the school could survive another recession. We’ve done a lot of recession-based scenario planning, and the University is in a much better position than we were following the 2008 financial crisis with respect to...
Read moreFormer Harvard Endowment CEO on the Financial Crisis
In the fall of last year, the business school at Yale held a panel that included the former CEO of Harvard Management Company. On Monday, Jane Mendillo SOM ’84 and Sandra Urie SOM ’85 joined [Linda] Mason [SOM ’80] in a School of Management panel...
Read moreEndowment Payout at Harvard
In their latest financial report, the school describes the purpose of the endowment and how it works. The University’s endowment spending practice has to balance two competing goals: the need to fund the operating budget with a stable and...
Read moreHarvard Faculty Debating Fossil-Fuel Divestment
The school faculty just had its third meeting on divestment this semester to debate a new proposal. Up to now, Harvard has primarily approached the crisis from a mainstream, business-as-usual, incrementalist approach. As the wealthiest university...
Read moreHarvard CIO Narv Narvekar on Private Equity J-Curve
It takes time to build a private equity program. As many know, private equity funds draw down their capital over a period of years and then invest it for several more years before exiting. For now, and for the next few years, we will suffer the...
Read moreHarvard Endowment Performance 2019
Harvard announced their endowment figures last week. HMC [Harvard Management Company], which invests the University’s endowment and other financial assets, announced today that during fiscal 2019, the endowment’s value increased 4.3 percent, to...
Read moreGift Policy at Harvard
Should a school return a gift years after accepting it? When asked for the gift policy, [University spokesperson Jonathan L.] Swain offered a statement instead. “The gift policy is designed to ensure that no gift to Harvard will provide a donor...
Read moreEndowment Purpose at Harvard
Three years ago, Congress asked 56 schools to provide more information on their endowments. Harvard published their response online. The Harvard University endowment is not a single account, but rather is made up of more than 13,000 individual...
Read moreRestructuring Pay at Harvard Endowment
How much does a University President make? How about an endowment chief? Who makes more? Faust Made $1.7 Million in 2017, Bacow’s Salary As President Unknown Until 2020, The Harvard Crimson Harvard Endowment CEO Reaps $9.3 Million Payday in...
Read moreNew Harvard Endowment Website on Divestment
Harvard Management Company has a new website. There you will find a description of their new investment approach. HMC’s generalist investment model breaks down silos among asset classes to search the world for the most attractive risk-adjusted...
Read moreCommercializing Research at Harvard
The effort to commercialize research has a long, haphazard history in higher ed. But schools such as Harvard, Stanford, and MIT organize their commercialization efforts through one department. At Harvard that department is called the Office of...
Read moreHarvard Vineyards Environmental Review
“Harvard’s foray into wine country is part of a broader shift in the Central Coast of California toward large investors and new crops. The Cuyama Valley was a major oil-producing region for decades before eventually shifting to a mix of...
Read more