It is said that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. The most obvious and knocked-off element of Yale’s strategy is its radical bet on private markets. When Swensen left Wall Street and took over Yale’s endowment in 1985, nearly three...
Read moreDavid Swensen to Teach Future Fund Managers at Yale
Are you a couple of years out of college? Do you want to become a fund manager? There is a new asset management program at Yale that can teach you. The new degree program is being developed in close collaboration with the Yale Investments Office...
Read moreYale CIO David Swensen on Investment Track Records
A couple of years ago, David Swensen was interviewed at the Council on Foreign Relations. Near the end, he was asked about his views on evaluating the character of a new fund manager who is too young to have a track record. You know, the testing...
Read moreYale Endowment on Puerto Rican Debt
How does Yale’s endowment invest in Puerto Rican debt? Yale does not directly invest in Puerto Rican debt; it invests through fund managers and private equity firms. According to Charles Decker GRD ’18, Ward 9 alder and a leader of the Yale...
Read moreYale CIO David Swensen on 3 Basic Tools for Investors
A few years ago David Swensen lectured on the three basic tools that every investor has to manage and grow their portfolio. So, I’d like to talk about how it is that we got from where we were in the mid-80s to where we ended up in the early- to...
Read moreYale Venture Capital Program
“Yale’s venture capital program, one of the first of its kind, is regarded as among the best in the institutional investment community; the University is frequently cited as a role model by other investors. Yale’s venture capital managers...
Read moreYale Dipping into Crypto
“Swensen’s endorsement of crypto assets is significant because he’s considered a pioneer in institutional investing, having managed one of the most-watched and best-performing college endowments for three decades. Many other endowments have...
Read moreYale CIO David Swensen on Fund Managers
“We want people who are maniacally focused on beating the markets, generating superior investment returns. That’s an incredibly important distinction because, think about it, if what you want to do is get rich, you can put together a...
Read moreUniversity Endowments
I am thrilled to share with you here on the Capital Allocators blog interesting articles and publications on University endowments. To begin, I want to quote what Charles D. Ellis says about endowments in his foreword to David Swensen’s...
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