In fascinating endowment news yesterday, Harvard University turned to one of its former investment stars to take the helm of the Ivy League's biggest endowment of $35 billion.Currently chief investment officer at Wellesley College, Jane Mendillo has been tapped o become the president and chief executive of Harvard Management Company. She fills in the slot vacated by Mohamed El-Erian, the emerging market bond guru, who left last year after less than two years in the job to return to his previous post with Bill Gross' PIMCO.
Famed uber-investor Jack Meyer racked up impressive returns in his tenure at Harvard Management Company during the 1990s. According to Wikipedia, Meyer grew an endowment "worth $4.8 billion to a value of $25.9 billion (including new contributions). During the last decade of his tenure, the endowment earned an annualized return of 15.9%."
Not too shabby.
It's great to see a woman take over the helm of such a high-profile investment fund. The best part of this whole move is that Mendillo is a Yale grad!
Zack Miller is the managing editor of IsraelNewsletter.com and a former equity analyst for a leading multinational hedge fund.
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