Publications

01 Dec 2011
News

Harvard Endowment Grows to $32 Billion

The Harvard endowment grew by 21.4 percent to $32 billion for the fiscal year ended June 30, up $4.4 billion from the year before, according to the annual report by Harvard Management Company. Every asset... View Details

Keywords: Endowment

June 2016 (Revised February 2017)
Case

The Role of Real Estate in Endowment Portfolios: The Case of Christ Church, Oxford

By: David Chambers, Elroy Dimson, Arthur I Segel and Eva Steiner

The case centers on Christ Church's Treasurer, James Lawrie, who is contemplating his options for investing a portion of the College's endowment in real estate. Approximately 1/3 of the total $690 million endowment was allocated towards real estate, much higher than... View Details

Keywords: Real Estate; Endowment Management; Endowments; United Kingdom; Oxford; Portfolio Allocation; Higher Education; Investment Portfolio; Property; Corporate Finance; Financial Services Industry; United Kingdom

June 2021
Case

Modern Endowment Management: Paula Volent and the Bowdoin Endowment

By: Luis M. Viceira, Emily R. McComb and Dean Xu

This case examines modern endowment investment management through the lens of a leadership transition between Chief Investment Officers (CIOs). In March 2021, Paula Volent is about to step down as the CIO of the endowment of Bowdoin College after twenty-one years, and... View Details

Keywords: Investment Portfolio; Investment Banking; Growth Management; Investment Return; Capital Markets; Interest Rates; Competition; Cost Management; Risk Management; Financial Liquidity; Performance Evaluation

October 2020 (Revised February 2024)
Case

Divesting Harvard's Endowment

By: Daniel Green, Luis M. Viceira and Holly Fetter

By early 2020 Harvard University was facing growing pressure from students, faculty, and alumni to divest its $40 billion endowment of financial stakes in fossil fuel producers. Its previous policy of avoiding the issue was quickly becoming outdated—$21 trillion of... View Details

Keywords: Divestment; Harvard University; ESG; Higher Education; Investment Portfolio; Environmental Sustainability; Strategy; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact

August 2017
Case

Investing in Commodities at Global Endowment Management

By: Adi Sunderam and Sara Fleiss

June 2018 (Revised January 2019)
Teaching Note

Investing in Commodities at Global Endowment Management

By: Adi Sunderam

Teaching Note for HBS No. 218-005. View Details

December 2006 (Revised December 2007)
Case

The Vanderbilt University Endowment (2006)

By: Andre F. Perold and William T. Spitz

As with many modern-day large pools of capital, the Vanderbilt University endowment is significantly invested in alternative assets such as hedge funds, private equity, real estate, and natural resources. The endowment's investment committee chair is attempting to... View Details

Keywords: Higher Education; Asset Management; Financial Management; Financial Strategy; Investment Portfolio; Risk Management

October 2009 (Revised January 2010)
Case

The University of Notre Dame Endowment

By: Andre F. Perold and Paul Michael Buser

The Endowment Model of Investing, which was based on creating high risk-adjusted performance through diversification, a long time horizon, top-notch outside managers, and illiquid investments, had served Notre Dame and other large universities well over the past... View Details

Keywords: Financial Crisis; Higher Education; Asset Management; Private Equity; Financial Liquidity; Investment; Risk Management; Performance Evaluation; Education Industry; Financial Services Industry

25 Jan 2017
News

Harvard Management Company Undertakes Sweeping Change

Keywords: Endowment; Securities, Commodities, and Other Financial Investments; Finance

01 Jun 1998
News

Simmons Family Endows Professorship

and in our success as a family," notes L.E. Simmons (MBA '72), founder of L.E. Simmons & Associates in Houston, which manages a private equity fund that invests in the oil service industry. "We all believe in and support what Kim Clark is... View Details

01 Mar 2003
News

Three Appointed to Endowed Professorships

Paul A. Gompers, Roy and Elizabeth Simmons Professor of Business Administration Paul Gompers specializes in research on financial issues related to start-up, high growth, and newly public companies. A member of both the Finance and the Entrepreneurial View Details

Keywords: fellowships; Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Educational Services

January 2002
Article

Organizational Endowments and the Performance of University Start-ups

By: Scott Shane and Toby E. Stuart

The question of how initial resource endowments—the stocks of resources that entrepreneurs contribute to their new ventures at the time of founding—affect organizational life chances is one of significant interest in organizational ecology, evolutionary... View Details

Keywords: Resource Allocation; Entrepreneurship; Business Startups; Research; Company History; Initial Public Offering; Venture Capital; Financing and Loans

Find at Harvard

01 Jun 2018
News

How Does the HBS Endowment Work?

established in 1966 with a gift of $100,000. Since then, it has supported more than 100 MBA students and—as a result of appreciation over time—provided $49,000 in need-based financial aid awards in academic year 2017–2018. The HBS View Details

April 1996 (Revised October 1999)
Case

Risk of Stocks in the Long Run, The: The Barnstable College Endowment

By: Andre F. Perold

The manager of the Barnstable College Endowment is evaluating proposals to increase the endowment's exposure to stocks based on an analysis that shows stocks to be much safer over long holding periods. View Details

Keywords: Risk Management; Financial Management; Stocks; Financial Services Industry; Education Industry

01 Jun 1997
News

Bruce Rauner (MBA '81) Endows New Professorship

Bruce V. Rauner recently celebrated his 15th HBS Reunion in a big way, establishing a professorship in business administration at HBS that bears his name. At 40, he is one of the youngest alumni in the School's history to create an View Details

Keywords: James E. Aisner

01 Oct 2000
News

Class of 1975 Endows Chair in Entrepreneurship

priorities." The task of organizing the chair's endowment was a first-time collaboration for Corbett, managing partner for Internet Partners at Zephyr Management, a private equity venture capital firm;... View Details

Keywords: Nancy O. Perry

2015
Working Paper

Replicating Private Equity with Value Investing, Homemade Leverage, and Hold-to-Maturity Accounting

By: Erik Stafford

Private equity funds tend to select relatively small firms with low EBITDA multiples. Publicly traded equities with these characteristics have high risk-adjusted returns after controlling for common factors typically associated with value stocks. Hold-to-maturity... View Details

Keywords: Value Investing; Endowments; Investment Management; Asset Pricing; Private Equity; Investment; Management; United States

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March 2023
Supplement

Halftime for Heidelberg

By: Debora L. Spar

The case follows President Rob Huntington as he seeks to find a viable way forward for Heidelberg University.
Located in Tiffin, Ohio, Heidelberg is a small, private, four-year university. As with many similar institutions of higher education, it currently faces... View Details

Keywords: University; University Administration; University Endowment; Endowments; Brand Management; Higher Education; Strategic Planning; Brands and Branding; Education Industry; Ohio; United States