Harvard Endowment Rises 23%
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Harvard University’s endowment rose 23% in fiscal 2007 on gains in American stocks and emerging-market bonds.
Harvard, with the largest higher-education fund, outpaced its 16.7% return a year earlier, according to a statement released yesterday by Harvard Management Co., the Cambridge, Mass. School’s investment arm. The fund gained $5.7 billion, totaling $34.9 billion on June 30, the end of the fiscal year, which elapsed before more-recent market turmoil linked to high-risk mortgages.
This was first full fiscal year that the fund was managed by the chief executive officer Mohamed, A. El-Erian, who took over in February 2006 after Jack Meyer and a portion his staff quit.
“The endowment registered another year of strong absolute and relative performance,” Mr. El-Erian said in the statement. “During a period of organizational transition, the strong investment performance was accompanied by important institutional gains,” he said.
The University of Virginia in Charlottesville said last week its now-$4.3 billion endowment rose 25.2% in the fiscal year. Harvard’s fund topped the 20.6% return, dividends included, for the Standard & Poor’s Index of 500 stocks during the same period.
