Related: Hard Times at Harvard
"Harvard to cut asset managers; Endowment overseer plans to slash 50 jobs" by Ross Kerber, Globe Staff | February 7, 2009
Harvard University's money management arm said it plans to cut about 25 percent of its staff, or 50 jobs, in the coming months after last year's market declines sent its total assets into a tailspin.
See: Harvard's Investment House
I don't get it; one day they made dough and did better than anyone else, the next day they say they are broke. You smell a stink?
The endowment, began the academic year as the largest of any university in the world, with $36.5 billion in assets, but fell by about 22 percent, or $8 billion, from July to October according to Harvard's most recent figures. The plunge had already set off a wave of budget-trimming and diminished ambitions at the school, where the endowment covered 35 percent of operating expenses, as at other universities whose assets have dwindled.
Or is this all an excuse to cut, cut, cut, cut!?
Harvard said in a statement it will cut jobs at its Harvard Management Co. division including investment professions and technology, legal, and human resources employees in a broader restructuring by the division's chief executive Jane Mendillo. She arrived last summer after overseeing Wellesley College's $1.6 billion endowment.
The job cuts are the latest bump at Harvard Management. Mendillo's predecessor, Mohamed El-Erian, stepped down after just a year and a half in the position.
Harvard Management has also faced criticism of its leaders' high pay. Six top fund managers together earned $26.9 million during the fiscal year ended June 30, including $921,000 for El-Erian.
The GREED is PERVASIVE at ALL LEVELS of American society, isn't it -- save for the common people, who are decent, hard-working, honest, and just trying to get by.
Last month an alumni group had called on Harvard to seek the return of millions of dollars of bonuses.
See: Harvard's Hippies
The movement comes amid President Obama's proposal to cap executive pay for banks and other financial institutions that receive federal aid.
Pfft! Take a look: Congress Gave Out Golden Parachutes as Stimulus
Asked if Harvard was reviewing compensation at its money management unit, a university spokesman said it would have no response. But a management company director, Glenn Hutchins, said in a statement that Mendillo has the board's full support and added that the restructuring will help the company "improve its operations as well as adapt to the changing financial environment." Harvard's cuts were first reported by Pensions & Investments, a trade publication.
Seventy percent of Harvard's money is run by outside managers such as Convexity Capital Management, the Boston firm started by onetime Harvard endowment chief Jack Meyer. He said he couldn't comment yesterday, and the school spokesman didn't address how the cuts might affect the outside firms.
Harvard's endowment was the largest of any at the start of the academic year, according to a survey by the Washington-based National Association of College and University Business. It is followed by Yale University in Connecticut with $22.9 billion and Stanford University in California at $17.2 billion.
Related: Yale's Ying-Yang
And Stanford is where the war criminal war princess Condi Rice now resides.
All three had developed influential management organizations, and just yesterday Yale's top investment officer, David Swensen, was named by President Obama to his Economic Recovery Advisory Board.
Yale, Harvard, it's all the same bunch of cretinous clowns!
Yale and Stanford also have reported steep investment losses. Ken Redd, research director of the university officers group, said its surveys of about 800 institutional endowments found they were down 22.5 percent, about the same as Harvard, for the five months ended Nov. 30. That amounts to a $94.5 billion loss for all the schools combined....
Yeah, my heart bleeds and my eyes cry for them. In-effin-credible!!!
More whacks:
"Harvard offers early retirement packages
Harvard University is offering voluntary early retirement to staff members as its latest move to cut costs, according to a university announcement yesterday. The program, available to staff over 55 years old who have worked at Harvard for 10 or more years, follows salary freezes and closer scrutiny over hiring. "We have taken a variety of steps to respond to the current financial situation," said Kevin Galvin, Harvard spokesman. "The early retirement program is another step in that process."
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Somehow they have $$$ for the arts though!
