Yale’s Swensen Leaves Legacy of Proteges Across Investing
- Swensen died Wednesday after more than 35 years with Yale
- ‘He revolutionized our industry,’ Princeton’s Golden says
This article is for subscribers only.
Before David Swensen started working at Yale in 1985, its portfolio consisted mostly of plain-vanilla stocks and bonds. By diversifying into private equity, hedge funds and real estate, he put the endowment on a new trajectory, ultimately changing how universities and other institutional investors manage their money.
Swensen, who died Wednesday of cancer at 67, managed Yale’s fund for more than half his lifetime. Valued at $31.2 billion, it’s the second-richest private-college endowment, after Harvard.