Updated 2:03 PM ET, Thu May 6, 2021
New York (CNN Business)David Swensen, the long-time chief investment officer at Yale University and a legend in the world of college endowments, died Wednesday at the age of 67.
Yale president Peter Salovey wrote about Swensen s death in a statement Thursday, saying that Swensen died following a long and courageous battle with cancer.
Swensen graduated from Yale with a Ph.D. in economics in 1980 and then worked briefly at Wall Street investment banks Lehman Brothers and Salomon Brothers before returning to Yale in 1985 as head of the Ivy League school s investment office.
Under Swensen s management, the endowment fund grew to more than $31 billion as of 2020 to become the second largest in the nation trailing only arch rival Harvard. Yale s endowment stood at about $1 billion when Swensen took over.
David Swensen, The Greatest Investor You Maybe Never Heard Of, Leaves Powerful Legacy
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David Swensen speaks in 2012 at an event honoring Jack Bogle, who created the first index fund. Like Bogle, Swensen was a champion of the every-day investor who he thought should invest in low-fee index funds and steer clear of actively managed mutual funds with higher fees.
Bloomberg / Bloomberg via Getty Images
A pioneering investor who ran Yale University s endowment, David Swensen, died this week at the age of 67 after a years-long battle with cancer. Swensen revolutionized the way many colleges invest, infusing some schools and nonprofits with vastly more resources to pay for things like financial aid for students and research.
Embed David Swensen speaks in 2012 at an event honoring Jack Bogle, who created the first index fund. Like Bogle, Swensen was a champion of the everyday investor who he thought should invest in low-fee index funds and steer clear of actively managed mutual funds with higher fees. Peter Foley/Bloomberg via Getty Images
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toggle caption Peter Foley/Bloomberg via Getty Images
David Swensen speaks in 2012 at an event honoring Jack Bogle, who created the first index fund. Like Bogle, Swensen was a champion of the everyday investor who he thought should invest in low-fee index funds and steer clear of actively managed mutual funds with higher fees.
David Swensen, who revolutionized endowment investing, dies at 67
A portrait of David Swensen hangs inside a residence recently renamed in his honor at Yale University in New Haven, Conn., Aug. 29, 2016. Swensen, a money manager who gave up a lucrative Wall Street career to oversee Yale Universitys endowment and proceeded to revolutionize endowment investing, in the process making Yales the best-performing fund in the country over a 20-year period, died on Wednesday, May 5, 2021 in New Haven, Conn. He was 67. Driely Schwartz Vieira/The New York Times.
by Geraldine Fabrikant
(NYT NEWS SERVICE)
.- David Swensen, a money manager who gave up a lucrative Wall Street career to oversee Yale Universitys endowment and proceeded to revolutionize endowment investing, in the process making Yales the best-performing fund in the country over a 20-year period, died on Wednesday in New Haven, Connecticut. He was 67.
May 6, 2021
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David F. Swensen ’80 Ph.D., whose revolutionary approach to managing Yale’s endowment, warmth of spirit, and personal integrity made him one of the world’s most admired institutional investors and a beloved member of the Yale community, died May 5 in New Haven, after a long battle with cancer. He was 67.
Self-confident, selfless, spirited, and guided by a finely tuned moral compass, Swensen assumed management of Yale’s endowment in the mid-1980s, when he was in his early 30s and the endowment stood at $1.3 billion. In the decades to come, he won international renown for an approach to institutional investing that emphasized diversification beyond publicly traded stocks and bonds, especially with illiquid and alternative assets, for his commitment to ethical action in work and life, and for financial results.