The Problems at Harvard

The new issue of Vanity Fair has an article on Harvard's woes, stemming from a particularly bad year of investment returns on the endowment. Here is a tidbit from the magazine's website:

The longtime head of Harvard Management Company, Jack Meyer, quit to start his own hedge fund in 2005 after growing fed up with criticism over the eight-figure salaries some of his managers were pulling down and with persistent meddling from top Harvard officials. Two particular annoyances were [Larry] Summers, who had been questioning Meyer�s investment strategies, and Robert Rubin, a member of the Harvard Corporation, who frowned on Meyer�s aggressive strategies and wound up on the �warpath� with Meyer, as one person put it.

When Meyer left, he took much of Harvard Management Company with him � including 30 portfolio managers and traders, as well as the chief risk officer, chief operating officer, and chief technology officer. The place became �like a Ferrari without the engine,� according to a portfolio manager who arrived after Meyer left. This angered Rubin, according to someone who knows him well: �In Rubin�s opinion, Meyer crippled the institution.�