Harvard’s Cutting Edge Investments Take a Hit

Harvard University’s practice of wading into new investment avenues such as hedge funds and private equity has had mixed results, with a most recent turn of events causing the university’s endowment to lose about $350-million invested by one of its former money managers, reports The Wall Street Journal.

The university, whose $29-billion endowment is the country’s largest, has invested hundreds of millions in hedge funds run by investors formerly employed at the institution. Further, losses like the $350-million Harvard invested in Jeffrey Larson’s Sowood Capital Management are providing fodder for critics of high pay levels Mr. Larson and others received while managing the school’s investments, the Journal reports.

Harvard officials, and a representative from Sowood, declined to comment for the story.

Read more about endowment investment in higher education and other nonprofit institutions in The Chronicle’s most recent survey of endowments.

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