Word: portfolios
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...even more complicated. The ACSR-CSSR-Treasurer's Office route is only needed for shareholder resolutions, for those investment issues which involve social and ethical questions. On purely financial issues, Harvard turns to the professional money managers to keep the profit margin steady. Once the treasurer managed the Harvard portfolio in his spare time. But as the size of Harvard's holdings grew, and as the University turned towards the more unpredictable forms of investment, like common stocks--instead of bonds, government securities and real estate--a full-time treasurer was necessary. In the '50s and '60s treasurers used their...
...rationale for letting small firms control some of the portfolio is that no organization, not even Harvard, knows everything, so the portfolio benefits from having several different firms, with presumably different investment strategies, making decions. The independence of the smaller firms can cause problems, however, as when Mackay Shields, a New York investment company, bought $800,000 worth of stock in Citibank and Manufacturers Hanover Trust in 1976. The two banks are among the handful of major U.S. banks that loan money to the South African government and help South African get loans from other countries. Shields sold the bank...
...general outlines of Harvard's portfolio are set by the treasurer, who receives the advice of the Overseers Financial Policy Committee. That committee looks over all areas of University funding, like budgets, tuition and endowments. It performs the basic functions of all overseers--overseeing the running of the University, advising and discussing, but it has little real power...
...Harvard Management Company, Bok brought in four new vice presidents, including Hale Champion, to handle financial affairs. Bok also brought in Daniel Steiner '54 to be general counsel to the University. Last year the University showed a small but welcome budget surplus, and according to Putnam the Harvard portfolio is one of the most well-managed and carefully-watched of al university portfolios. The current annual rate of return on the market value of Harvard's endowment is 5.2 per cent, which may not outrun inflation, but is still considered respectable in institutional circles...
Harvard's investment policies are profitable, but are they ethical? Therein lies the rub, or at least therein lies much of the agitation over the portfolio in recent years. While Bennett was treasurer he personally made the shareholder decisions until Bok decided in October 1972 that a Corporation subcommittee should make the decisions. Bennett seemed to think there were no ethical issues involved in stock decisions, because he never supported an anti-management statements in the trash as soon as he got them. When non-financial shareholder resolutions became more prevalent in the early '70s, Bennett's conservatism began...