Harvard hires Narvekar as endowment manager

Harvard has brought in a new manager from Columbia University to run its $36-billion endowment, the largest of any university. N P Narvekar, 54, was appointed president and CEO of Harvard Management Company, the university stated on Thursday. He succeeds Stephen Blyth, who resigned in July, citing health reasons, after 18 months on the job. The announcement came a week after the

endowment reported an overall loss of two per cent on its investments for the year through June. The loss follows several years when Harvard’s investment returns have lagged its peers, and while it has experienced significant management turnover as a series of chief executives have come and gone. Narvekar comes to Harvard after 14 years at Columbia, where he was chief executive of the university’s Investment Management Company, a $9-billion endowment portfolio that posted annualised returns of more than 10 per cent during the last decade. Robert A Ettl, who had been leading the endowment since Blyth’s departure, will become chief operating officer. Narvekar “is a superb leader and mentor with a proven ability to recruit, build and retain a talented and committed investment team,” Paul J Finnegan, chairman of the Harvard Management Company’s board, said in a statement.

Narvekar will assume the role on December 5.

At the same time, Columbia announced that Peter Holland, who had been that university’s chief investment officer since 2003, would succeed Narvekar as the endowment’s chief executive.

Before coming to Columbia, Narvekar was the managing director of the investment office at the University of Pennsylvania. He previously worked in a variety of roles at JPMorgan, ultimately becoming a managing director in the equity derivatives group. He has a master’s degree in business administration from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and a bachelor’s degree in economics from Haverford College.

Narvekar will assume the role on December 5.

N P NARVEKAR

Also known as ‘Narv’, Narvekar is the outgoing CEO of The Columbia Investment Management Company, manager of Columbia University’s endowment. Previously, he was MD of investments at University of Pennsylvania’s endowment arm, where his responsibilities were to build Penn’s presence in the hedge fund and private equity arenas. He also spent 14 years at JPMorgan, where he was a MD in the equity derivatives group. He is a board member of The Investment Fund for Foundations (TIFF) and a trustee of The Chapin School in Manhattan. Narvekar received a BA from Haverford College and an MBA from The Wharton School at The University of Pennsylvania.