The endowment guru
David Swensen, who runs Yale University's US$25.4b investment fund, is one of the US's most influential money managers.
Add BT as a preferred source
DeeperDive is a beta AI feature. Refer to full articles for the facts.
AS he has done for decades, once a week David Swensen convenes his staff - including his cadre of apprentices - for a morning-long meet-ing among the Gothic revival flourishes and crenelations of the Yale University campus to debate investment ideas.
Mr Swensen, 62, runs the school's US$25.4 billion endowment, one of the largest in the United States. Usually he is joined by his intellectual sparring partner, Dean Takahashi, his senior director. It amounts to an internship in the world of managing a university's billions - and the young analysts have a front-row seat.
"It was like watching a 70-year-old married couple go at it in full force," recalled Andrew Golden, who was one of those Swensen acolytes in the 1980s.
Share with us your feedback on BT's products and services
TRENDING NOW
S-E Asia tourism takes hit from Middle East crisis, but intra-regional travel could spell hope
Higher costs, lower returns: Why are Singaporeans still betting on real estate?
From 1MDB to ‘corporate mafia’: Is Malaysia facing a new governance test?
China pips the US if Asean is forced to choose, but analysts warn against reading it like a sports result
