David Swensen, Yale’s renowned investments head, dies at 67
NEW HAVEN — David Swensen, whose investment strategies brought Yale University’s endowment to a record $31 billion, has died.
Swensen, 67, died after a long battle with cancer, according to a message from Yale President Peter Salovey. He is survived by his wife, Meghan McMahon, three children and two stepchildren.
Swensen taught his last class on Monday, in investment analysis, with Dean Takahashi, longtime senior director of the investments office who now is director of the university’s Carbon Containment Lab, Salovey wrote.
“David served our university with distinction. He was an exceptional colleague, a dear friend, and a beloved mentor to many in our community. Future generations will benefit from his dedication, brilliance, and generosity,” Salovey wrote.
“David’s ideas reverberated beyond Yale as he revolutionized the landscape of institutional investing. His approach, which has become known as the ‘Yale Model,’ is now the standard for many university and foundation endowments,” Salovey wrote. “A natural teacher, he prepared a generation of institutional investors who have gone on to lead investment offices at other colleges and universities, further extending the scope of David’s influence.”
Takahashi, who worked alongside Swensen for 33 years, said in a statement: “Dave was a legendary pioneering investor and built incredible value for Yale and many other endowments and charities, but to me what was extraordinary and special was how much he loved and cared for his wife Meghan, family, friends and Yale, and how he was able to lead and inspire all those around him.
“An amazing aspect of David’s leadership is his ability to inspire all those around him to do their best and to commit to the mission of higher education and charitable work,” Takahashi said. “Yale’s investment partners embraced principles of integrity and serving the public good. Dave led the endowment and institutional investment world, not only in pioneering the Yale model of asset allocation, but also in ethical investment practices and promoting diversity and combating climate change.”
Swensen received his doctorate in economics from Yale in 1980 and worked for Salomon Bros. and Lehman Bros., becoming Yale’s chief investments officer in 1985.
“David Swensen revolutionized institutional investment management; his influence is felt around the world,” former Yale President Richard Levin said in a statement. “Under his leadership, the superior performance of the Yale endowment made possible all that we have accomplished in the past thirty years: the rebuilding of the campus, the rejuvenation of downtown New Haven, the internationalization of our student body and academic programs, our commitment to making Yale College affordable for all who are admitted, and our investments in world-class science and engineering.”
Levin, president from 1993 to 2013, added, “Selfconfident yet selfless, David was thoroughly devoted to the institution he loved. His judgment about people was impeccable. He set the highest standard of honesty and ethical behavior for himself, and he expected this of our staff and investment partners. He was a kind and generous soul, and an extraordinary teacher and mentor.”
Over the last 35 years, Yale’s investments have grown an average 13.1 percent per year, according to Yale. The endowment stood at $2.6 billion in 1991.
Robert Shiller, a professor of economics at Yale and winner of the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences in 2013, said Swensen was “devoted to students.” “I think he had an open and engaging style that encouraged Yale alumni to come forward and tell him the truth” about potential investments.
Shiller said the late James Tobin, who won the Nobel in economics in 1981, supported Swensen’s hiring, which allowed Swensen to make the major changes in investment strategy that brought the university endowment to the third largest in the country, after Harvard University and the University of Texas System.