Peter Dolan, director of Harvard Management Company (HMC) which manages the world’s biggest endowment, has quit the firm. The move was first reported by Buyouts, which added that he would be replaced by John Shue.
Separate media reports say Shue has been given an interim role.
HMC manages Harvard University’s $30.7 billion endowment and other financial assets (as of July 2012), which makes it the biggest endowment fund managers in the Ivy League in the US. Dolan was directing its private equity and venture capital sectors.
Given the funds at its disposal, HMC is a significant LP for global private equity firms including a few which are India-focused.
For FY12, PE was the only asset class at HMC which underperformed its benchmark return. HMC also invests in public equities, real assets (real estate as well as commodities) besides other fixed income products.
The PE investment assets dipped in value by 10 per cent (approx.) to around $7.09 billion as of July 2012, over the year-ago period.
Last December, HMC added four equity portfolio managers to its public markets team including two Indian-origin professionals.
Sanjiv Bhatia joined HMC as managing director and emerging markets equity portfolio manager, bringing with him 20 years of emerging markets experience. From 2009 to 2012, he was the CIO of Isometric Capital Management, a Hong Kong-based hedge fund. Prior to setting up Isometric, he spent four years as managing director and portfolio manager at Deephaven Asia. He had previously spent 12 years at Goldman Sachs in London and Asia in a variety of roles, including head of equity trading in Asia ex-Japan.
Amit Tiwari joined HMC as senior vice-president and international developed equity portfolio manager. Between 2008 and 2012, he was head of equities at Lakshmi Mittal family office. Earlier, he was a portfolio manager at Morgan Stanley Principal Strategies and an investment professional at Ziff Brothers Investments and KKR.
(Edited by Sanghamitra Mandal)