After the position remained unfulfilled for a good portion of last year, Harvard Management Company has now appointed Richard Hall to become its private equity head, Reuters-PE HUB reported.
Harvard Management Company, which manages the university's $32.7 billion endowment, has been operating without a private equity chief for most of last year after Peter Dolan left in April. After eight months without someone at the helm, Lane MacDonald was appointed for the role. However, he also left the post after just a couple of months to serve as the president of a family office, the report said.
Hall, who works at Teacher Retirement System of Texas as its private equity head, will start in his new role next month. He had been involved with the system's private equity since 2008 but took the lead in 2012 when Steve LeBlanc left. Hall served as the Vice President of Real Estate Investment Banking at the Banc of America Securities before his stint at Teacher Retirement System of Texas, the report said.
HMC President and Chief Executive Officer Jane Mendillo said in a statement, "Hall brings significant and deep expertise across private equity investments, other private assets and global M&A."
Hall has a lot of work ahead of him. In September, Mendillo said she was not happy with their private equity portfolio and described it only as "fair." In fiscal 2013, the endowment's private equity portfolio only returned 11%. Compared to the gains made by public equities, this return was well below the mark and only a little higher than the benchmark that Harvard set which was 10.6%. This was noted by Mendillo in the letter that went with the fiscal year report of HMC, Reuters-PE HUB reported.
Mendillo added that in order for Harvard to harvest better private equity gains, it is "actively focusing on honing our private equity strategy to maintain the highest concentration in the very best managers with the greatest potential to add value."
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