Swensen confident in face of failing market
In 1987, after just a few years on the job, Chief Investment Officer David Swensen met with a nervous University President Benno Schmidt ’63 LAW ’66. The stock market was sagging, and Schmidt wanted answers about the performance of Yale’s endowment.
“Don’t panic,” Swensen told him. “Ride it — it’s not going to last.”
The president took his advice. “And Swensen was right,” Schmidt later recalled, according to Gaddis Smith ’54 GRD ’61, the emeritus professor and Yale historian.
Two decades later, the stock market is sagging again. And, again, Swensen is sticking to...
"Where's Benno?"
And hats off to David Swensen: Yale--and most of its competitors, really--owe him, well, billions.
I hope his defcomp pack makes up for his payscale (and his being forced to occupy 55 Whitney--couldn't Yale scrape up a spare Victorian or something?).
Bravo!