By STEPHANIE STROM
Last year, Jack R. Meyer, who oversees Harvard University's mighty endowment, the largest university endowment in the country, was paid $6.9 million.
His counterpart at the University of Texas, Bob L. Boldt, was paid $743,316 for managing the second-largest university endowment, while David F. Swenson, who manages the third-largest, at Yale University, was paid $1,027,685.
The disparity is even larger when looking at the five highest paid money managers at the Harvard Management Company, two of whom made more than $35 million last year. This has angered Dr. Terry M. Bennett, who graduated from Harvard Medical School in 1964 and later got a degree from its School of Public Health.
"The managers of the endowment took home enough money last year to send more than 4,000 students to Harvard for a year," Dr. Bennett said....
David R. Mittelman, who managed $2.9 billion of domestic bonds, was paid $36.8 million for beating the performance of five-year and longer term treasury notes and adding $777 million to Harvard's coffers.
Maurice Samuels was paid $35.6 million for producing a $580 million return on $2.1 billion in international bonds and beating a Morgan Stanley index. The University of Texas's investment arm paid roughly the same amount of compensation for its entire money management operation, from top managers to assistants and fees to outside money managers.
After seven members of the Class of 1969 heard through the grapevine of the pay packages for 2003, they sent Harvard's president, Dr. Lawrence H. Summers, a letter critical of the compensation. "Our collective concern is that we think the amounts of money being paid to these folks are by almost any measure obscene," said Stanley Eleff, a lawyer in Tampa who signed the letter.
Dr. Summers, who was treasury secretary during the Clinton administration, did not respond to several requests for an interview. He also has not answered correspondence sent to him by angry alumni ....
<http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/04/education/04HARV.html?hp>
Carl
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