BOSTON (Reuters) - Harvard University, the world's richest university, on Thursday named a new chief risk officer for its investment management unit after the school's endowment dropped 30 percent last year.
Neil Mason joins Harvard Management Company from FRM Capital Advisors where he was chief investment officer. Mason, who has degrees in philosophy, politics, and economics from Oxford University, had worked previously at BlueCrest Capital Management Limited (BCML), where he was the chief executive and oversaw the firm's risk management and trading management/capital allocation.
Mason comes to Harvard at a critical time after its endowment dropped to $26 billion in the year that ended June 30, 2009. The losses underscored just how badly the school, long admired for its investment savvy, was battered during the financial crisis. The losses have forced Harvard to make heavy cost cuts and interrupt its high-profile campus expansion.
"We are confident that Neil will be highly effective as we continue to refine the endowment's risk profile to ensure that it can support the growth and plans of the University over the long term," Jane Mendillo, the university's chief investment officer said in a statement. Mendillo took her job only a few months before the financial crisis hit in 2008.
Mason succeeds Daniel Kelly, who left Harvard Management Company, where he had been chief risk officer since 2005, last year.
(Reporting by Svea Herbst-Bayliss; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)
