Harvard to Create Management Firm For Its Endowment

Harvard plans to set up its own management company to handle a major part of its endowment, George Putnam '49, Treasurer of Harvard College, announced yesterday.

Putnam said the new Harvard Management Company--which would be entirely owned by the University--would manage one-third to two-thirds of Harvard's $1.4 billion endowment, the largest university endowment in the world. Putnam said the rest of Harvard's stocks and bonds would be divided into lots worth $100 million each and split up among three as yet unchosen management firms.

The new company would not be allowed to manage non-Harvard funds for at least three years.

The State Street Research and Management Company, which is headed by former Harvard treasurer George F. Bennett '33, managed Harvard's endowment for a nominal fee from 1948 until last Spring, when Bennett left Harvard. At that time, Putnam said he favored giving part of Harvard's endowment to each of several investment firms, though he mentioned that setting up a Harvard management company or continuing to employ just one outside firm were other possibilities.

Putnam did not say why Harvard had decided to set up its own company--a decision which still must be approved by the Overseers' committee on financial policy.

Putnam said the Corporation's subcommittee on shareholder responsibility and the student-faculty-alumni Advisory Committee on Shareholder Responsibility will continue to decide how Harvard votes its stock on controversial shareholder resolutions.