Officials who manage Harvard University’s money were called “lazy, fat and stupid” in a report conducted by consulting firm McKinsey & Co., according to Bloomberg. The McKinsey report looked at how the country’s richest university handles its endowment, specifically the investment goals and benchmarks.
In an internal review, employees complained that the school’s money managers “collected tens of millions in bonuses by exceeding ‘easy-to-beat’ investment goals,” at the same time that the endowment is dwindling, Bloomberg reported. The April 2015 report, which Bloomberg sayshas never been made public, looked at the five years before June 2014 during which Harvard paid 11 of its money managers a total of $242 million.
Ninety percent of that was made up of bonuses, Bloomberg reported. According to the report, Harvard sets low benchmarks that are easy to beat compared to other competitive schools.
The report lead McKinsey to warn that Harvard could be knocked down from its top spot as having the world’s largest endowment within 20 years. The new leader? Yale.
Harvard money managers called ‘lazy, fat, stupid’ in report on endowment
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