David F. Swensen

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David F. Swensen (* 1954 ) has been Yale University's Investment Director since 1985 . He is responsible for managing the university's endowment, which in 2007 was $ 22 billion. For the past 10 years he has achieved an average annual return on investment of 17.2% on his investments. Swensen added more than $ 16 billion to Yale's net worth; its regular above-average annual return on investment drew the attention of many Wall Street managers.

He has made a name for himself with his investment strategy known as “The Yale Model”. This strategy is an application of portfolio theory .

After receiving his BA and BS degrees in 1975 from the University of Wisconsin-River Falls , Canada , Swensen graduated with a Ph.D. in Economics from Yale University . The topic of his dissertation were valuation models of industrial bonds - " A Model for the Valuation of Corporate Bonds ".

Before Professor Swensen started working at Yale in 1985, he spent six years on Wall Street : three years each with Lehman Brothers and Salomon Brothers . During this time he was involved in the development of swap and corporate finance products.

Swensen is Trustee of the Carnegie Institution of Washington and Chief Financial Officer of the Hopkins School . He serves as the trustee of the TIAA Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association - College Retirement Equities Fund ; he is a director of Schroders , one of the 100 largest companies in the UK . He has advised Carnegie Corporation , the New York Stock Exchange , Howard Hughes Medical Institute , Courtauld Institute of Art , Yale-New Haven Hospital , Connecticut and Massachusetts .

Swensen teaches through foundations at Yale College and the Yale School of Management . In 2014 he received an honorary doctorate from Yale University. He has also been a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences since 2008 .

The Yale model

David F. Swensen developed the Yale Model and described it in his book Proactive Portfolio Strategies. Describes innovative and successful ways in institutional investment . Put simply, it describes how to divide the portfolio into about 5 to 6 equal parts and invest them in different asset classes . A central component of the Yale model are portfolio shifts that are carried out due to market fluctuations, which leads to countercyclical investing. Swensen demanded that liquidity should be avoided as high liquidity meant a low return on investment. This approach was revolutionary at the time and is now a recognized state of knowledge.

Swensen graduates

Swensen's work influenced the investments of numerous foundation asset managers well beyond Yale. So worked z. B. The following managers of foundation assets previously worked for Swensen:

Investing successfully - strategies for private investors

In 2005 Swensen wrote his book Successfully Investing as a handbook for retail investors. He recommends the following investment strategy for private investors:

  • A private investor should build up his portfolio from 6 asset classes e.g. For example: domestic stocks, foreign stocks of developed markets, stocks of emerging markets, real estate, government bonds, inflation-linked government bonds. Then a percentage strategy target should be defined for each asset class. E.g .: 30%, 15%, 5%, 20%, 15%, 15%.
  • The private investor should regroup his portfolio on a regular basis in order to return to the defined percentage strategy targets for each asset class.
  • The private investor should avoid financial products that are associated with high costs, high annual fees, taxes or other expenses.

Swensen denounced the high fees of mutual funds with active management and pointed out the conflicts of interest between mutual fund investors and mutual fund company.

literature

  • David F. Swensen: Proactive Portfolio Strategies. Innovative and successful ways in institutional investment . Hamburg: Murmann Verlag, 2005, ISBN 3-938017-36-8
  • David F. Swensen: Investing successfully. Strategies for retail investors . Hamburg: Murmann Verlag, 2007, ISBN 3-938017-74-0

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Biographies of the 2014 honorands at Yale University (yale.edu); Retrieved June 9, 2014
personal data
SURNAME Swensen, David F.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American investment manager
DATE OF BIRTH 1954