Harvard endowment PE exec Hall to take role at UTIMCO

The former head of private equity at Harvard’s endowment, whose title changed after an organizational restructuring last year, is leaving the system, according to an internal memo.

Richard Hall, who joined the endowment in 2014 as head of PE, will depart Feb. 2 and become deputy chief investment officer at University of Texas Investment Management Co.

The memo does not mention a successor to Hall. A spokesman for the endowment declined comment.

Prior to Harvard, Hall led PE at Teacher Retirement System of Texas.

“Rich has proven himself to be a talented investor, a responsible steward of the University’s resources, and a wonderful colleague. He also played an integral role in adapting our team to the generalist model over the past year,” according to the memo from Chief Executive N.P. Narvekar. “Rich’s contributions leave us well positioned for the future. We will miss having him as a member of our team, but we’re excited for his new opportunity.”

Harvard last year said it would shift its investment model from one that placed each asset class, like private equity, into its own silo, where professionals worked in isolation from the other asset classes.

The new model is a general investment structure “in which all members of the investment team take ownership of the entire portfolio,” according to a letter last year from Narvekar, who joined the endowment in 2016.

The PE team rolled into the general investment group. Hall’s title changed to managing director on the general investment team.

Harvard has a 20 percent target allocation to private equity. It’s not clear if that target is changing along with the organizational changes.

Axios earlier reported on the move.

Action Item: Read Narvekar’s letter from last year here: http://bit.ly/2FqqgO2

Harvard sign. Photo courtesy Patrickmorrisseyphoto/iStock/Getty Images