After Record Loss, Harvard Names A New Chief Risk Officer

(January 14, 2010) — Neil Mason, 43, of FRM Capital Advisors, is the new chief risk officer of Harvard University’s endowment-management company, which suffered a record loss last year.

Harvard’s endowment dropped 30% to $26 billion in the year ended June 30, 2009, as investments declined 27%. The university’s loss of billions of dollars was largely due to issues with its private-equity and hedge fund portfolios, leading to cost cuts, a halt on campus expansion, and a review of how it manages and allocates its assets.

Mason will report to Harvard Management Co. Chief Executive Officer Jane Mendillo. He succeeds Daniel Kelly, who started as the university’s chief risk officer in 2005 and joined Union Bancaire Privée last year.

“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,” Mendillo said in a statement.

Mason earned degrees in philosophy, politics, and economics from Oxford University, and has more than two decades of risk-management and markets experience in banking and hedge funds, Bloomberg reports. He has worked previously at BlueCrest Capital Management Limited as chief executive, in charge of the firm’s risk management.