Harvard Names Richard Hall as New Private Equity Head

(March 18, 2014) — Havard University’s endowment has tapped Richard Hall of the Teacher Retirement System of Texas to be its new managing director of private equity.

Hall, 46, currently manages a $14 billion private equity portfolio for the Texas pension fund as head of private equity. He had been with the $124 billion retirement system since 2008.

He succeeds Lane MacDonald at Harvard Management Company (HMC), who left the $32.7 billion endowment fund last month to manage investments for Fidelity-founders, the Johnson family. He is scheduled to start his new job in April and will report to Andrew Wiltshire, head of alternative assets.

“Hall brings significant and deep expertise across private equity investments, other private assets, and global M&A, and we are delighted to welcome him to our team,” said CIO Jane Mendillo in a statement. “Private equity has been and continues to be an important driver of returns in our portfolio.”

According to the HMC’s most recent performance figures, private equity returned 11% for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2013.

“I would characterize our private equity performance this year as fair,” Mendillo wrote in the 2013 annual report. “[It’s] a strong nominal return, but well below the return on public market equity, and only slightly above our benchmark.”

Mendillo said she looks forward to Hall redirecting the portfolio’s strategy.

“As the private equity landscape evolves and becomes ever more global, we will look to Rich and our strong private equity team to further develop and refine our strategy and to canvas the world in order to bring the best opportunities in scale to our portfolio.”

Prior to joining Texas Teachers, Hall worked at Banc of America Securities—now part of Bank of America Merrill Lynch—as vice president of real estate investment banking. He also served as director of corporate development and strategy at London-based engineering firm Tompkins. Earlier in his career, he worked in direct investments and M&A at Dell Ventures.

Hall served as an intelligence officer in the United States Navy for six years before beginning his finance career.

He received his BA from Harvard and an MBA at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

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