Call it a case of senioritis for Andrew Golden. The Princeton University endowment chief is retiring from his post after three decades. As he departs, the school’s allocation to private equity including venture capital has crept up to 40 per cent.
That is above Princeton’s 30 per cent target. The jump comes just as the masters of the universe are labouring to return cash to limited partners amid an IPO and M&A slump. Golden lamented the situation in an interview with the FT calling the current moment “the worst environment ever” for backers of private markets.
These difficulties coincide with public markets’ surge since the start of last year. In the fiscal year ending in June 2023, Princeton’s endowment returned a negative 1.7 per cent, leaving its value at $34bn. Elite private colleges have for the last 25 years followed the “Yale model” by ploughing big dollars into illiquid alternative investments, to great success (Golden had come from Yale).