On Monday, David Swensen taught his usual class on investing at his beloved Yale University, despite a long battle with cancer. Two days later, one of the all-time greats of money management finally succumbed, passing away aged 67.
The investment industry has produced more than its fair share of roguish buccaneers and ruthless tycoons, hapless failures and feckless fraudsters. In Swensen — who had run his alma mater’s $31bn endowment since 1985 — it had a rare ascetic, seemingly uninterested in wealth even as he transformed the industry that manages it.
“The really great painters are the ones that change how other people paint, like Picasso. David Swensen changed how everyone who is serious about investing thinks about investing,” says Charles Ellis, who chaired Yale’s endowment between 1997 and 2008.