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October 05, 2016 at 12:35 PM
Columbia University’s endowment reported a 0.9 percent loss for the year, underscoring the departing chief executive officer’s ability to pare losses in turbulent markets.
The value of the fund declined 6.2 percent to $9 billion for the year through June 30, the New York-based school said Wednesday in a statement. Columbia posted the smallest loss among six Ivy League schools. Of the other two Ivies, Yale University had a 3.4 percent gain and Princeton University hasn’t reported yet.
Many schools have struggled with volatile markets. About 430 endowments lost 2.7 percent on average in fiscal 2016, according to an estimate by Cambridge Associates, which manages $9.9 billion for endowments and foundations. The Cambridge data, like the school returns, is net of fees.
It’s the last fiscal year the endowment will be headed by Narv Narvekar, who has been at the helm since 2002. Narvekar will join Harvard Management Co. as CEO on Dec. 5 to help turn around the struggling $35.7 billion fund, the richest university endowment. Peter Holland, Columbia’s chief investment officer since 2003, succeeds Narvekar.
