Harvard Is Trying to Smooth Things Over With Silicon Valley

Executives of Harvard Management Company, which runs the university's $51 billion endowment, made an unusual tour of Silicon Valley last week to smooth relationships with top venture-capital investors, according to the Wall Street Journal. Some of those managers had pressed the endowment to get the university to address what they viewed as Harvard's weak response to the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel and to antisemitism under former President Claudine Gay, who resigned earlier this month.

The endowment met with firms including Sequoia Capital, Kleiner Perkins and Andreessen Horowitz, as well as Elad Gil and Patrick Collison, chief executive of payments company Stripe. Both are influential in Silicon Valley and have been among the more outspoken voices toward Harvard's endowment. Private-equity executive Paul Finnegan, the endowment's chair and a member of the Harvard Corporation, also attended some meetings. Endowment spokesman Patrick McKiernan said in a statement that the firm has longstanding relationships with managers who care about higher education and that it was engaging partners on the university's efforts to ensure student safety and protect free speech.

According to people familiar with the tour, it was driven less by fear of losing allocations than by a desire to partner with managers and answer questions. Executives also addressed criticism that Gay's initial statement on the Hamas attacks was too weak. Finnegan said Gay had sought input from school deans, a process that weakened the statement, and he acknowledged criticism that diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives had gone too far. Harvard was considering whether changes were needed to protect academic freedom, he said. Executives also said the endowment is not political and plays no role in selecting the president.

The venture relationship matters to Harvard's returns. The endowment has long lagged peers in venture exposure, and under Narvekar, who joined from Columbia in late 2016, it has increased that exposure and wants to increase it further, though demand for spots in top funds regularly exceeds availability. Narvekar, hired to turn around the endowment, has shuttered most internal trading, written down $1 billion in timber and natural resources investments, and outsourced money management to external managers.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Slocum has also been in contact with Josh Kushner of Thrive Capital, an outspoken venture manager on Israel and antisemitism and the brother of Jared Kushner.