CAMBRIDGE, MA—Sanjiv Bhatia, a managing director at Harvard Management Company, which announced that it will lay off nearly half of its 230-person staff, will start his company, according to news reports.
Bhatia is one of the staff members who will leave HMC, the investment management arm of Harvard University and manager of the country’s largest endowment, is $35.7 billion for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2016.
N.P. Narvekar, who took over as HMC’s president and chief executive officer on Dec. 5, announced last month sweeping internal changes, including a major shift in investment strategy, workforce reductions, and a compensation system tied to the overall performance of the University’s endowment.
“Two of the three managers, Michele Toscani and Graig Fantuzzi, will partner to create a new firm while the third, Sanjiv Bhatia, will form his own. All three are portfolio managers at HMC. Toscani and Fantuzzi both manage fixed income assets, while Bhatia focuses on “emerging market stocks,” The Harvard Crimson reported quoting Bloomberg.
In fiscal year 2016, Harvard posted a negative 2 percent return on its investments. The returns, coupled with other financial flows like the $1.7 billion HMC allocated to Harvard’s annual operating budget in FY 2016, dropped the value of the endowment by approximately $2 billion, according to Crimson.
Bhatia joined Harvard Management Company in 2012.
