Yale’s David Swensen is not playing any games in terms of holding money managers accountable when it comes to diversity.
According to The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), the endowment chief let investment firms know that they will be measured by their hiring of minorities and women.
Swensen has led Yale’s $32 billion endowments since 1985 and he tells WSJ that those who show little improvement can expect to see the prestigious university pull its money.
The significance of this move is vital to ensuring that the company’s put their money where their mouths are when it comes to diversifying their respective workforces. At 66, Swensen is considered among the most highly regarded money managers in the world having grown Yale’s endowment from $1 billion after joining as a 31-year-old former grad student of the school.
He’s credited for his development of the so-called Yale Model which is committed to private equity funds, international investments, hedge funds, and private equity funds.
When asked why he didn’t write this letter demanding action sooner, Swensen tells WSJ that although he has long talked about diversity, he held off thinking that there were not enough diverse candidates entering into asset management.
However, inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement, he realizes that now more than ever was the time to take the leap.
Per TechCrunch, Swensen reportedly offered the same suggestion to U.S. managers proposing they no longer look at the same resumes as they’ve done for so long, but instead consider recruiting directly from college campuses instead.
