Ivy League endowments struggle with private market downturn

FINANCIAL TIMES / BY SUN YU

This article is reserved for Financial Times subscribers. It describes liquidity problems that large university endowments are facing because of failing returns and cash flows from their university investment model. The article quotes our founder Hunter Lewis on the early days of the university investment model: 

“The costs of operating the university [were]  going way up [while] income  [was] going down,” said Hunter Lewis, co-founder of Cambridge Associates and a co-inventor of the [university] investment model with a focus on alternative assets. “Endowments knew they had to do things differently.”

In recent years, Lewis has noted that circumstances have changed again. He is now a critic of the university investment model that he developed along with colleagues and clients.