Harvard loses its main money man

The Wall Street Journal reports that Mohamed El-Erian, who oversees Harvard's $35 billion endowment, is taking off after a tenture of just a year and a half. Craig Karmin and Ian McDonald write:

In August, Harvard said that the endowment had returned 23% for the fiscal year ending in June. That period marked Mr. El-Erian's first full year as head of Harvard Management Co., and he said he had only recently completed the hiring of a new team of investment managers. In 2005, Jack Meyer stepped down as head of Harvard Management to start the hedge fund Convexity Capital Management. Mr. Meyer took about 30 staffers from Harvard to the new Boston-based hedge fund.

Harvard Management is considered one of the nation's most successful and trailblazing investment management firms. It has chalked up an annualized return of 15.2% over the past 10 years through June 2006, compared to an 8.9% median return for endowments and foundations over that same period, according to Wilshire Trust Universe Comparison Service.

The Globe's Steve Syre also has a blog posting about the news.