The CEO of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg might be hiring in the near future; and no its not for Facebook. Zuckerberg is seeking a chief investment officer to manage the philanthropic Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Bloomberg reported Wednesday, while the fund already oversees more than $10 billion.
CIO David Swensen is conducting the search, along with an executive recruiter, according to a spokesperson familiar with the matter. Reports say Swensen will also chair the investment committee. The organization originally formed in 2015, as a means of tackling a range of issues from eradicating disease to reforming the criminal justice system.
CNBC reports that a spokeswoman for the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative confirmed the search, although they did not provide additional information, and Swensen didn’t immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comments.
However, Swensen is considered somewhat of a legend in the investment community, according to CNBC, and managed Yale University’s $29.4 billion endowment, the second largest behind Harvard’s, since 1985. In the past decade, the endowment returned an annualized 7.4 percent and 11.8 percent over the past two decades.
From June 2017 to June 2018, Yale’s endowment gained 12.3 percent, the university announced this week. The value of the funds Swensen manages increased nearly $2 billion year after year. To compare, Harvard University who has a $39.2 billion endowment, held a 10 percent gain.