As part of an ongoing effort to improve its ability to invest shrewdly the University's $2.6 billion endowment, the Harvard Management Company (HMC) plans to fill three positions this spring. HMC President Walter M. Cabot '55 said this week.

The company hopes to add two business-school graduates to its current research staff of eight, with one of those researchers covering the real estate market, where Harvard does not now have a full-time analyst. Assistant Treasurer Henry J. Ameral said.

In addition, the company will hire a full-time manager for its roughly $200 million of non-publicly traded assets, which includes real estate, venture capital and other holdings.

"We're always looking to add to the staff, and to the exten that we can perform some of the research in-house, we will," Ameral said. "As new opportunities present themselves, if we feel we are light in one of them, we would increase our staff."

However, both Ameral and Cabot said the current job search marks nothing unusual for HMC, which has not grown substantially since it was founded in 1974 the company generally hires one or two new employees every year to fill spots vacated by retiring or transferring employees.

Portfolio Manager

The company is still searching for a new portfolio manager to replace John R. Chase '50, who recently took a new position as long-term market analyst for HMC. Chase had managed $700 million of the University's stock investments in mid-to large-sized companies.

However, Cabot said that the company has no deadline for finding a new manager, because most of the $700 million of investments Chase directed have been moved into a fund linked to the Standard and Poor's index of 500 stocks. By being indexed, the stocks perform roughly as well as the stock market, which has tumbled about 200 points since January.

"We don't really need a new portfolio manager right today. On the other hand, if we saw someone with outstanding credentials, we would be interested," Cabot said "We've got all the bases reasonably covered."

The University pulled about $300 million of the endowment out of stock investments in December, bringing down the ratio of stock investments to bond and cash investments to 50-50 from 80-20 after scoring $700 million in 1982's strong bull market.

Cabot said the company maintains the equal ratio, and has shifted most of the bond investments into short-term notes, meaning that the roughly $1.3 billion of the endowment in bonds can be moved around more quickly.