Bartlett told the Washington Post that Harken’s executive committee—which did not include Bush—knew about the size of Harken’s $20 million worth of losses, which the company announced in August 1990, two months after Bush sold the bulk of his Harken holdings.

Holding Their Own

Ties between Eisenson and another HMC manager with Harken raise questions about conflicts of interest related to Harvard’s overall investment in a small, high-risk company.

Eisenson and fellow HMC partner Donald D. Beane sat on Harken’s board of directors and also owned personal stakes in the company.

Eisenson was a vice president of Aeneas Venture Corporation, a division of the Harvard endowment which funds venture capital projects. Beane was a vice president of Aeneas and the chief operating officer of HMC until September 1990.

The Crimson reported in April 1991 that both were Harken directors along with Bush and that both owned 10,000 shares of common stock in the company, worth more than $25,000 at the time.

Meyer would not comment this week on the holdings of the two investment managers.

But he told The Crimson in 1991 that the holdings and positions of Eisenson and Beane could be problematic.

“There is the possibility of a conflict,” Meyer said. “There is that potential.”

A spokesperson for Charlesbank Capital Partners—the firm where Eisenson is currently managing director and CEO, and which now handles some University investments—said that HMC encouraged such behavior.

“At the time, it was definitely encouraged for investment managers to invest in the companies” in which the University invested, said spokesperson Maura M. Turner, speaking on Eisenson’s behalf.

“It was sort of an alignment of incentives,” she said.

Turner said that Eisenson—who was managing HMC’s Harken holdings—sat on Harken’s executive committee since 1986, meaning he would have had advance knowledge about Harken’s financial status, including huge impending losses.

According to Turner, Eisenson sold his Harken shares some time after 1991 to avoid a conflict of interest.

As of last May, though, Harvard still owned shares of Harken, according to federal filings obtained by the Boston Globe.