“I’m not sensitive,” Meyer told the audience of approximately 75 students at the start of his remarks. “I was when I first got here. I’m not anymore.”

He responded to all but one of the question posed to him, only declining to reveal the salary of the lowest-paid worker at Harvard Management Company.

Meyer had previously floated the possibility of external fund management with reporters, but he was unusually candid last night about the option. Most universities, including Yale and Princeton, manage their endowments with outside investors.

“It could be that we will eventually move to the same external system that other schools use,” Meyer said. But he said external management would not lower costs and would only sweep the compensation issue under the rug since fund managers detached from non-profit organizations like Harvard are not required to disclose their salaries.

With the departure—and the spin-off of their own funds—of five top fund managers in the last six years, Harvard has increasingly seen its endowment move to hedge funds outside the University.

Jeff Larson, who oversees foreign equities in the endowment, announced last month he will leave June 30 to establish his own hedge fund backed with $500 million of Harvard money. The University will also invest $200 million in an exclusive commodities fund run by Larson.

Meyer said he did not expect the outflow of Harvard’s fund managers to ebb, and he was not optimistic about plugging the holes.

“It’s real hard to hire replacement people,” he said.

Meyer has argued that the departure of Larson and other managers indicates they are not overpaid, and he staunchly defended Harvard’s compensation formula again last night.

Meyer dismissed calls to abandon the management company’s incentive-based system in favor of flat salaries or more modest bonuses.

“I can’t do it and pay competitive rates,” Meyer said. “I won’t try.”

In a moment of what appeared to be uncharacteristic frustration, Meyer said he would have the best job in the world, if not for the fury over compensation.

—Staff writer Zachary M. Seward can be reached at seward@fas.harvard.edu.