“I think you have to try to help people get over the insecurity,” Rothenberg said in an interview yesterday, “and I think it would be wrong to tell you that people aren’t concerned.”

The management company has already been plagued by intense scrutiny since announcing that bond managers Samuels and Mittelman had earned $35.1 million and $34.1 million, respectively, in fiscal year 2003. A committed group of alumni and students objected to those salaries, arguing that compensation of that magnitude was inappropriate in an academic setting.

William A. Strauss ’69, who spearheaded a campaign against the high salaries along with a small group of his classmates, said yesterday that Harvard should include students, faculty, alumni and University employees on the committee which will search for Meyer’s replacement and determine the future of the management company.

“It’s time to have an open community forum on this,” Strauss said.

Harvard named University President Lawrence H. Summers and other administrators, as well as board members of the management company, an investment banker and a lawyer, to the committee. It will not include any students.

Jeffrey B. Larson, Harvard’s former manager of foreign equities who left in July to form his own hedge fund backed by the University’s money, said yesterday that Meyer’s departure was a significant blow to the management company.

“As Jack always said, Harvard would pay more for similarly capable outside management,” Larson said.

Harvard is not required to disclose the sums it pays to outside firms that manage its money.

Meyer, who has two children—Justus S. Meyer ’05 and Halsey R. Meyer ’07—at the College, will leave the University at the top of his game. Though Meyer has repeatedly warned of lower returns, the endowment posted a 21.1 percent return last fiscal year, far surpassing the national average of 14.7 percent.

Still, Harvard continues to lose its top managers, and Meyer may have hinted at his own departure when he discussed the issue in an interview last June.

“The problem is, given the hedge fund environment right now, it’s so easy to start your own hedge fund,” Meyer said, “that it’s difficult to attract people to come here.”

—Staff writer Jonathan P. Abel can be reached at abel@fas.harvard.edu.

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