But other observers argue that Harvard’s managers aren’t being paid enough.

“You have to compensate them fully,” says Paul J. Zofnass ’69, president of the Environmental Financial Consulting Group, Inc. “You can’t assume that just your name alone will get people to want to work for you.”

Meyer says he is not confident that an academic setting can retain “world-class” portfolio managers, given what the culture of a university is willing to accept.

And finding a solution that ensures both high returns and an acceptable structure for the University and its public image is vital as the endowment and the projects it funds continue to grow.

In the last few years, the University has announced a number of major initiatives that will depend on Harvard’s continuing financial success.

The construction of a new campus in Allston is likely to cost billions. Stem cell research, a promising new field that top administrators are committed to pursuing, must be funded solely through private sources according to federal law. And even smaller long-term initiatives, such as increasing financial aid and the recently-announced plan to spend $50 million to increase diversity, rely on steady endowment growth.

Many at Harvard are more focused on these ambitious plans, but their success may hinge on the selection of a new management company leader—and the structure within which it will invest the University’s endowment.

And while the size of Harvard’s nest egg may present a plethora of investment challenges, one thing is certain, according to Ann E. Kaplan, who is director of the Voluntary Support of Education Survey at the Council for the Aid to Education.

“One of the benefits of having a large endowment is that you can draw upon it when needed,” she says.

—Staff writer Alexander H. Greeley can be reached at agreeley@fas.harvard.edu. —Staff writer Nicholas M. Ciarelli can be reached at ciarelli@fas.harvard.edu.