Harvard Management Company endowment manager Stanley Zuzic has left the University to take a position with the money management arm of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

In an April 27 memo obtained by The Crimson, HMC chief executive Jane L. Mendillo wrote that Zuzic—who joined HMC in 1999 and headed domestic equities at the company—would leave on May 7 to "pursue an exciting new opportunity that promises to be a great fit with his considerable talents."

"In my experience at HMC, from the depths of the financial crisis to today, we have benefited from Stan's uniquely logical way of synthesizing information to bring clarity to even the most complicated problems," Mendillo added in the internal e-mail.

Zuzic was among the company's most highly paid employees and brought home $4.85 million in 2008, the most recent year for which data is available.

He leaves Harvard as Mendillo, who took the reigns of HMC in July 2008, restructures the organization and reshapes its practices. Her focuses have included risk management and allocating larger portions of the endowment to cash, she stated in a speech earlier this year.

Zuzic's departure comes less than two months after the March resignation of HMC bond trader Mitch Livstone.

Harvard spokesman John D. Longbrake declined to comment Tuesday.

—Staff writer William N. White can be reached at wwhite@fas.harvard.edu.