Harvard Management Co. Names Two New Partners

Two directors and partners for the Harvard Management Company were named last week by Walter M. Cabot '55, president of Harvard Management.

John R. Chase '50 will become equity partner and Nils P. Peterson will become fixed-income partner when Harvard Management takes over $1 billion of the University's $1.4 billion portfolio on July 1.

Harvard Management Company was set up earlier this year by the Corporation to manage the portfolio when State Street Management and Research Co. concludes a 26-year relationship with Harvard at the end of this month.

Chase and Peterson will also become directors of Harvard Management along with Cabot, Treasurer George Putnam '49, President Bok, Financial Vice President Hale Champion, and two other members of the Corporation, Albert L. Nickerson '33 and Francis H. Burr '35.

Cabot made the appointments after considering more than 100 candidates in a nationwide search. He said he will name six or eight more partners and associates for his company, but they will probably not be appointed until late summer.

Putnam, who has assisted Cabot in setting up the management company and in searching for personnel and several outside firms to divide up $400,000 of the portfolio, said Friday that Peterson and Chase are the only other members of the management company besides Cabot who will be on its board of directors.

Former Putnam Employee

Chase, currently a member of David L. Babson and Co., worked in the Putnam Management Co. as manager of the George Putnam Fund and Putnam Investment Fund from 1966 to 1973. Putnam, who took over the Putnam Management Co. from his father, said Friday that Chase was one of the best equity managers in the country.

Peterson is now the manager of the fixed income department for Thorndike, Doran, Paine and Lewis, a subsidiary of Wellington Management Co., at which Cabot was a senior partner until April.

Neither Chase nor Peterson have held directorships for any outside corporations. Cabot has said he will not allow Harvard Management personnel hold any private corporate directorships. Both new appointees said they agree with Cabot's decision.

"The problem of conflict of interest gets worse and worse every day, so it doesn't even make any sense to me to even contemplate holding any outside directorships," Chase said Friday.

Both Chase and Peterson said this weekend they are looking forward to being able to devote full time to one portfolio.