Gupta, Hall Leave Harvard Management Company

UPDATED: January 26, 2017 at 1:00 a.m.

Executives Geetanjali Gupta ’00 and Richard L. Hall ’90 will both leave Harvard Management Company in February. Their departures come on the heels of a year of significant restructuring at HMC.

Gupta was the senior vice president of absolute return and public market funds at HMC, where she worked for over 10 years after working in the investment banking division of the Goldman Sachs Group. She is leaving to become chief investment officer of the New York Public Library, the library announced Jan. 9.

Gupta will begin her role at the library, which has 92 locations and serves more than 18 million patrons annually, on February 26. She will manage the library’s $1.2 billion endowment.

Gupta said in a January press release that she is excited about her new role.

“I am thrilled to have the opportunity to join the leadership team at The New York Public Library. I hope to achieve excellent returns, build an outstanding investment team and be an active leader in advancing the NYPL’s fundamental mission of strengthening diverse communities and inspiring a new generation of learners and researchers,” she said.

Library president Tony Marx said in the press release he is "thrilled" to welcome Gupta to the job. He called Gupta a "proven and trusted investor" and said he looks forward to seeing how her expertise will strengthen the library financially in years to come.

HMC private equity director Richard L. Hall will also depart the company. Hall joined HMC in 2014 as the third manager of the asset class in under a year. His last day at HMC will be Friday, Feb. 2, before he begins working as deputy chief investment officer for the University of Texas Investment Management Company.

In a letter to employees, HMC CEO N. P. “Narv” Narvekar described Hall as “a talented investor” and “a responsible steward of the University’s resources.” The memo did not detail plans to replace Hall.

Narvekar, who joined HMC as CEO in late 2016, recently led efforts to revise the University’s management strategy. HMC announced early last year that it would lay off approximately half of its 230-person staff by the end of the calendar year as part of the beginning of a five-year-long overhaul. Harvard’s endowment is the world’s largest university endowment at $37.1 billion, but faced what Narvekar called “disappointing” returns last fiscal year.

—Staff writer Lucas Ward can be reached at lucas.ward@thecrimson.com. Follow him on twitter at @LucaspfWard.