George H.W. Bush Lifetime of Leadership Award
David Swensen, Yale's Chief Investment Officer, oversees $25 billion in Endowment assets and several hundreds of million of dollars of other investment funds. Under his stewardship during the past 30 years the Yale Endowment generated returns of 13.9 percent per annum, a record unequaled among institutional investors. Prior to joining Yale in 1985, Mr. Swensen spent six years on Wall Street - three years at Lehman Brothers and three years at Salomon Brothers - where his work focused on developing new financial technologies.Â
Mr. Swensen was awarded an honorary degree from Yale, Doctor of Humane Letters; the Yale Medal for outstanding individual service to the University; an honorary degree from Bowdoin, Doctor of Human Letters; a fellowship in the American Academy of Arts & Sciences; the Mory's Cup for conspicuous service to Yale; the Hopkins Medal for commitment, devotion and loyalty to Hopkins School; and the Inaugural Institutional Investor Award for Excellence in Investment Management. He teaches in Yale College and at the School of Managament, is a Fellow of Berkeley College, an Incorporator of the Elizabeth Club, and a Fellow of the International Center for Finance.Â
Yale named the Berkeley College Master's Residence "Swensen House" and the Hall of Graduate Studies Tower "David Swnesen Tower" in his honor. The Yale women's tennis coach is teh Swensen-McMahon Head Coach of Women's Tennis and Steve Berry holds the David F. Swensen Chair in Economics. Mr. Swensen advised the President of the United States as a member of the President's Economic Recovery Advisory Board. He served as trustee or advisor to the Brookings Institution, Cambridge University, the Carnegie Corportation, the Carnegie Institution of Washington, the Hopkins School, TIAA, Major League Baseball, the New York Stock Exchange, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Courtland Institute of Art, the Yale New Haven Hospital, the Investment Fund for Foundations, the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation and the States of Connecticut and Massachusetts.
