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Mark Zuckerberg might be hiring. But not for Facebook.
The tech CEO is looking for a chief investment officer to manage the philanthropic Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Bloomberg reported Wednesday. The fund oversees more than $10 billion.
Yale University’s widely followed CIO, David Swensen, is conducting the search, along with an executive recruiter, a person familiar with the matter told Bloomberg News. Swensen would also reportedly chair the investment committee.
The organization formed in 2015 to tackle a range of issues, from eradicating disease to reforming the criminal justice system. Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, have pledged 99 percent of their wealth to the causes, and a chief investment officer would theoretically help them capitalize on returns to support those.
A spokeswoman for the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative confirmed the search to CNBC but did not provide additional details. Swensen did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.
Swensen is somewhat of a legend in the investment community. He has managed the university’s $29.4 billion endowment, the second largest behind Harvard’s, since 1985. The endowment returned an annualized 7.4 percent in the past decade and 11.8 percent over 20 years.
Yale’s endowment gained 12.3 percent from June 2017 through June 2018, the university announced this week. The value of the funds Swensen manages increased roughly $2 billion year over year. Harvard University, with a $39.2 billion endowment, posted a 10 percent gain.
Swensen, like other endowment leaders, notoriously keeps a low profile. Likewise, Michael Larson, who is the chief investment officer for Bill and Melinda Gates Investments and handles the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust endowment, is hardly a household name.
A portion of Zuckerberg’s Facebook fortune has been invested with wealth management firm Iconiq Capital, which invests for a group of early Facebook employees. That firm has expanded beyond managing Facebook employees’ wealth to include venture, private equity and real estate funds it then markets to external clients.
— Read the entire report here.