In 1985 Mr Swensen was persuaded by James Tobin, a Nobel-prizewinning Yale economist, to give up a lucrative career on Wall Street to return to his former university to run its investment office. Yale’s endowment was then worth around $1bn. By the middle of last year the figure had risen to $31bn. Even this astonishing growth understates Mr Swensen’s influence. He was responsible for developing a stream of talented asset managers at Yale.
The second pillar concerns information. It is hard to find mispriced stocks in the public markets, because news about listed companies travels fast and is quickly incorporated into prices. But investors in private markets who do their homework are more likely to be rewarded. That is because reliable data and analysis are much harder to come by.