In furtherance of its mission of promoting the adoption of best practices in endowment management, the TIFF Education Foundation (TEF) conducted a seminar on Wednesday, July 26, 2006, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Audio recordings of the five interviews comprising the seminar are available below. The interviews were conducted by TEF president David Salem.  

Choose a speaker for their biography:
Harvey Dale | Mohamed El-Erian | Bill McCalpin | Bill Helman | Jeremy Grantham

Click here to listen to this interview

Click here to read Harvey Dale's paper "Prudence Perverted: Politics, Perceptions, and Pressures" in PDF format

Harvey Dale
Professor of Philanthropy and the Law
New York University

Harvey Dale is a professor of philanthropy and the law and the director of the National Center on Philanthropy and the Law at New York University. Professor Dale has been a member of the faculty at NYU's law school since 1977. For the last 15 years, he has taught primarily in the field of non-profit organizations.

Professor Dale is founding president and a director of The Atlantic Philanthropies and was the president and CEO of The Atlantic Foundation for approximately 20 years (until September 1, 2001). He also serves as a member of the investment committee of The Atlantic Philanthropies, and was a member of the investment committee of Cornell University from 1996 to 2005.

Professor Dale is a member of the Overseers' Committee to Visit the Harvard Law School; serves as a director, trustee, president, or chair of various charitable organizations both in the US and abroad; and is an advisor to the American Law Institute's project on principles of the law of nonprofit organizations. He is also a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Professor Dale received his B.A. degree from Cornell University and his J.D. degree from Harvard University.

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Mohamed El-Erian
President and CEO
Harvard Management Company

Mohamed El-Erian is president and CEO of Harvard Management Company, the wholly-owned subsidiary of Harvard University which is responsible for the management of the University’s endowment and related accounts. He is a member of the faculty of Harvard Business School and deputy treasurer of the University.

Before joining Harvard in February 2006, Dr. El-Erian was a managing director and a senior member of PIMCO’s portfolio management and investment strategy group. In addition to serving on the firm’s seven-member investment committee and the three-member partner compensation committee, he led the emerging markets and diversified income portfolio management teams and had oversight responsibilities for the mortgage, investment grade, high yield, convertibles, and money market desks. Dr. El-Erian joined PIMCO in May 1999, having been associated previously with Salomon Smith Barney in London where he was managing director of the emerging markets economic research team. Prior to joining Salomon Smith Barney, he spent fifteen years with the IMF.

Dr. El-Erian has written widely on economic and financial issues and has extensive board experience. Boards on which he has served include the Emerging Markets Traders Association (EMTA) and the Emerging Markets Creditors Association (EMCA). Dr. El-Erian is currently a member of the IMF’s Capital Markets Consultative Group and sits on the board of the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW). He earned his undergraduate degree from Cambridge University and holds master’s and doctorate degrees from Oxford University.

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Bill McCalpin
Executive Vice President and COO
Rockefeller Brothers Fund

Bill McCalpin joined the Rockefeller Brothers Fund in September of 1998 as executive vice president and chief operating officer. He was responsible for finance, investment management, information technology, communications, and grants administration at the foundation. In addition, Mr. McCalpin worked closely with RBF’s president and program officers in setting strategic priorities for the foundation’s grantmaking program and played a central role in RBF’s evaluation and assessment activities.

Prior to assuming his position with RBF, Mr. McCalpin was director of investments related to programs at the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation in Chicago. Prior to joining the MacArthur Foundation, he served for seven years (1984-1991) as a program officer at RBF; for part of that time, he also served as the Fund’s treasurer.

Mr. McCalpin has considerable board and advisory experience in the non-profit sector and in the asset management business. He is a director of the Netherlands-based Triodos Renewable Energy for Development Fund, as well as a trustee and vice president of the Asian Cultural Council, which is affiliated with RBF. Mr. McCalpin served as a founding director of The Investment Fund for Foundations (TIFF) and also serves as as an independent trustee of the Janus family of mutual funds.

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Bill Helman
Managing General Partner
Greylock Partners

Bill Helman joined the Boston-based venture capital firm Greylock Partners in 1984. As a general partner at Greylock, he focuses on information technology and biomedical ventures.

Mr. Helman represents Greylock on the boards of CentrePath, Incipient, OATSystems, OutlookSoft, Reveal Imaging, and Vettro. Previously, he led Greylock’s investments in Exact Sciences, Upromise, Tessera (merged with iXL), Ontogeny, Hyperion Software, Filene’s Basement, Pharmacopeia, Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Staples.com (acquired by Staples), and Vertex Pharmaceuticals.

Mr. Helman serves on the boards of Harvard Management Company, the Isabella Stuart Gardner Museum, and The Steppingstone Foundation. He is also a member of the board of overseers at Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts and chair of the President’s Leadership Council at Dartmouth College.

Mr. Helman received his A.B. from Dartmouth College and his M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.

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Jeremy Grantham
Chairman
GMO

Jeremy Grantham co-founded GMO in 1977. He began his career as an economist with Royal Dutch Shell after earning his undergraduate degree from the University of Sheffield (U.K.) and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. Prior to launching GMO, he was a principal at the Boston-based money management firm Batterymarch Financial Management. Mr. Grantham currently serves as GMO’s chairman and oversees its quantitative products and investment strategies. He also serves on the investment committees of several Boston-based non-profit organizations.

GMO is a privately-held global investment management firm which oversees in excess of $100 billion in client assets primarily for institutions. It was founded on the philosophy of value-oriented investing and constant innovation. GMO offers fundamental and quantitative investment products including domestic and international equities and global fixed income. It also manages absolute return hedge funds and other alternative investment products. The firm is headquartered in Boston with additional offices in London, San Francisco, Singapore, Sydney, and Zurich.