UW-River Falls alumnus presents on career success

David Swensen, Chief Investment Officer (CIO) for Yale University and a member of the President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness, will deliver a lecture at UWRiver Falls on Monday, Dec. 12. The lecture is scheduled to begin at 3 p.m. in the Kinnickinic Theater located on the third floor of the University Center.

Swensen has served as Yale’s CIO since 1985 during which time he developed the Yale Model of investment. This model, detailed by Swensen in his book “Pioneering Portfolio Management: An Unconventional Approach to Institutional Investment,” is credited for Yale’s endowment realizing an 11.9 percentage rate of return from 2000-09. Swensen also authored “Unconventional Success: A Fundamental Approach to Personal Investment.”

In 2009, Swensen was named to President Barack Obama’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness. The council reports regularly to President Obama and his economic team on possible ways to improve the nation’s economy.

In addition to his role as Yale’s CIO, Swensen teaches endowment management at Yale College and the Yale School of Management. Swensen serves as a trustee for numerous organizations including the Carnegie Foundation of Washington and the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America.

Swensen graduated from UWRF in 1975 with a bachelor of arts and a bachelor of science degrees. He earned a master of arts and master of philosophy degrees and a doctorate from Yale University, where he studied with James Tobin, a recipient of a Nobel Prize in economics. Swensen was named a UWRiver Falls Distinguished Graduate in 1996 and was awarded an honorary doctorate by UWRF in 2008.

Swensen’s lecture will be preceded by a reception beginning at 2:30 p.m. in the Ames Gallery located on the third floor of the University Center. The reception and lecture are free and open to the public.