Investment and Portfolio Management (NBA 5420) Spring 2026
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Investment and Portfolio Management (NBA 5420)
Spring 2026
Yale Investments Office: November 2000
This case looks at investing at the Yale Endowment, with a particular focus on both David Swensen’s investing philosophy and the challenges in LBO and VC investing.
You should work on the assignment in a team of four or five students (that you form yourself) all of whom must be from the same section of the class. The grade on the assignment is based on a write-up that the team submits on Canvas. Each team member will also need to submit an evaluation of the contribution of all team members to working on the assignments (both effort and dependability). Team members who receive low contribution scores will incur a substantial grade penalty on the assignment.
The due date of this assignment is March 9 and you must submit it by 11:00am on the due date. While assignments may be submitted before the due date, late assignments will not be accepted (because we will discuss the assignment in class the same day).
You can discuss aspects of the assignments only with your fellow team members.
Discussing the details of assignments with other individuals (students not in your team or non-students) is not permitted. Consulting answers to the assignments that were not produced by your team is forbidden. You are allowed to put your name on a team write- up only if you have made a substantial contribution to the work. When you turn in an assignment, you are certifying that you understand the answers that your team submitted. I will not hand out written answers to the assignments. The answers to questions and the different facets of each assignment are discussed in class, and you are expected to be present and participate in the discussion.
AI policy: You are allowed to use a Large Language Model in working on all facets of the assignment.
Case
The case should be purchased (with the other two cases) through the link on Canvas (under Modules, in the Digital Course Packet folder).
Writing the Assignment
Each team should submit one copy of the write-up, with names of all team members clearly marked on a separate cover page. You should submit your answers to the following seven questions.
1. What are the main principles of Swensen’s investment philosophy?
• Describe and critique each principle.
• Can you find a couple of examples in the case showing that the Yale
Investments Office does not follow Swensen’s principles (or at least the way they are stated in the case)?
2. Where should the Investments Office concentrate most of the efforts in choosing active managers (name three asset classes and explain the reasoning behind your recommendations)?
3. Discuss Yale’s leveraged buyouts strategy. Mention at least three attributes of Yale’s strategy and explain the logic behind them.
4. Discuss Yale’s venture capital strategy. Mention at least three attributes of Yale’s strategy and explain the logic behind them.
5. Compare Yale’s approach to leverage buyouts and venture capital investing with its approach to investing in at least two other asset classes. Point out key similarities and differences.
6. Discuss the most important challenges for limited partners in the current environment (i.e., spring 2026) in both the leveraged buyouts and venture capital asset classes.
7. What do you think Yale’s Investments Office should do now (i.e., spring 2026) with respect to both leveraged buyouts and venture capital? Recommend specific portfolio allocations for these two asset classes and discuss changes to their strategies in these two asset classes that you think would be beneficial (or explain why you think their strategies should remain the same).
• Note: You should search for newspaper articles and analysts’ reports that discuss the current state of the private equity industry (both venture capital and buyouts). Your answer to Question 7 should take into account current trends in the industry and your assessment of how Yale’s strategy fits within this context.
2026-03-11