Harvard Plans $13 Million Investment In High-Risk, 'New Technology Areas'

Harvard will invest up to $13 million in small high-risk companies through five management firms located in Boston, New York and possibly on the West Coast, George Putnam '49, treasurer of Harvard College, said yesterday.

High Rolling

The Corporation allocated the amount for investment, which represents less than one per cent of the total University endowment of $1.39 billion, to be used in "new technology areas" that yield higher returns than traditional stocks and bonds over a period of time, Walter M. Cabot '55, Harvard deputy treasurer, said yesterday.

"The investments will be a method of getting an understanding of new technologies such as lasers and data processing and will also help us to make decisions on larger companies in the same field," Cabot said.

Through the investments, entrepreneurs interested in contributing to University funds might be found, Cabot said, adding "but that is a very secondary reason."

The money earned in the investment venture will probably not be used to offset rising University costs directly, Cabot said, but he added that because a very small portion of Harvard's endowment fund will be used for the investments, it will probably only slightly increase that fund. Twenty-two per cent of the total college budget comes from endowment.

Harvard will not invest any of the $13 million in real estate, Putnam said, adding that the Harvard Real Estate Corporation will have investing capital of its own in Cambridge and Boston.

And At Yale...

The Yale Corporation will split a $29 million investment with Equitable Life Assurance Company in the Corning Glass Building in New York, Steve Kezarian, a spokesman for Yale University, said yesterday.

As part of their new endowment policy, the Yale Corporation announced last summer that $50-60 million would be available to the trustees for the advisory real estate committee to invest in real estate.