HMC Selects New VP of Trusts

The Harvard Management Company (HMC) has appointed a new vice president of trusts, Jennifer A. Pline, who said she is eager to foster relationships with donors and effectively manage their contributions to the University.

Pline was selected to succeed David W. Scudder ’57, who left over the summer to form his own firm. Her responsibilities as vice president include investment and management of non-cash donations to Harvard, and $1.2 billion in charitable trusts.

“We are delighted to have Jennifer Pline at Harvard Management Company. Her expertise and background will be positive for both Harvard and our trust and annuity donors,” Donella M. Rapier, Harvard’s vice president for alumni affairs and development, said in a statement.

Pline will assume her new position at HMC on Sept. 1 after spending 18 years at Standish Mellon Asset Management, where she was director of client service.

“I’m certainly hoping to continue the work of David Scudder, who has done such an excellent job before me,” Pline said in a phone interview. “I want to maintain the high level of donor service he has provided as well as the various investment options he has been able to offer donors, especially the ability to co-invest in the endowment.”

The appointment represents a step towards rebuilding HMC’s staff after a string of departures from high-level posts. HMC may find itself leaderless unless a successor to departing president Jack R. Meyer is named soon. Meyer, who announced in January that he was leaving HMC with four associates to start a new investment firm, has told The Crimson that tomorrow will be his last day. In addition to Scudder and Meyer, Jeffrey B. Larson, who managed foreign equity for HMC, left with 14 members of his team in July 2004 to start a hedge fund.

Pline, who left Standish Mellon after a restructuring at that company, said she had known about HMC for many years. A resident of Wellesley, Mass., she attended New Bedford High School, which is south of Boston near Cape Cod, before earning both a bachelor’s degree and an MBA from Boston College.

“I’m very, very excited to be at Harvard Management, and to be working with such a great team of people,” she said. “I’m really enthusiastic about meeting the donors that have been so generous to Harvard, and I’m really looking forward to getting to know them and helping them meet their philanthropic objectives.”

Looking towards the future, Pline said she does not believe it will be easy to replicate the returns of the last 10 to 15 years in the markets. She said she sees this is a problem not just for HMC but for all investment managers.

“One of the other things I’d like to do is examine whether there are other investment options that we should be thinking about and potentially adding for our trust clients,” Pline said.

Scudder, her predecessor and one of several executives to make the jump from HMC to the private sector, left on July 1 to form a private investment group, which the Boston Herald reported is named Aria Asset Management.

As vice president, Scudder helped win an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) ruling that allowed donors to put their trusts in the Harvard endowment.

“Our ability to co-invest trusts with the Harvard endowment has been incredibly popular with alumni and friends who want to make gifts to the University and gain access to our large, well-diversified investment portfolio and an attractive stream of income for themselves,” Rapier said.