Amy Falls Added to HMC’s Board of Directors

UPDATED: October 14, 2015, at 1:51 a.m.

In a year of many changes at Harvard Management Company, Amy Falls, chief investment officer and vice president of investments at The Rockefeller University, was recently elected to HMC’s Board of Directors.

Falls, whose appointment was effective Sep. 28, worked at Morgan Stanley and Phillips Academy Andover before managing The Rockefeller University’s approximately $2 billion endowment. HMC announced the move on its website.

HMC manages the University’s now $37.6 billion endowment, which returned 5.8 percent last year and was again outpaced by many of Harvard’s peer institutions.

Harvard Management Company is housed in the Boston Federal Reserve building. By Zorigoo Tugsbayar

New HMC CEO Stephen Blyth has vowed to make changes at the company in an effort to put Harvard in the top quartile of University endowment returns—a feat not accomplished since 2008. This year, two top level HMC executives have departed and a third, Andrew G. Wiltshire, announced plans to retire from his alternative assets managership at the end of the year.

“We have set ambitious investment objectives and I look forward to working with Amy and the HMC Board to deliver improved investment performance for Harvard University,” Blyth said in a press release.

Paul J. Finnegan ’75, the University’s treasurer, a member of the Harvard Corporation, and the chair of HMC’s board, credited Falls as an important get for the Management Company.

“Amy is an excellent addition to the HMC Board. She joins at a particularly important time as we implement a new portfolio and organizational strategy, and I’m confident she will add significantly to our future growth and success in the years ahead,” Finnegan said in a press release.

Falls is an alumna of Georgetown University and the Kennedy School of Government, where she earned a master’s degree. She also serves as the treasurer of Phillips Academy Andover’s board of trustees, on the investment committee of the Peterson Institute of International Economics, and on the board of the Ford Foundation.