For more than 30 years, Allan Bufferd’s name has been synonymous with investment management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Now, at age 68, the man who helped grow the school’s endowment from $400 million in 1975 to more than $8 billion today has finally decided to take a step back. Bufferd tells Institutional Investor that he will retire as MIT’s treasurer and CIO by June.
But don’t expect Bufferd -- who holds a Ph.D. in engineering among other degrees, all from MIT -- to spend the rest of his days lolling on the beach. Sure, he plans to travel and devote more time to his family (which includes two children and four grandchilden). But he also expects to hit the lecture circuit, do some advisory work and spend more time on corporate and foundation boards.
“A lot of the things that I worked for, such as the broadening of our investment portfolio, the development of a professional staff and the formation of an independent investment management company at MIT, are now in place,” he says, explaining his decision to leave.
Bufferd has been so valuable to MIT that his job will be split into two new positions: a president of MIT Investment Management Co. and an executive vice president for finance, which will include the post of MIT treasurer. Bufferd’s performance speaks for itself: Over the past decade the university’s portfolio has delivered an annualized 15.5 percent return, rivaling Harvard’s 16.1 percent and Yale’s 17.4 percent.
