Harvard, even with potential successors groomed by Mendillo, may look outside for a fresh perspective, said Charles Skorina, whose executive search firm specializes in university CIOs. He said proteges of Yale’s David Swensen who’ve gone on to run other university endowments would make good candidates, including Seth Alexander at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
“I would be surprised if they hire from the inside because the performance has been poor,” said Skorina, who’s based in San Francisco.