In an exclusive interview, the Yale endowment legend explains how, and why, he finally lost his cool. The legendary chief investment officer of the Yale endowment — the best performing of its kind over the last 20 years — had awoken in London to an email from the editor-in-chief of the Yale Daily News. The email, timestamped 10:05 p.m. New Haven time — or just after 3:00 a.m. in the U.K. — addressed an opinion piece Swensen had written regarding the newspaper’s coverage of an endowment teach-in event held by student activists earlier in the year.