The Earnings of Harvard’s President

Drew Gilpin Faust will step down in June as president of Harvard University.

How much did Harvard’s outgoing president, Drew Faust, earn in 2016? We know you stayed up late last night wondering. Well, wonder no more. The answer is $1.5 million. It was a bump from the $1.4 million she collected in 2015 and up from the $1.2 million she earned in 2014, as reports “The Harvard Crimson.” But if you think the Harvard leader is earning a lot, well, in comparison to other university presidents in America, as we’ve reported in the past, it doesn’t exactly top the charts…not even close. Faust will step down as president of the university in June as Lawrence S. Bacow assumes oversight of the university. And while we don’t yet know what Lawrence S. Bacow will earn, we have a feeling it won’t be more than Drew Faust, who has led Harvard since 2007. It wouldn’t be a good look for Harvard to pay a man more than a woman who led the university admirably for over a decade, particularly in light of the sexist comments of Faust’s immediate predecessor in office, Larry Summers, on the topic of women in science.

The Earnings of Harvard’s President

As William L. Wang writes in a piece for “The Harvard Crimson” entitled “Faust Made $1.5 Million in 2016,” “Faust’s 2016 earnings include $905,461 in base salary, $189,982 in nontaxable benefits, $4,217 in other reportable compensation, and $400,000 in deferred compensation. Members of the Harvard Corporation—the University’s highest governing board—vote annually to determine the amount of deferred compensation that Faust will receive. In 2016, the Corporation voted to credit Faust with $400,000, upping the $300,000 credited to her in 2015 and bringing her total retirement and deferred compensation assets to $433,825 for the year.”

Stewards of Harvard’s Endowment Earn the Most

Interestingly, while the Harvard president’s earnings outpace the earnings of its deans (and rightly so!), Drew Faust doesn’t make as much as the folks at the Harvard Management Company. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the employees at the Harvard Management Company, those charged with overseeing the university’s ginormous endowment, earn quite a bit more. As Wang reports, “Former HMC Chief Executive Stephen J. Blythe, who resigned in July 2016, earned $6,768,888 in 2016. Daniel Cummings, who was hired in 2009 to manage the University’s real estate investments, earned $23,853,527— more than 20 times more than Faust’s salary—in 2016. To calculate salaries, HMC assigns bonus compensation according to the success of asset class performance, which likely contributed to Cumming’s high salary.”

What do our readers think of the earnings of Harvard’s leader? Let us know your thoughts, your questions, and what you ate for breakfast by posting a Comment below. We look forward to hearing from you.