By David G. Barry
Investment adviser Fayez Sarofim, who for many years
managed the endowment of Rice University, has died. He was 93.
Sarofim founded Houston-based Fayez Sarofim & Co. with $100,000 in
1958 after earning degrees from the University of California and Harvard
Business School. Known as the “The Sphinx,” the Egyptian native was known for
investing in so-called blue-chip stocks. The investment firm today manages more
than $30 billion and is led by his son, Christopher Sarofim.
Rice University was one of Sarofim’s first clients. When he first began
managing it in the early 1960s, it had $63 million under management. As of June
30, 2021, the Rice endowment had $8.1 billion in assets. It is now managed by Rice
Management Company, an in-house team led by President and Chief Investment Officer
Allison K. Thacker.
In a prepared statement, Rice President David Leebron called Sarofim “a
remarkable force in Houston, an important figure in the management of our
endowment and a bold leader for the expansion of the arts at Rice.” He added
that Houston and Rice “have lost a great leader who made both immeasurably
better, and his impact will never be forgotten on our campus.”
Melissa
Kean,
who recently retired as Rice’s Centennial Historian, added in a statement that
Sarofim managed the Rice endowment “brilliantly.” She said that he “is one of
the most important and least known figures in Rice’s financial history.”