Stanford Management Company report issued

The Stanford University Merged Pool (MP) generated a 6.2 percent investment return for the 12 months ended June 30, 2008, according to the Stanford Management Company (SMC). The MP is Stanford's primary investment pool and includes most of the university's endowment and expendable funds, as well as capital reserves from Stanford Hospital and Clinics and Lucile Packard Children's Hospital.

Over this one-year period, the U.S. equity market, as measured by the S&P 500 Index, was down 13.1 percent, and the U.S. bond market, as measured by the Lehman Aggregate Bond Index, was up 7.1 percent.

Over the past 10 years, the MP has achieved an annualized return of 14.2 percent, growing from $4.8 billion to $20.4 billion as of June 30, 2008.

"I am pleased with the MP performance," said John Powers, president and chief executive officer of SMC. "The MP performed well in a tough investing climate. This challenging climate continues to create investing headwinds."

Stanford University's endowment remained relatively unchanged over the past year with a value of approximately $17.2 billion as of Aug. 31, 2008.

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