Online charity bidding reached $25,700 for two lunches with David Swensen, the longtime investment chief of Yale University's endowment fund - one of the best-performing in the Ivy League.
A lunch for four people in New Haven, Connecticut, raised $13,700, and a second lunch for four in New York had a winning bid of $12,000. The auction at Bidding For Good's website ended at 10:15 pm New York time on Friday.
Proceeds benefit the Yale athletic department, which is honouring six alumni night, including Swensen, who earned a PhD from the school in 1980. The auction coincided with the Blue Leadership Ball, in the Payne Whitney gym on the New Haven campus, which takes place the night before Yale hosts rival Harvard University in football.
Yale's $25.6 billion endowment trumped Harvard in annual performance for the fiscal year ended June 30. Yale posted an 11.5 per cent investment return while Harvard, with a value of $37.6 billion, gained 5.8 per cent.
Swensen, who has worked for the fund since 1985, didn't respond to requests to comment.
