Cambridge Associates was founded in 1973 by James (“Jim”) Bailey and Hunter Lewis after they conducted a comprehensive review of Harvard University’s investment approach. As part of the project, Jim and Hunter gathered information on asset classes, investment managers, and institutional investors’ best practices. At the completion of the project, Harvard's treasurer suggested that the research should be maintained on an ongoing basis.

With Harvard’s support, Jim and Hunter approached other universities with a proposal to create an external firm focusing on endowments. This way, the universities could receive more and better information on a broad range of investment issues without duplicating effort and expense. In response to this initial marketing effort, 12 major university endowments became clients of the new firm. We are proud to say that today, more than 30 years later, these initial clients remain with the firm.