Jane Mendillo, chief executive officer of Harvard Management Company, tells Bloomberg that reshaping the university’s hard-hit endowment is a “five-year proposition.”

Since taking office in July 2008, two months before the Lehman Brothers collapse set off the global financial crunch, Ms. Mendillo has focused on reducing the institution’s investment in high-risk private-equity and hedge funds and brought more of its assets under the purview of in-house managers.

Harvard has “had to put the longer-term plans on hold” while riding out the market turmoil,” said Ms. Mendillo. The endowment recently reported an 11-percent gain on its investments for the 2009-10 fiscal year following the previous year’s 27-percent plunge.