Why we translated David Swensen
Some investment books become outdated within a few years. Others survive entire market cycles. And then there are books that change the way people think about managing wealth for the long term.
David Swensen’s Pioneering Portfolio Management is one of them.
In the spring of 2026, we published the first Czech translation of a book that has shaped institutional investing around the world for more than a quarter of a century. The Czech edition also includes an exclusive foreword by Ted Seides, Swensen’s long-time collaborator, written specifically for Czech readers.
From lecture to practice
In 2011, I watched an online lecture by David Swensen from Yale University. At the time, I had no idea that more than a decade later, would consider his ideas one of the cornerstones of my own investment practice. Swensen spoke about asset allocation, discipline, and why so many institutional investors systematically fail. From the perspective of the Czech capital market at the time, it felt like a distant reality.
Years had to pass, and I had to gain my own experience managing family wealth, before I understood that Swensen wasn’t really talking about Yale. He was talking about principles. About the responsibility of managing other people’s capital, about thinking for the long term, and about the importance of sitting on the same side of the table as the people whose wealth you manage.
We return to Swensen’s principles almost every day when managing family wealth. Not because we are trying to copy Yale, but because we believe sound investment principles work just as well in Prague as they do in New Haven.
Why Swensen
David Swensen led the Yale Investments Office from 1985 until his death in 2021. Over 36 years, he grew the university’s endowment from $1.3 billion to more than $42 billion.
More important than the numbers themselves, however, is the investment philosophy he developed. He showed that long-term success does not come from searching for a single “right” investment, but from thoughtful asset allocation, genuine diversification, careful selection of investment partners, and an environment free from conflicts of interest.
It is telling that before even considering individual investments, he addresses a more fundamental question: what is the capital meant to achieve, and under what rules should it be spent?
A family with a long-term horizon faces many of the same questions as a university endowment: how to protect capital, whom to entrust with its management, and how to think in generations rather then quarters.
How the Czech edition came to be
We are not a publishing house. We are a multi-family office.
We didn’t publish this book simply because it was missing from the Czech market. We published it because we wanted to have it ourselves. We read every chapter not only as publishers, but first and foremost as people who have been managing family wealth for years.
We are not a publishing house. We are a multi-family office. The Czech edition came about because we were convinced that this book deserved to be available in Czech.
In addition to the translation and professional editing, we secured an exclusive foreword by Ted Seides, one of the world’s most respected capital allocators and a long-time collaborator of David Swensen.
In June, we launched the book at Bastion in Prague, bringing together professionals, families, family offices, and private equity and venture capital investors.
But the project didn’t end there. We subsequently sent copies of the first Czech edition to 44 economics faculties across the Czech Republic and Slovakia, because we believe that future generations of capital allocators should also be introduced to the principles of the Endowment Model.
What to take away from the book
Swensen’s legacy is more than an investment strategy. It is a way of thinking about wealth that is meant to outlive its creator.
This is not a collection of investment tips or a guide to beating the market next year. It is a systematic framework for managing long-term capital and a reminder that discipline, patience, and fiduciary responsibility matter more than short-term predictions.
This is not a book full of investment tips. It is a systematic framework for managing long-term capital.
Where to buy the book
The first Czech edition of Pioneering Portfolio Management is available from Shelfie.cz. The book includes a Czech foreword by the authors from Family Office Partners and an exclusive introduction by Ted Seides.
This is not a book full of investment tips or recipes for beating the market. It is a systematic framework for managing long-term capital. It is meant to be read slowly, returned to chapter by chapter, and, at times, to make you reconsider things you previously took for granted.
We usually read books to learn something new. We return to Swensen for a different reason. He reminds us of principles that are easy to lose sight of in day-to-day practice, but without which good long-term wealth management is impossible.