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Mohamed El-Erian made out well in his only full year running Harvard University's endowment - not as well, perhaps, as his peers in the private sector, but almost 10 times what the school's president typically takes home.

Before stepping down this fall, El-Erian made $6.5 million as the president and chief executive of Harvard Management Co. for the 12 months ended June 30, the university said yesterday as it disclosed the compensation of the six highest-paid executives who oversee investments at the largest educational fund in the world.

In that same period, the endowment returned 23 percent, outpacing many peers, and finished the year at $34.9 billion. It was the fourth best annual performance since 1974, Harvard said. The payouts to El-Erian and others, while large in the world of education, paled beside the packages of up to $35 million Harvard's managers have gotten in the past.

Alan Johnson, a financial services pay consultant in New York, said both El-Erian's returns and his pay were among the top of any university endowment chief in the past academic year.

Had El-Erian been running a private hedge fund, he might have made five times as much for the same performance, however, Johnson said.

"It's relatively low vs. the private sec tor, which I think was their intent," Johnson said.

El-Erian, named to run the endowment at the start of 2006, said in September he would return to his former company in California, Pacific Investment Management Co., citing family concerns.

How much Harvard pays its money managers is always a contentious topic for the nonprofit institution, and questions about the big payout helped drive its previous endowment head, Jack Meyer, to set up his own private investment company in 2005.

By comparison, former president Lawrence Summers was paid $611,000 in his last year at Harvard, ended in June 2006.

Harvard said its management company's board earlier this month approved the payments to El-Erian and other endowment officers, which include salary, bonus, and benefits.

These also included $6 million to Andrew Wiltshire, who oversees natural resources investments; $3.4 million to Craig Szeman, who oversees investments in domestic equities; $2.8 million to Steven Alperin, who oversees investments in emerging markets equities; $2.5 million to David Ferrero, who handles investments in real estate; and $2.1 million to Marc Seidner, who oversees investments in domestic bonds.

Harvard said the endowment's overall return of 23 percent exceeded its target return by 5.8 percent, and that annual distribution from the endowment of more than $1 billion funded nearly one-third of the university's total budget. The school said the largest portions of the payouts were made up of performance-based bonuses but declined to give more details about their terms.

Ross Kerber can be reached at kerber@globe.com.