Successful Investors

Kirk Sims is an opportunity builder. With a career shaped by seizing the right moments at the right time, Kirk works every day to create valuable opportunities for emerging managers. His multifaceted background cultivated guiding principles that spearhead his current investment approach. With the goal of leaving the industry better than he found it, Kirk works diligently to embark some of his hard...

Intellectual curiosity is a guiding principle for Katherine Molnar, CIO at Fairfax County Police Officers Retirement System (PORS). Katherine began investing as a teenager with the money she earned from summer jobs. She regularly questioned the critical elements of investing and often explored deep technical details in search of an answer. Eagerness for knowledge is a through line in Katherine's c...

Growing up in Trinidad, Charmel Maynard was exposed to a wide array of cultures and backgrounds—an experience that taught him the sky's the limit. Now, as CIO and Treasurer at the University of Miami, Charmel utilizes data-driven and DEI-focused methods to strengthen his investment processes. Throughout his career, Charmel stressed the importance of context when it came to investing, focusing on t...

Aoifinn Devitt compares her career journey to a "patchwork quilt", each with a unique meaning and purpose. Her continual quest for knowledge is evidenced in her approach to investing, community-building, and continuing education. Aoifinn currently serves as CIO at Moneta Group. She also founded The Fiftyfaces Podcast in 2020, a series dedicated to sharing the untold stories of individuals in the i...

Shannon O'Leary is the Chief Investment Officer of the Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation, a $2 billion community foundation. Since joining the Foundation in 2019, Shannon has thoughtfully implemented DEI and ESG investment strategies to create a portfolio that supports grant creation and includes investments that are in line with the Foundation's mission.   Shannon will call out the elephant in th...

As host and founder of the internationally recognized Capital Allocators podcast, Ted Seides gathers insights from an elite group of asset owners and asset managers. Ted's own story encompasses a wealth of stories. His unique skillset includes capturing the essence of a firm or person in a genuine and compelling narrative. During his 20 years on the investment side, Ted listened to numerous manage...

Marcello Sallusti leaves very little up to chance. His success as an investor comes from an incredibly principled and methodical approach to investing. Decisions are qualitatively evaluated and quantitatively researched during the consideration stage, then reconsidered before execution. While data collection is a necessity, Marcello finds the most meaningful insights come from connecting the dots....

Short specialist fund manager, Matthew Earl, unearths companies with suspicious or unreliable business practices. Putting his money where his mouth is, Matt shorts these snaky companies—sometimes sharing his research when there's a strong public interest.   Matt's career is filled with research projects in which he delineated what many others struggled to see, from identifying flawed business mode...

In 2007, Dr. Ari Bergmann saw an iceberg approaching. Looking at the housing market, Dr. Bergmann's firm (then called Sentinel Advisors) noticed the leverage of the banks increasing and the banks' exposure to the housing market increasing—but no one seemed to be hedging the risk. After recognizing the house-of-cards situation, the team decided to open their own overlay, betting against the banks....

As a bond analyst with AIG Investments, David "Dusty" Granet was charged with hedging the insurer's risks associated with the European carbon markets. He quickly became hooked with the asset class. His passion for geopolitical supply and demand, as well as the environmental attributes of these up-and-coming markets, inspired a new career path.   The shift in social and investor expectations toward...

With Tanzanian heritage, a UK education, and a deep interest in emerging markets, Karim Jetha founded Longdean Capital. Karim's early career focus on MENA, and his experience living in the region, informs his current investing strategy. Longdean has the operational infrastructure to invest primarily in companies solely listed on local exchanges, which Karim believes gives them access to the best o...

In 1999, Val Zlatev stumbled across a group of traders while attending a physics conference in Chicago. Enamored by the energy in the room, Val decided to abandon his boredom in physics and enter the exciting world of finance. This career pivot provided Val with exposure to valuable mentors and experiences, enabling him to further refine his philosophies for both investing and life. Among his favo...

When a terrible accident left Joe Peta in a wheelchair and out of work for several months, he took the opportunity to contemplate his 15-year trading career. Exploring the overlap between asset management, sports betting, and the analytic revolution taking place in sports (primarily in baseball) led Joe to write TRADING BASES: HOW A WALL STREET TRADER MADE A FORTUNE BETTING ON BASEBALL. Both baseb...

15 years ago, Patricia Lizarraga started noticing that women outperform as both CEOs and investors. The reason is simple: due to various institutional barriers, women have a more difficult time rising to the highest executive ranks in both financial institutions and non-financial corporations. This observation evolved into an investment thesis that Patricia calls "The Female Factor." According to...

A fascination with marketplaces and a knack for math is what pushed a young Paul Britton to explore the world of derivatives. However, it was his talent at chess that impressed a senior trader at his first interview with the London International Financial Futures Exchange. Paul was awarded the job, and while at LIFFE he discovered options—a type of derivative that would eventually become his speci...

A book recommendation during undergrad was all it took for Patrick Quinn to uncover his aptitude for investing. As a biochemistry major, Patrick had to then take an unconventional road into the investing world—it was a road that would introduce Patrick to key mentors who were invaluable in helping him on his path as an investor, ultimately starting his own fund. Patrick Quinn is the founder and CI...

As the son of Iranian immigrants who were forced to relocate during the 1980 Iran-Iraq conflict, Cameron Khajavi is no stranger to building things from scratch. His father, an accomplished engineer in Tehran, started mowing lawns in Houston, Texas in order to provide for a young family. His example provided Cameron the motivation and inspiration to later start his own fund, named with his parents'...

Starting his own investment firm at a younger age than most, William Heard learned the importance of listening while carving his own path in the equity investing space. William Heard is the founder, CEO, and CIO of Heard Capital. His investing approach is propelled by the skills he obtained through his upbringing in Milwaukee, WI and his experiences in finance—such as actively listening, always ha...

After a noteworthy decade-long tenure at UBS, Alexandre Challand returned to his true passion in life: wine. Wine had captured Alexandre's imagination as a teenager, back when he convinced his father and uncle to purchase cases of Lafite 1986 for 60 Francs for both drinking and long term investment (which had increased in value 20x by 2008). Alexandre Challand is Founder of Vintage Investments, Co...

Jeff Lignelli is the founder, portfolio manager, and CEO of Incline Global Management, a long short equity fund based in New York. Central to Incline Global's philosophy is a rigorous adherence to data and analytics. "When you start a hedge fund, it's not like you've won a prize; you've only won the right to work very, very, very hard," points out Jeff, "Starting a hedge fund is only a license for...

Investors today seem to be enamored with growth in the US tech sector, regardless of valuations. By contrast, Soo Chuen and his team practice the increasingly rare art of contrarian value investing on a global scale. Soo Chuen Tan is President of Discerene Group LP, a Connecticut-based private investment partnership that invests in businesses protected by either structural barriers to entry ("moat...

Paolo Mortarotti is founder and Chief Investment Officer of Tower House Partners—a fundamental equity, long/short manager in London. Part of Paolo's success as an investor lies in his ability to identify companies that have promising futures, but are overlooked by the market. He then applies what he calls a "peaceful activist" approach: (1) gain the confidence of a company's management, (2) have a...

Jennifer Heller is President and Chief Investment Officer at Brandywine Group Advisors, advising on $10bn of capital for a small group of families with multi-generational time horizons. This means she is in the field of balancing portfolio objectives and beneficiary interests. Conversations around this have become especially crucial during the COVID-19 crisis, as she shares. Listen to hear some of...

By observing what hedge funds are holding in aggregate, one can potentially isolate themes that produce outsized returns. A best ideas strategy involves the creation of an index or basket of stocks based on hedge fund ownership. However, depending on how you approach the ownership data, outcomes vary drastically. To create an effective best ideas strategy, special care must be given to: (1) data i...

Fahmi Quadir ascended to fame in 2015 when she played a pivotal role among investors shorting Valeant Pharmaceuticals. She appeared on Netflix's Dirty Money series in 2018, discussing her successful short position against the company. At the time, Fahmi was an analyst at Krensavage Asset Management. Her concentrated, aggressive short book of fraudulent healthcare and biotechnology companies that s...