Alumni Profile: Curtis Jensen '95

Co-Chief Investment Officer, Third Avenue Management, LLC

When Curtis Jensen graduated from college, he took a job as an investment banker. He liked the job well enough, but had a desire to get involved in an actual business, rather than just process transactions for one. “I wanted to get my hands dirty,” he said.

In 1989, a friend had bought a gelato company, which consisted of equipment, customer lists, and a bunch of recipes from a guy named John Snyder, who said they came from his grandmother in Torino, Italy. “He literally handed us a hand-written notebook with the recipes,” Jensen said. “There were hazelnut stains on it.” Jensen dove in, taking a lead role in the company, called Ciao Bella. “It was a great business education,” he said. “I was literally doing everything from A-to-Z in terms of running a business, whether it was pleading with customers to pay their bills, or hiring and firing employees, making a payroll. I was involved in all the little nuances of the manufacturing process, even if it was on a very small scale. And then I figured out I really couldn't support myself doing that, and we had gotten the business to a point where we had a critical mass going, and I said, ‘It's time for me to move on.’ I made the decision to go back to SOM to develop some of the skills that I didn't have, and make a transition in terms of my own career.”

He entered SOM in 1993, thinking he’d pursue a joint degree with the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and head into the environmental sector. He interned at a waste management company, which he quickly realized wasn’t for him. “I figured out what I was keen on doing was research,” he said “And to the extent that that could happen within an investing context was great.” Jensen graduated without a job, but he’d impressed a former professor, Marty Whitman (recently called the “dean of deep value investing” by Fortune), who ran a small investing firm called Third Avenue Management. The company had one fund, with about $400 million under investment, and with the addition of Jensen, three analysts. “Today we have $29 billion in assets and a team of 21 analysts, and so it's just been a wonderful and crazy ride,” he said. “The luckiest piece of it all is that I found something I really enjoy doing.”

Jensen’s work at Third Avenue Management takes on a number of roles that have grown as the company has become a major Wall Street investment firm. “The first and probably biggest piece of it is working as an analyst,” he said. “Whether it's property-casualty reinsurance, semiconductors, oil and gas, we need to figure out the businesses we're invested in, or looking to invest in. The second piece would be as a portfolio manager. I manage one of our funds here. So that's taking those ideas and constructing a portfolio out of the ideas, and managing that portfolio on a day-to-day basis. For us, we tend to be very long-term oriented in our investing. There is no furious buying and selling of securities here. Turnover on the portfolio tends to be very, very low. I also hold the title of co-chief investment officer. It's a role that I share with our chairman, Marty Whitman. And really that is one of quality control, overseeing the efforts of 21 analysts and portfolio managers, and sharing and prioritizing the ideas that come into our world. In other words, say you've got four ideas that are really interesting. How do you choose which one to pursue at any moment in time?”

Over twelve years, Jensen said there have been some difficult periods for the firm. “On balance, there have been more really good periods,” he said. Since its inception, Third Avenue Management’s returns have been among the highest on Wall Street. The six-year old International Value Fund has earned more than 20% per year, while the flagship Value Fund has averaged more than 16% returns since 1990. Jensen manages the firm’s Third Avenue Small Cap Value Fund, which has consistently outperformed the S&P 500, delivering annualized returns over five years of just over 19% and about 12% per year since the fund was founded in 1997. “I've just been blessed to land in a place where I have great colleagues who challenge me and who are interesting as people,” he said. “I’m reminded of a famous quote: ‘Find something you love to do, and you’ll never have to work a day in your life.’ That's me.”