Endowment Capital Group, a Philadelphia-based hedge fund manager catering to university endowments and foundations, has recruited Christopher Long as chief executive.
Endowment Capital Group, a Philadelphia-based hedge fund manager catering to university endowments and foundations, has recruited Christopher Long as chief executive. He was previously chief operating officer of Friess Associates, a long-only asset manager, and treasurer of the Brandywine Funds, a family of US growth mutual funds advised by Friess.
‘Thanks to Chris Long coming on board, I can now focus exclusively on managing the portfolio and picking stocks,’ says Philip Timon, Endowment Capital’s founder, who becomes chief investment officer and portfolio manager at the firm after handing over the role of chief executive. ‘At Friess, Chris proved his ability to successfully manage all of the non-investment aspects of a USD17bn investment firm, so the hand-off to him has been seamless.’
In addition to helping grow Friess from USD4bn to USD17bn in assets under management, Long’s facilitated its acquisition in 2001 by Affiliated Managers Group. ‘The fact that Chris personally maintained more than forty foundation and endowment client relationships among his other Friess responsibilities is a real benefit given our firm’s partnership with that specialized market,’ Timon says.
‘Joining Endowment Capital allows me the luxury to focus on a small number of highly sophisticated client relationships and to have a very meaningful impact at a boutique firm that values performance over asset gathering,’ Long says. I’m also excited to be at a firm that can opportunistically short equities given today’s highly volatile market.’
Endowment Capital Group was founded in 2004 by Timon, who was previously with hedge fund manager Downtown Associates. It historically has managed a highly concentrated portfolio of fewer than 15 small- and mid-cap equities that meet the firm’s ‘triple win’ strategy of investing in companies that can benefit from accelerated top-line growth as their industries move out of a cyclical down-trend, achieve operating margin expansion through a superior business model, and eventually see their stocks enjoy a higher valuation multiple.
The Endowment Capital Group fund will close to new investments at USD400m. The firm currently manages around USD300m and intends to re-open the fund for a limited time in the coming weeks.
‘Chris is joining at an opportune time, as it feels like we have returned to a stock-picker’s market,’ Timon says. ‘Our fundamental research is uncovering significant values in individual stocks selling at historically low multiples in spite of their businesses having open-ended growth prospects.’
Adds Long: ‘While some large plan sponsors are allocating away from US equities in general and small-cap value in particular, leading foundations and endowments are more opportunistic and are searching for nimble, alpha-generators like Endowment Capital.’
