of Virginia is one of the most beautiful campuses in America. It’s what university campuses aspire to. Its Rotunda, at the north end of the main green space (better known as “The Lawn”), is exactly half the height and width of the Roman Pantheon. And it was there that Root began seriously investing... “I’d go to the computer lab to trade... I bought a few things that I liked and knew,” says Root. “And with that experience, I started working at the McIntire Investment Institute – the student-run investment fund founded by UVA alum John Griffin.” Griffin also founded Blue Ridge Capital, the legendary hedge fund that was shuttered two years ago. As Bloomberg reported then, Griffin started Blue Ridge with $55 million... and then returned 25% a year for the next 13 years... enough to make him a billionaire several times over. Today, Griffin runs Blue Ridge as a private family office to manage his own wealth. “I took his first hedge-
Tiger Management up until ‘99 was the biggest hedge fund in the world... $30 billion under management. But Julian was short all of these crazy, money-losing tech stocks. It was shocking to watch. Here’s this legendary investor who’s getting his face ripped off in the market. And he ultimately was right, but he closed down because he thought the markets no longer made sense.” During that meeting, Root pitched a stock to Robertson and Griffin – Electronic Arts (EA) – that was the only video-game company that wasn’t a boom-or-bust, hits-driven model. “EA had all the sports,” says Root. “It had Madden, which fans bought every year. So it generated strong, predictable profits, and it could afford to invest into other games and produce more big winners than competitors.” Root’s college stock-picking was a fantastic bet... despite plenty of ups and downs, EA has soared more than 1,000% since then. “From that experience, I realized that I
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really, really enjoyed investing,” says Root. “But I also felt like I needed to get a rigorous corporate finance background.” He notes back to when he was a kid, helping his grandfather with home maintenance projects. “He’d always tell me that half the solution to any job was having the right tools.”
fund class at UVA. That’s also where I got to meet Julian
From that experience, I realized that I really, really enjoyed investing... But I also felt like I needed to get a rigorous corporate ăÃù¢ØÊèÃʈ
Robertson for the first time,” Root mentions. Robertson, of course, is one of the best-known hedge-fund managers of modern history. “It was the spring of 1999,” recalls Root. “It was a crazy time in the market. And if you’ll remember,
American Consequences
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