Prominent investors, many of them alumni, faculty members and students gathered in the Astor Ballroom of the Marriott Marquis Times Square for the 16th Annual Graham & Dodd Breakfast last week. Tom Russo of Gardner Russo & Gardner delivered the keynote address on global value equity investing. Bruce Greenwald, the Robert Heilbrunn Professor of Finance and Asset Management and director of the Heilbrunn Center for Graham & Dodd Investing, moderated the Q&A session that followed Russo’s address.
Russo joined Gardner Russo & Gardner as a partner in 1989. He manages funds in discretionary, individually managed client accounts for individuals, trusts and endowments. He also oversees $3 billion as general partner of the Semper Vic Partners and Semper Vic Partners (Q.P.) limited partnerships.
Held every fall since 1988, the breakfast provides a forum on current insights and approaches to investing. It honors former finance professors Benjamin Graham and David Dodd, MS ’21, who developed value investing — a methodology to identify and buy securities priced below their true value — at the School in the 1920s.
Previous keynote speakers at the breakfast include Christopher H. Browne, Leon Cooperman ’67, Jean-Marie Eveillard, Seth A. Klarman, Bill Miller, Arthur J. Samberg ’67, Lewis A. Sanders and Martin J. Whitman.
The Heilbrunn Center for Graham & Dodd Investing promotes the study and practice of Graham and Dodd’s value investing principles through special events and courses and provides resources and research on important areas of inquiry in the investing field.