This week, we speak with Steven Romick of First Pacific Advisors (FPA), where he is managing partner/ FPA manages $26 billion in equity, fixed income, and alternative strategies. Romick also manages the $11 billion FPA Crescent Fund since its 1993 inception.
I first heard of Romick when he was named Morningstar’s U.S. Allocation Fund Manager of the Year (2013). Blame confirmation bias, but his purchases of equities into the teeth of the March 2020 pandemic market crash caught my attention as well.
Romick is unconstrained, and invests across the capital structure — stocks, distressed debt, and private equity are all fair game. He suggests you must always measure the risks you are going to assume relative to potential returns. Being able to manage around volatility was a key part of both his approach and the superior risk-adjusted performance he has shown over the years.
A list of his favorite books is here; A transcript of our conversation is available here after the weekend.
You can stream and download our full conversation, including the podcast extras on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, Google, Bloomberg, and Acast. All of our earlier podcasts on your favorite pod hosts can be found here.
Be sure to check out our Masters in Business next week with Christine Hurtsellers, CEO of Voya Investment Management. Voya manages over $245 billion in assets. Previously she was VOya’s CIO of Fixed Income. The company began its 40-year history as ING before the name change and is a . U.S Top-25 manager of U.S. institutional and defined contribution assets Hurtsellers has been named to numerous most influential women in finance lists, most recently, she was named to Barrons top 10 most influential women in wealth management.
The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race by Walter Isaacson
The Outsiders: Eight Unconventional CEOs and Their Radically Rational Blueprint for Success by William Thorndike
The Warburgs: The Twentieth-Century Odyssey of a Remarkable Jewish Family by Ron Chernow
Twilight in the Desert: The Coming Saudi Oil Shock and the World Economy by Matthew Simmons