On June 24, the 2025 Ben Graham Conference brings together leading value investors and experts to discuss the current state of value investing in both domestic and international markets. With market volatility reemerging, speakers will explore the evolving challenges and opportunities facing value investors today, along with a range of timely topics. The conference now in its 12th year, will take place in New York City and is organized by CFA Society New York in partnership with Fordham University.
UPDATE: 6/25/2025 13:30AM EST – Our entire 76 page report on the 2025 Ben Graham Conference can be found at the very bottom of this page in both plain vanilla and interactive PDF format. We hope you enjoy!
Full coverage of the 2025 Ben Graham Conference can be found below.
Also our coverage of the 2025 Sohn Monaco Conference, 2025 Global Alts New York and the Best Alternative Investment Fund Conferences for 2025.
2025 Ben Graham Conference - Summary
2025 Ben Graham Conference Keynote Speaker: Michael Gatto, Partner, Silver Point Capital
Michael Gatto was the first speaker at the 2025 Ben Graham Conference. He focused on the risky, non-investment grade credit markets, considering distressed debt investing "quintessential value investing". He noted the significant growth in leveraged credit and private credit, with the riskiest segments growing disproportionately. The market faces a "maturity wall", coupled with high uncertainty from tariffs, inflation, and geopolitical instability. Gatto detailed the Broadly Syndicated Loans (BSLs) market, where forced selling by CLOs creates opportunities for secondary buyers, though the market is currently "overheated" with weakened loan documents.
See: Silver Point’s Michael Gatto - Finding Value In Credit Markets
Investing During The Current Administration: Tariffs, Rates, And Volatility
Panelists Melissa Brown, Jake Schurmeier, Nancy Davis, Ebrahim Rahbari, and Jenny Van Leeuwen Harrington discussed navigating policy shifts and market uncertainty. Regarding Middle East conflicts, markets were seen as efficient, with limited long-term impact expected, but complacency was cautioned against.
See: Harbor Capital, Quadratic, Gilman Hill & More
2025 Ben Graham Conference - Value Selection In The US Stock Market
This panel, featuring Michael Gallant, Francis D. Gannon, Curtis Jensen, Charles Lemonides, and Macrae Sykes, discussed value selection in the US stock market amidst high concentration and valuation extremes. The panel discussed the changing business models of large technology companies, noting their significant capital expenditures on data centers and GPUs, which makes them less "asset light" and impacts free cash flow.
Individual long ideas included an insurance company, a grocery delivery platform, a moving and self-storage company, an HVAC company, and a casino gaming real estate investment trust. A land and mineral rights company was pitched as a short idea. The term "value trap" was debated, with one speaker stating "there's no such thing as a value trap only bad analysis".
See: 4 Long Value Stocks & 1 Short Idea
2025 Ben Graham Conference - Keynote Speaker: Dr. Edward Yardeni, President, Yardeni Research, Inc.
Dr. Ed Yardeni maintained his "usually bullish, usually right" stance, predicting the "roaring 2020s" will continue into the 2030s. He drew parallels to the 1920s, which boomed despite starting with war, pandemic, and depression. Yardeni discussed the influence of financial markets on policymakers, noting how bond market pressures ("bond vigilantes") spurred the administration to back off tariffs.
He identified autonomous vehicles and humanoid robotics as truly revolutionary AI applications. Yardeni also dismissed traditional recession triggers, citing the Fed's ability to prevent credit crunches and stable oil prices. He highlighted China's economic challenges due to a burst property bubble and unfavorable demographics.
See: Dr. Ed Yardeni Teases – Ray Dalio Does Not Want Us To Get Rich
2025 Ben Graham Conference - International Value Investments
This panel, featuring Matthew Fine, Christian Heck, Amelia Koh, Krishna Mohanraj, and Waldemar Mozes, explored whether global value stocks are finally poised to outperform, after a decade of underperformance. Panelists emphasized focusing on "cheapness" and economic returns from a business owner's perspective. Investment examples included a global automotive industry company, a Chinese tech company via a holding company, an IT software reseller, an Irish banking group, and a global nutrition company, all chosen for their attractive valuations despite various market headwinds or temporary slowdowns. Risks like currency, political, and control party issues were noted, with a preference for "super well-financed companies".
The importance of strong balance sheets and an active approach due to corporate governance issues in international markets was stressed. Non-US small-cap stocks were highlighted for their historical outperformance and lower correlation to large caps. Panelists also dispelled common misconceptions, noting the magnitude of valuation differences between US and international markets (US roughly twice the rest of the world) and the abundance of quality companies internationally.
See: Top Fund Managers Pitch International Value Stock Picks
2025 Ben Graham Conference - Integrating AI, Energy Policy, Server Farms
This panel, featuring Kelly Morgan, Michael Ball, John Barr, Jennifer Drake, and Gretchen Guo, discussed the massive capital demands and transformative power of AI, likening it to an intern that improves daily. Speakers highlighted AI's potential for significant productivity increases and the global need to reskill 60% of jobs. Key concerns included energy bottlenecks, labor shortages, and latency sensitivity affecting data center locations.
Power demand saw a 27% growth last year, leading to immense grid upgrade costs and supply chain issues with chips, transformers, natural gas turbines, and copper. Land scarcity and NIMBY issues also constrain data center development. Financing AI infrastructure has seen project finance for hyperscalers "really taken off," with private equity developers building facilities due to the overwhelming capital expenditure. Globally, China is a major player, focusing on physical AI and robotics with cheap API costs and chip stockpiles, while the Middle East and Europe are also investing. AI equipment is becoming more expensive, leading companies to seek longer lifespans for chips, despite cooling challenges.
See: How Value Investors Can Use AI & Stocks Set To Profit
2025 Ben Graham Conference Keynote Speaker: Catherine LeGraw, CFA, Portfolio Strategist, Grantham, Mayo, Van Otterloo & Co. LLC.
Catherine LeGraw from GMO argued that value is "extremely cheap today," trading at a 40% discount to fair valuation and 60% cheaper relative to growth. She critically outlined three problems with traditional value indicies: their reliance on misleading reported financials. LeGraw detailed GMO's proprietary three-step approach to address these issues and implementing thoughtful capital allocation focused on the "deep value" (cheapest 20%) and "extreme growth" (most expensive 20%) segments of the market. She ended off the 2025 Ben Graham Conference by suggesting a long/short strategy to account for the flaws in the indices.
See: Catherine LeGraw Of GMO - How To Value Index The Correct Way
LeGraw's presentation was similar to one Andrew Wellington of Lyrical Asset Management gave at the Value Invest New York Conference earlier this year. You can check out the Wellington speech here.
2025 Ben Graham Conference - Full Agenda
8:45 AM | Welcome Remarks
- N.K. Chidambaran, Professor & Associate Dean of Research and Faculty Development, Fordham Gabelli School of Business
- Andrew Auslander, CFA, Managing Principal, Agile Financial LLC
8:55 AM | Keynote Speaker
- Michael Gatto, Partner, Silver Point Capital, Author, ‘The Credit Investor’s Handbook‘. Gatto's presentation can be found here.
9:25 AM | Investing During The Current Administration: Tariffs, Rates, And Volatility
- Moderator: Sergei Klebnikov, Staff writer, Forbes
- Panelists:
- Melissa Brown, CFA, Global Head of Investment Decision Research, SimCorp
- Nancy Davis, Founder & CIO, Quadratic Capital
- Ebrahim Rahbari, Head of Rates Strategy & Head of Research US, Absolute Strategy Research Ltd
- Jake Schurmeier, Portfolio Manager, Head of FICC, Harbor Capital Advisors
- Jenny Van Leeuwen Harrington, CEO, Gilman Hill Asset Management, LLC
Some interesting issues, ideas and discussions on how to weather policy uncertainty. See the panel discussion here.
10:45 AM | Value Selection In The US Stock Market.
- Moderator: Paul La Monica, Senior Markets Analysis Writer, Barron’s/Dow Jones
- Panelists:
- Michael Gallant, CFA, Portfolio Manager, Director of Research, Schafer Cullen Capital Management
- Francis D. Gannon, Co-Chief Investment Officer, Managing Director, Royce Investment Partners
- Curtis Jensen, Robotti & Company
- Charles Lemonides, CFA, CIO, ValueWorks
- Macrae (Mac) Sykes, Portfolio Manager, GAMCO
An interesting panel discussion of value managers on the current state of domestic value investing and investment process. There were also four long ideas and one short idea was discussed - the full post can be found here.
1:00 PM | Keynote Speaker
- Dr. Edward Yardeni, President, Yardeni Research, Inc. A fireside chat with the famous economic forecaster and self-described permabull. See Ed Yardeni's talk here.
1:30 PM | International Value Investments
- Moderator: Henry Mallari-D’Auria, CFA, CIO, Global & Emerging Markets Equities, Ariel Investments
- Panelists:
- Matthew Fine, CFA, Portfolio Manager, Third Avenue Management
- Christian Heck, CFA, Portfolio Manager, First Eagle Investments
- Amelia Koh, Analyst, Tweedy, Browne
- Krishna Mohanraj, CFA, International Strategy, Portfolio Manager, Diamond Hill
- Waldemar Mozes, Director of Investments, Cedar Street Asset Management
An in-depth panel devoted to international value investing with a bias towards small caps. The discussion cleared up many misperceptions regarding international investing and why many quality companies (including small caps) can be found at cheap valuations outside the U.S. Several specific stock names were mentioned. See the international value investing panel here.
Integrating AI, Energy Policy, Server Farms
- Moderator: Jake Taylor, Founder, Baserate, Inc.
- Panelists:
- Michael Ball, CFA, Executive Director, SMBC
- John Barr, Managing Director, EVP, Portfolio Manager, Needham Funds
- Jennifer Drake, Founder, Adalabs AI
- Gretchen Guo, CFA, Founding Partner, FACT Capital
- Kelly Morgan, Research Director, S&P Market Intelligence
A fascinating panel discussion on how value investors can use AI. The panel focused on real applications for artificial intelligence (ignoring the fluff and sensationalism many times surrounding the sector) both from an operations perspective as well as stocks which could be big winners from changing trends. There was also a broad discussion on datacenters and what value investors need to know about the AI ecosystem especially in regards to power generation and datacenters. See value investing in the AI era.
3:45 PM | Keynote Speaker
- Catherine LeGraw, CFA, Portfolio Strategist, Grantham, Mayo, Van Otterloo & Co. LLC. LeGraw gave an interesting presentation on the major flaws with how value indices are constructed with very specific examples. She explained several ways to correct the issues, what current valuations would show and some strategies for implementing a modified value index - including a way to construct a long/short portfolio to profit off the issues. See LeGraw's full presentation here.
Subscriber only PDF report of the 2025 Ben Graham Conference can be found below.
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