Jeff Ubben: Winning The Long Race Through Activist Investing by Kellogg School Of Managment
ValueAct Capital’s Jeff Ubben ’87 talks investment strategy
1/29/2015 - Ever since starting activist hedge fund ValueAct Capital in 2000, CEO and Chief Investment Officer Jeff Ubben ’87 has taken a slow, deliberate approach to growing the companies he joins.
Ubben believes long-term engagement gives companies the necessary time to make the changes and get back on their feet. “You have to be willing to win the long race,” he says. “I’m happy being the tortoise. In fact, I want to be the tortoise.”
Ubben shared his thoughts on activist investing with Dean Sally Blount ’92 and a packed hall of Kellogg students during the Brave Leader Series, a discussion that ranged from collaborating with shareholders to enduring a tumultuous turnaround.
Watch highlights from Ubben’s talk with Dean Blount on activist investing:
Ubben on preferring a longer-term approach
Ubben on making risky choices
Ubben on working with shareholders
Ubben on taking a hit
Learn more from past Brave Leaders:
- Boeing CEO Jim McNerney
- Loop Capital co-founder, President and CEO Jim Reynolds ‘82
- McDonald’s President and CEO Don Thompson
- Maggie Wilderotter of Frontier Communications and Denise Morrison of Campbell Soup Company
- Equity Group Investments founder and Chairman Sam Zell
- Mondel?z International, Inc., Chairman and CEO Irene Rosenfeld
