This week, we speak with Dan Chung, CEO and Chief Investment Officer at Alger Management, which manages $35.3 billion in client assets. After graduating Harvard Law Review, he served as law clerk for the Honorable Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, United States Supreme Court. He is also portfolio manager of several Alger strategies, including the Spectra fund, which runs $4.5 billion.
He explains how he was more interested in building a business, rather than advising those who were running one. He received multiple offers from major Wall Street firms but ended up going to Alger Management after Fred Alger — the CEO and his father-in-law — disparaged the competition and the offers they made. He convinced Chung to join Alger as an entry-level analyst, eventually working his way up the ladder through outstanding performance.
Chung also explains the methodology that Alger has deployed to enhance its investment performance: quantitative growth focused on durable technology trends, especially those that can enhance efficiency. The firm is also sensitive to valuations, not always common among growth investors.
Alger lost 35 people, including its CEO, on September 11th and donates profits from its Alger 35 ETF in their memories. Chung discusses his experiences with the loss, and how the firm decided to put its “best ideas” from each of its varied strategies into a single investment vehicle (ETF and Mutual Fund).
A list of his current reading is here; A transcript of our conversation is available here Monday.
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 Mark Mobius of Mobius Capital. Known as the “The Godfather of Emerging Markets,” he was tapped by Sir John Templeton in 1987 to run Templeton Emerging Markets, one of the first EM funds in the world. Over the next 30 years, he visited 112 countries, invested in 5,000+ companies, and traveled 1,000,000+ miles. This helped to grow the Templeton Emerging Markets Group from $100 million in six markets to over $40 billion in 70 countries.
Dan Chung’s Current Reading
The Committed by Viet Thanh Nguyen
American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins
On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong
