David Storrs died following a heart attack on 3 March leaving behind a storied hedge fund investment legacy as president, CEO and co-founder of Alternative Investment Group.
The 74-year-old had his family at his side, according to an obituary published in The New York Times. Besides his investment work, Storrs is remembered for winning a prestigious national racing championship only two years ago.
Storrs launched Alternative Investment Group in 1996 after leaving his role as president of Commonfund, where he led the formation of its alternative investment programmes, including hedge fund investment.
He also worked at international consulting firm Rogers, Casey & Barksdale in the 1980s, but most notably, Storrs was a senior financial officer and the first director of investments at Yale University from 1971 to 1984, where he restructured the endowment’s alternative asset classes.
Storrs’ hedge fund bets included the funding of Michael Steinhardt, Julian Robertson at Tiger Management and Leon Cooperman at Omega Advisors. Later on he was credited as being an early investor in Dan Loeb’s Third Point and Coatue Management.
“David was a brilliant man with sterling character and judgment who lived life to the fullest,” wrote Alternative Investment Group chairman Stewart Greenfield, who co-founded the Southport, Connecticut- based firm with Storrs, in a letter sent out to investors on 13 March.
Greenfield says he will focus on strategic issues, including the impact of market changes on investment opportunities.
Maria Tapia and Marita Wein will continue to handle the day-to-day management of the firm as they have since 2013.
Wein oversees the investment team and operations and Tapia handles investor relationships. Longtime staffer Sam Sussman has also led the firm’s investment strategy since 2012.
Last June, the firm acquired Berens Capital Management and its team. The addition of Rodney Berens and Tim Schilt furthered cemented the portfolio management team’s focus on emerging markets specifically.
Tapia and Wein worked closely with Storrs at the Commonfund and describe him as an early supporter of women in the industry.
Today the firm’s 10 partners share ownership stakes in the firm and women and minorities make up the majority ownership, an arrangement which is intentional, according to Tapia.
The $1bn firm today has six underlying FoHFs including two flagship funds. An early adopter of ESG strategies, the firm has also historically focused on emerging managers under Storr’s leadership.
Over the years, the firm has been nominated and honoured with HFM InvestHedge Awards for top annualised risk-adjusted performance.
Storrs’ commitment to enhancing investment strategies for non-profits was also widely recognised in the alternative investment industry.
Alternative Investment Group’s focus has been to allocate to hedge funds on the behalf of non-profits including foundations, endowments and pension plans, while mission-driven organisations were “near and dear to his heart,” recalls Tapia.
Wein and Storrs joined Commonfund on the same day in 1987. She credits him with bringing a collaborative investment process to the group as well as alternative investments.
“David was the instigator of bringing all those alternatives on board,” Wein said of his work at Yale University and Commonfund, describing him as an “educational investment pioneer”.
Tapia adds that it was due to the stock market collapse brought on by the oil crisis in the 1970s that Storrs was drawn to a set of investments that were to later define his career. Up until that point Yale, like many other institutions of the time, was investing in “nifty-fifty” stocks, Tapia says.
Both women called investors and consultants individually the week following Storr’s death. A small celebration of Storr’s life was held in the office this past week. A public memorial service is slated for the end of the month.
Alternative Investment Group CEO leaves behind rich hedge fund investment legacy on HFM InvestHedge.