Last week, the members of the SIF had the pleasure of hosting Union trustee Tom Coleman (class of 1988). Mr. Coleman captivated his audience with stories of a street-style basketball shoe brand that he founded in the early 1990s; his part-time job at a hedge fund while attending Columbia Business School; and his experience of co-founding Kensico Capital Management in 2000.

Mr. Coleman described his investment strategy as bottom-up: doing deep company research, speaking with management, and understanding changing market conditions. Kensico does not shy away from concentrated positions or from occasional short positions. Their investments have generated returns far above that of the S&P 500.

Mr. Coleman engaged the students by requesting that with every question from the floor, the student had to name one thing they would change at Union. The students asked about Kensico’s investment process, investing mistakes, and the use of data. Among other things, Mr. Coleman revealed that much like in The Big Short movie, his firm shorted the housing market in 2007; that they do deep dive, bottom up research on a company and its respective industry; that they sometimes take a seat on the board; that shorts are tricky; and that they don’t invest in things they don’t understand such as biotech.

Mr. Coleman credited his early entrepreneurship experience for his investing success. One piece of advice he gave students: try selling something. There is no substitute for being on the ground and talking to customers.

There is no doubt that everyone left inspired and energized. And the thing that students would change at Union? It was pretty unanimous: improve housing.

Written by Britny Quito (‘27) and Tomas Dvorak.