Julian Robertson

Julian Robertson graduated from the University of North Carolina and spent his early career at Kidder, Peabody before founding Tiger Management in 1980 with $8 million in initial capital. Tiger became one of the most successful hedge funds of the 1980s and 1990s, growing to manage $22 billion at its peak. Robertson's approach was intensive fundamental long-short equity investing — identifying the best companies in the world based on thorough research and building large long positions, while shorting the worst companies. This focus on fundamental business quality, applied globally, generated exceptional performance through the 1990s bull market. The fund closed in 2000 following a difficult period in which value-oriented short positions in internet stocks caused significant losses as the dot-com bubble inflated beyond fundamentals. The most lasting legacy of Tiger Management is not Robertson's own record but the generation of investors he trained. "Tiger Cubs" — managers who worked under Robertson and later founded their own funds — include Chase Coleman (Tiger Global), Steve Mandel (Lone Pine Capital), Philippe Laffont (Coatue Management), Lee Ainslie (Maverick Capital), and David Goel (Matrix Capital). These funds collectively manage over $200 billion and Tiger alumni constitute one of the most successful investment lineages in hedge fund history. Robertson continued to mentor young investors through seed capital arrangements with emerging managers until his death in August 2022.