Ron Baron

Ron Baron founded Baron Capital Group in New York in 1982, building it into a growth-oriented mutual fund company managing over $40 billion. Baron's philosophy is to find exceptional businesses — with capable management and large addressable markets — and hold them for very long periods to benefit from compounding. He has been famous for his enthusiasm about specific companies, most notably his long-term holdings in Tesla (where he has been a committed bull since the early days), IDEXX Laboratories, and various commercial real estate companies. Baron runs annual investment conferences that attract hundreds of investors and celebrities, making him one of the more colorful and public figures in the mutual fund industry. His willingness to hold through substantial volatility in growth companies — including multi-year periods of underperformance for individual positions — reflects a genuine long-term orientation that is rarer in practice than in principle among fund managers who face regular performance comparisons.