Chris Smith will join Artisan Partners Asset Management in late October as founding portfolio manager of the firm’s eighth autonomous investment team.
Smith and his team will employ a thematic approach to investing and are expected to manage both long/short and long-only strategies.
Smith will have the flexibility to build his team in a way that fits his own investment beliefs and process.
The firm is targeting the launch of the team’s first strategy in the first half of 2017.
Smith has 10 years of investing experience including the last two working as a senior analyst at Kingdon Capital. Smith previously spent six years at Karsch Capital where he worked as an analyst and managing director.
Eric Colson, Artisan Partners’ chairman and CEO, says: “Chris is a great fit for our firm as we continue to broaden our investment offerings while staying committed to talent-driven, high value-added investment management. Chris has a great reputation for his work on both long/short and long-only portfolios. He is a high conviction investor with his own unique approach to thematic investing. We expect Chris and his team to manage idiosyncratic and differentiated portfolios that will help our clients and investors achieve their financial goals in an era of low interest rates and high asset class correlations. We are excited to begin working with Chris to build his team and launch his first strategy.”
