Christopher H. Browne (1946 – December 13, 2009) was a famous

value investor Value or values may refer to: Ethics and social * Value (ethics) wherein said concept may be construed as treating actions themselves as abstract objects, associating value to them ** Values (Western philosophy) expands the notion of value beyo ...

, and longtime director at the firm

Tweedy, Browne Tweedy, Browne Company LLC is an American investment advisory and fund management firm founded in 1920 and headquartered in Stamford, CT. As of December 2012, it managed approximately 13 billion dollars in separate accounts and four mutual funds. ...

. Browne was often known as one of the best value investors ever.

Biography

Early life

He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1969 with a B.A. in history.

Career

He started his career at the firm

, co-founded by his father Howard Browne and a favorite brokerage firm among prominent value investors like

Benjamin Graham Benjamin Graham (; né Grossbaum; May 9, 1894 – September 21, 1976) was a British-born American economist, professor and investor. He is widely known as the "father of value investing", and wrote two of the founding texts in neoclassical inves ...

and Warren Buffett. His success as an investor and shareholder, who held business management accountable, was renowned. For example, both Tweedy, Browne's Value and Global Value Funds outperformed market averages between 1993 and 2009. In 2003, Browne was the first to publicly speak up about irregularities in

Conrad Black Conrad Moffat Black, Baron Black of Crossharbour (born 25 August 1944), is a Canadian-born British former newspaper publisher, businessman, and writer. His father was businessman George Montegu Black II, who had significant holdings in Canadi ...

's management of Hollinger, reporting Black to the

Securities and Exchange Commission The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government, created in the aftermath of the Wall Street Crash of 1929. The primary purpose of the SEC is to enforce the law against market ...

. Black was forced out later that year and ultimately convicted of fraud. In 2006 Browne authored a book, ''

The Little Book of Value Investing Christopher H. Browne (1946 – December 13, 2009) was a famous value investor, and longtime director at the firm Tweedy, Browne. Browne was often known as one of the best value investors ever. Biography Early life He graduated from the Univer ...

'', in order to teach ordinary investors the principles used throughout his career.

Philanthropy

Browne donated $25 million to establish several endowed professorships at the University of Pennsylvania, where he was a trustee. His donation funded professorships held by Amy Gutmann and

Rogers Smith Rogers M. Smith (born September 20, 1953) is an American political scientist and author noted for his research and writing on American constitutional and political development and political thought, with a focus on issues of citizenship and rac ...

Death

Upon his 2009 death, Christopher Browne was survived by his partner, architect Andrew S. Gordon, who then died on September 7, 2013. His will left the bulk of a $250 million estate to Gordon, a decades-younger and relatively new boyfriend. Several of Browne's family and friends accused Gordon of exercising undue influence to obtain Browne's estate, and filed a will contest. In 2013, a judge upheld the validity of Brown's last will and testament, and Gordon settled for undisclosed amounts to those who challenged the will.Dareh Gregorian
Architect Andrew Gordon gets control of late boyfriend Christopher Browne’s $260 million estate
New York Daily News, 2013-02-18

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Browne, Christopher H 1946 births 2009 deaths American financiers American investors American LGBT businesspeople 20th-century American businesspeople 20th-century LGBT people 21st-century LGBT people