Guy Spier
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Guy Spier (born February 4, 1966) is a Zurich-based investor. He is the author of ''The Education of a Value Investor''. Spier is the manager of the Aquamarine Fund with $350 million in assets. He is well known for bidding US$650,100 with Mohnish Pabrai for a charity lunch with
Warren Buffett Warren Edward Buffett ( ; born August 30, 1930) is an American business magnate, investor, and philanthropist. He is currently the chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway. He is one of the most successful investors in the world and has a net ...
in 2008. In 2009, he was featured in ''
The Checklist Manifesto ''The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right '' is a 2009 non-fiction book by Atul Gawande. It was released on December 22, 2009, through Metropolitan Books Henry Holt and Company is an American book-publishing company based in New York C ...
'', by
Atul Gawande Atul Atmaram Gawande (born November 5, 1965) is an American surgeon, writer, and public health researcher. He practices general and endocrine surgery at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts. He is a professor in the Departme ...
regarding his use of checklists as part of his investment process. His the brother of Tanya de Jager.


Education and early life

Spier was born in 1966 in Pietermaritzburg,
South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...
. When he was three months old, his family moved to
Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( he, תֵּל־אָבִיב-יָפוֹ, translit=Tēl-ʾĀvīv-Yāfō ; ar, تَلّ أَبِيب – يَافَا, translit=Tall ʾAbīb-Yāfā, links=no), often referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the ...
,
Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
, where he attended kindergarten. In 1970, his family moved to
Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
, where he attended the British Embassy School in
Tehran Tehran (; fa, تهران ) is the largest city in Tehran Province and the capital of Iran. With a population of around 9 million in the city and around 16 million in the larger metropolitan area of Greater Tehran, Tehran is the most popul ...
. In 1977, his family moved again to Richmond in the UK, and he attended the City of London Freemen's School, in
Ashtead Ashtead is a large village in the Mole Valley district of Surrey, England, approximately south of central London. Primarily a commuter settlement, Ashtead is on the single-carriageway A24 between Epsom and Leatherhead. The village is on ...
, Surrey, as a weekly boarder. In 1984, he matriculated to study Law at Brasenose College, Oxford, where he was tutored by
Hugh Collins Hugh Collins, (born 21 June 1953) is emeritus Vinerian Professor of English Law at the University of Oxford and a fellow of All Souls College. He retains the former title as emeritus after Timothy Endicott took up the professorship on 1 July 202 ...
,
Peter Birks Peter Brian Herrenden Birks (3 October 1941 – 6 July 2004) was the Regius Professor of Civil Law at the University of Oxford from 1989 until his death. He also became a Fellow of the British Academy in 1989, and an honorary Queen's counsel in ...
and Mary Stokes, among others. Two years later, in 1986, he switched to study PPE ( Politics, Philosophy and Economics). Among his tutors was Peter Sinclair for Economics – where he occasionally shared tutorials with David Cameron, who would go on to become
Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister i ...
. He also studied politics with Vernon Bogdanor. Although he was thoroughly mediocre at Politics, he proved to be a capable economist and graduated with a First-class degree, having also been awarded the Georg Webb Medley Prize for his performance in Economics. During his university summers, Spier also completed courses of study at
Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg } Heidelberg University, officially the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg, (german: Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg; la, Universitas Ruperto Carola Heidelbergensis) is a public research university in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, ...
and at Harvard Summer School. He also interned with
Creditanstalt The Creditanstalt (sometimes Credit-Anstalt, abbreviated as CA), full original name k. k. priv. Österreichische Credit-Anstalt für Handel und Gewerbe (), was a major Austrian bank, founded in 1855 in Vienna. From its founding until 1931, th ...
in
London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
. In 1990, Spier was offered places both in the Joint Business and Economics PhD program and at the MBA Program at Harvard. He opted to do the
MBA A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accounti ...
and, in 1993, he completed his MBA. Contemporaries at HBS include
Mark Pincus Mark Jonathan Pincus (born February 13, 1966) is an American Internet entrepreneur known as the founder of Zynga, a mobile social gaming company. Pincus also founded the startups Freeloader, Inc., Tribe Networks, and Support.com. Pincus served as ...
,
Chris Hohn Sir Christopher Anthony Hohn KCMG (born October 1966) is a British billionaire hedge fund manager. In 2003, Hohn established The Children's Investment Fund Management (TCI), a prominent value-based hedge fund. Profits generated by the fund we ...
and Sherry Coutu.


Career

From 1988 to 1990, Spier was an associate at Braxton Associates, the strategy consulting firm which was later sold to Deloitte Consulting. Based out of the London and Paris offices, Spier worked with colleagues David Pitt-Watson, Michael Liebreich, and others in advising British and European companies on their strategy vis-a-vis the European Common market. He subsequently took up an internship at the Forward Studies Unit (Cellule de Prospective) at the
European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the executive of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with 27 members of the Commission (informally known as "Commissioners") headed by a President. It includes an administrative body ...
in
Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...
. In his book, Spier writes that although he interviewed with white-shoe firms like Goldman Sachs and
J. P. Morgan John Pierpont Morgan Sr. (April 17, 1837 – March 31, 1913) was an American financier and investment banker who dominated corporate finance on Wall Street throughout the Gilded Age. As the head of the banking firm that ultimately became known ...
during his last year at Harvard Business School, he turned down these firms to work for the lesser-known D.H. Blair. There, as a
Vice President A vice president, also director in British English, is an officer in government or business who is below the president (chief executive officer) in rank. It can also refer to executive vice presidents, signifying that the vice president is on ...
, he sought funding for new technology startups. Spier subsequently described this experience as "not dissimilar" to the movie '' Wolf of Wall Street''. It was a career decision that he quickly came to regret. Upon leaving investment banking, Spier founded the Aquamarine Fund, an investment partnership inspired by, and styled after, Warren Buffett's 1950s investment partnerships. Spier continues to manage the fund today, and it had $300 million in AUM as of June 2021. Spier follows closely Warren Buffett's principles on value investing and capital allocation. However, he also admits that value investing has changed over time as the popularity of the style means that generally fewer opportunities are available to investors. Ideas that will work would still be around, but the successful value investor of today has to look further and sometimes think outside the box. More recently, Spier has eschewed all forms of activism, stating, "“My goal as an investor is to compound money for my shareholders, not to pick unnecessary fights or conduct myself like an avenging moral crusader.” Spier has regularly advocated for probity and modesty in the management of financial firms. In 2008, Spier published a paper along with Peter Sinclair and Tom Skinner on "Bonuses, Credit Rating Agencies and the Credit Crunch" which argued that part of the cause of the 2008 crisis was short-termism leading to the miscalculation of bonuses at credit rating and other financial firms. He has also strongly advocated in favor of zero management fees when it comes to professional investment management. Spier has advocated for Switzerland to become a centre of true investing excellence, writing "while Switzerland’s biotech, health and technology clusters are extraordinarily well developed, Swiss private banking still has a long way to go". In 2003, along with David Einhorn,
Bill Ackman William Albert Ackman (born May 11, 1966) is an American billionaire investor and hedge fund manager. He is the founder and CEO of Pershing Square Capital Management, a hedge fund management company. His investment approach makes him an activi ...
, and Whitney Tilson, Spier became the target of investigations by Eliot Spitzer, then the
New York Attorney General The attorney general of New York is the chief legal officer of the U.S. state of New York and head of the Department of Law of the state government. The office has been in existence in some form since 1626, under the Dutch colonial government o ...
, as well as by the
U.S. 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 ...
regarding short sales of Farmer Mac,
MBIA MBIA Inc. is an American financial services company. It was founded in 1973 as the Municipal Bond Insurance Association. It is headquartered in Purchase, New York, and as of January 1, 2015 had approximately 180 employees. MBIA is the largest bo ...
, and
Allied Capital Allied Capital was a private equity investment firm and mezzanine capital lender providing debt and equity capital for leveraged buyouts, acquisitions and restructurings of established businesses. Allied operated as a Business Development Compan ...
. The meltdown of these companies during the late-2000s financial crisis vindicated their short thesis and became the subject of books by Ackman and Einhorn. In 2014,
Palgrave MacMillan Palgrave Macmillan is a British academic and trade publishing company headquartered in the London Borough of Camden. Its programme includes textbooks, journals, monographs, professional and reference works in print and online. It maintains off ...
published ''The Education of a Value Investor'' which narrates Spier's early career struggles in investment banking on Wall Street and his transformation into a value investor. The book has sold more than 175,000 copies in English and has been translated into Spanish, German, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Polish, Hebrew, and Vietnamese. In 2016, Spier, along with Phil Town and Matthew P. Peterson, successfully petitioned Judge Sontchi at the Delaware Court of Bankruptcy to form an official committee of equity holders of Horsehead Corporation which had filed for bankruptcy earlier that year. In 2019, in a YouTube interview with Tilman Versch of ValueDACH, Spier likened the art of stock picking to "drunks in bars" also referencing Dan Bilzerian. In 2020, Spier hosted a panel on "The Future of Intelligent Investing" with
Niall Ferguson Niall Campbell Ferguson FRSE (; born 18 April 1964)Biography
Niall Ferguson
, Sandy Climan, and Daniel Aegerter. Spier hosts an annual investment conference in Klosters called "VALUEx". Attendees have included
Joe Chapman Joseph S. Chapman (born 22 July 1990 in Bristol, United Kingdom) is a squash player who represents the British Virgin Islands in regional Games as well as at the CAC Games and Commonwealth Games Melbourne 2006, Delhi 2010, Glasgow 2014 and Go ...
and Richard Reese, the former CEO of Iron Mountain. Spier is an occasional financial commentator in the media. In 2022, the final Glide Foundation charity lunch with Warren Buffett sold for $19,000,100 which is thirty times more than the sum that Spier and Pabrai paid.


Non-profit contributions

In 1997, Spier spoke out in ''
The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publish ...
'' against the increasing intrusion of
paparazzi Paparazzi (, ; ; singular: masculine paparazzo or feminine paparazza) are independent photographers who take pictures of high-profile people; such as actors, musicians, athletes, politicians, and other celebrities, typically while subjects ...
in British public life, writing ''"...if such a regime had been in place before last weekend, every tabloid which published photographs of
Princess Diana Diana, Princess of Wales (born Diana Frances Spencer; 1 July 1961 – 31 August 1997) was a member of the British royal family. She was the first wife of King Charles III (then Prince of Wales) and mother of Princes William and Harry. Her ac ...
and Dodi on their summer holidays would have been required to pay the resulting profits to them. I do not think that it would take too fine a legal mind to distinguish between public events, such as speeches and hospital visits, and private events, such as a ski trip with one's children or a ride in a car with a friend.''" In 2002, writing in the ''
Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Ni ...
'', Spier questioned the motives of the directors of the
Hershey Trust Company The Hershey Trust Company is an American corporation incorporated on April 28, 1905, by Milton S. Hershey, Harry Lebkicher and John E. Snyder. The company is a minority owner of The Hershey Company and sole private owner of Hershey Entertainment ...
for selling out their stake asking, ''"Why would anybody in their right mind want to trade a significant share of Hershey, with its excellent characteristics, for an insignificant share of a hotchpotch of US business, probably chosen by some adviser who is better at getting selected than at delivering investment performance?"''. Spier regularly addresses students and other audiences including MIT, Ivey School of Business, Harvard Business School, and Google. From 2000 to 2005, Spier served as the President of the Oxford Alumni Association of New York with the close support of Amanda Pullinger. Under his and Pullinger's leadership, the association grew to over 5,000 members and was a pioneer in bringing an American style approach on alumni relations to a British university. From 2007 to 2009, Spier served on the Advisory Board of the Dakshana Foundation. In 2011, Spier founded the VALUEx conference in
Klosters Klosters is a Swiss village in the Prättigau, politically part of the municipality of Klosters-Serneus, which belongs to the political district Prättigau/Davos in the canton of Graubünden. In 2021, the municipality shortened its name to Kl ...
. In 2017, Spier joined the newly formed board of the Swiss Friends of Oxford University. He also serves on the board of
UN Watch UN Watch is a Geneva-based non-governmental organization whose stated mission is "to monitor the performance of the United Nations by the yardstick of United Nations Charter, its own Charter". It is an accredited NGO in Special Consultative Statu ...
and on the advisory boards of
Horasis Horasis is an independent, international think tank, headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland. Founded in 2005, by Frank-Jürgen Richter, former director of the World Economic Forum, Horasis is dedicated to the innovation and development of sustainab ...
and World Minds He is also a member of the International Council of the
Global Leadership Foundation The Global Leadership Foundation (GLF) is a non-profit, non-governmental organization consisting of a network of former heads of state/government and other distinguished leaders (GLF Members), who seek to assist developing countries in improving gov ...
, which was founded by Nobel Peace Prize winner F. W. de Klerk.


Personal life

Spier lives in Zurich with his wife Lory and three children – Eva, Isaac and Sarah. He is related to the
Lazard Lazard Ltd (formerly known as Lazard Frères & Co.) is a financial advisory and asset management firm that engages in investment banking, asset management and other financial services, primarily with institutional clients. It is the world's la ...
,
Speyer Speyer (, older spelling ''Speier'', French: ''Spire,'' historical English: ''Spires''; pfl, Schbaija) is a city in Rhineland-Palatinate in Germany with approximately 50,000 inhabitants. Located on the left bank of the river Rhine, Speyer li ...
and
Rothschild Rothschild () is a name derived from the German ''zum rothen Schild'' (with the old spelling "th"), meaning "with the red sign", in reference to the houses where these family members lived or had lived. At the time, houses were designated by sign ...
banking families through his great great grandmother, Johanna Lazard. He is a former resident of
Tuxedo Park, New York Tuxedo Park is a village in Orange County, New York, United States. Its population was 623 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Poughkeepsie–Newburgh–Middletown metropolitan area as well as the larger New York metropolitan area. Its name is ...
, the village constructed by Pierre Lorillard in the late 1800s, where he lived in the Bruce Price Cottage. He is a member of
Entrepreneurs' Organization Entrepreneurs' Organization (EO) is a global non-profit organization formerly known as Young Entrepreneurs' Organization (YEO). The organization was founded in 1987. History In 1987, 22 young entrepreneurs created an organization and what was ...
and of the
Young Presidents' Organization YPO (formerly Young Presidents' Organization) is an American-based worldwide leadership community of chief executives with approximately 29,000 members in more than 130 countries, according to the organization's 2019 YPO international fact sheet. ...
and of the
Westminster Synagogue The Westminster Synagogue is a non-affiliated Jewish Reform synagogue and congregation near Hyde Park, London. It is located in Kent House, a restored Victorian town house in Knightsbridge. The building, which dates from the late 1800s, also ...
.


References


External links


twitterpersonal websiteemail newsletterAquamarine Fund websiteBlogPodcast_with_British_journalist_Christina_Patterson
.html" ;"title="Christina Patterson">Podcast with British journalist Christina Patterson
">Christina Patterson">Podcast with British journalist Christina Patterson
br>The Intelligent Investing Podcast with Eric SchleienAuthors at Google Talk
{{DEFAULTSORT:Spier, Guy 1966 births Living people 21st-century British non-fiction writers Alumni of Brasenose College, Oxford German investors Harvard Business School alumni Israeli investors People educated at City of London Freemen's School People from Pietermaritzburg English Jews South African financiers South African investors Swiss investors Swiss Jews