Mr. Bruce R. Berkowitz is the Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Fairholme Capital Management, and President and a Director of Fairholme Funds, Inc.
In 2010, Mr. Berkowitz was named as the 2009 Domestic-Stock Fund Manager of the Year by Morningstar as well as the Domestic-Stock Fund Manager of the Decade (2000-2009), also by Morningstar. In 2014, he was named 2013's Money Manager of the Year by Institutional Investor Magazine.
Mr. Berkowitz founded Fairholme Capital Management in 1997. Prior to founding Fairholme, Mr. Berkowitz was a Managing Director and Senior Portfolio Manager at Smith Barney, Inc. from 1995 to May 1997, and a Senior Vice President and Portfolio Manager at Lehman Brothers Holdings, Inc.
Mr. Berkowitz received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in 1980.
Current and Past Board Positions
- The St. Joe Company, Chairman of the Board of Directors since March 2011
- White Mountains Insurance Group Ltd., Independent Director from 2004-2010
- AmeriCredit Corp., Director from 2008-2009
- TAL International Group, Inc., Director from 2004-2009
- Safety Insurance Group, Inc. (formerly Safety Holdings, Inc.), Director from 2002-2004
- Olympus Re Holdings, Ltd. (Bermuda), Director and Deputy Chairman from 2001-2006
- Winthrop Realty Trust (Formerly known as First Union Real Estate Equity and Mortgage Investments), Trustee from 2000-2008
Additional Information
Established in 1988, and awarded to Bruce Berkowitz in 2009, the Morningstar Fund Manager of the Year award recognizes portfolio managers who demonstrate excellent investment skill and the courage to differ from the consensus to benefit investors. To qualify for the award, managers’ funds must have not only posted impressive returns for the year, but the managers also must have a record of delivering outstanding long-term risk-adjusted performance and of aligning their interests with shareholders’. The Fund Manager of the Year award winners are chosen based on Morningstar’s proprietary research and in-depth qualitative evaluation by its fund analysts.
The Morningstar Fund Manager of the Decade award, which was awarded for the first time in 2010, recognizes fund managers who have achieved superior risk-adjusted results over the past 10 years and have an established record of serving shareholders well. While the awards focus on performance over the past decade, Morningstar takes into consideration other factors, including the fund manager’s strategy, approach to risk, size of the fund, and stewardship. Both individual fund managers and management teams are eligible, and being a previous winner of the Morningstar Fund Manager of the Year award isn’t a prerequisite. Morningstar’s fund analysts select the Fund Manager of Decade award winners based on Morningstar’s proprietary research and in-depth evaluation.
In its 5th Annual U.S. Investment Management Awards, Institutional Investor Magazine named Bruce Berkowitz 2013 Money Manager of the Year. The awards recognize U.S. institutional investors whose innovative strategies and fiduciary savvy resulted in impressive returns in 2013, as well as U.S. money managers in 36 asset classes who stood out in the eyes of the investor community for their exceptional performance, risk management and service. A list of top performing managers in each of the 36 strategies was identified by Institutional Investor Magazine's editorial and research teams based on data provided by eVestment. In parallel, a ‘call for nominations’ was conducted to the industry-at-large inviting nominations. This combined intelligence was used to develop a short-list of nominees in each strategy. More than 1,000 leading U.S. pension plans, foundations, endowments, and other institutional investors were then surveyed and asked to vote for up to three managers in each strategy in which they invest that demonstrated the best overall performance during the past year. Investors were also provided the option to write in a manager who did not appear on the pre-populated list. Institutional Investor Magazine's editorial team analyzed the survey results to determine the winners.