Top Hedge Fund Investors: Stories, Strategies, and Advice

CHAPTER 6

The Best Qualities of Limestone

James R. Hodge, President and Chief Investment Officer, Permal Asset Management Inc.

 

 

 

Growing up in Marion, Indiana—also the birthplace of movie icon James Dean and “Garfield” creator Jim Davis—James R. Hodge knew he faced two choices when it came time to go to college.

“I could go to Purdue, which had ugly brick buildings, or Indiana University, with the nice buildings made out of the best limestone in the world.”

Hodge entered Indiana University as an undergraduate business major just as professors were “getting into efficient markets theory.” He says he was taken by the subject, and fortunate to have encouraging professors.

Since leaving Bloomington, the home of IU and the limestone quarries, Jim Hodge has risen to become the president and chief investment officer of Permal Asset Management Inc., a $20 billion fund of hedge funds firm he joined in 1987.

Hodge has responsibility for all facets of managing the fund of hedge funds portfolio including researching, analyzing, and selecting managers; constructing portfolios; managing risk; and monitoring performance. In addition, he is a director, alternate director, and the advisory board member of a number of independent offshore investment funds.

Prior to joining Permal, he served as the controller of Biolectron, Inc., a privately held medical products company, and as director of cost accounting for the New York Stock Exchange. Hodge received an MBA from Harvard Business School, a BS ...