Third Avenue Funds

Senior Management

Martin J. Whitman, CFA
Chairman and Portfolio Manager

Mr. Whitman famously distilled value investing into the mantra “safe and cheap” and has proven for more than 50 years that active, opportunistic investors can find under-priced securities in companies with strong balance sheets. He is also an adept control investor who has led the rehabilitations of Nabors Industries and Covanta Energy among others.

After serving in the Navy during World War II and then attending college on the G.I. bill, Mr. Whitman joined the ranks of Wall Street as an analyst at Shearson Hammill & Co.  The Street’s simplistic analysis and focus on short term earnings was not for him. When he encountered a timber company rich with assets but no visible earnings power he realized there was a better way. Later, while working at the family office of William Rosenwald, son of a founder of Sears Roebuck, he developed a risk aversion commensurate with the responsibility of managing another family’s legacy. His ability to find safety through the careful study of assets enabled him later to venture where other investors wouldn’t like the bankrupt Penn Central railroad or troubled utilities like Consumers Power Co. of Michigan and the Public Service Company of New Hampshire.

Mr. Whitman founded the predecessor to the Third Avenue Funds in 1986 and M.J. Whitman, a full service broker-dealer affiliated with Third Avenue in 1974. He has managed the flagship Third Avenue Value Fund since its inception in 1990 and was Third Avenue’s Chief Investment Officer from its founding through January 2010. A dedicated investment mentor, Mr. Whitman named Ian Lapey as his successor to manage the Value Fund in 2006 after mentoring him when he arrived at Third Avenue in 2001. He continues to work closely with all members of Third Avenue’s investment team.

For over 30 years, Mr. Whitman was a Distinguished Management Fellow at the Yale School of Management. He is also an honorary trustee at Syracuse University, his undergraduate alma mater and home to the Whitman School of Management. He is the author of The Aggressive Conservative Investor, Value Investing ­– A Balanced Approach and Distress Investing: Principles And Technique. He holds a masters degree in Economics from The New School For Social Research and is a magna cum laude Syracuse graduate. Mr. Whitman is a board member at Tel Aviv University’s Institute for National Security Studies. He is a frequent speaker and commenter within the financial services community.

David Barse
President, Chief Executive Officer

Mr. Barse has led investment boutique Third Avenue Management LLC for two decades, overseeing a roster of alternative strategies, mutual funds, separate accounts and sub-advised portfolios. Each of Third Avenue's products adhere to the disciplined, deep value investing strategy developed by Martin J. Whitman and honed by the talented roster of investment professionals led by Mr. Barse. Third Avenue specializes in global and domestic equities, debt instruments, and special situations.

Mr. Barse has overseen Third Avenue's expansion into investments outside of the U.S. including developed markets in Europe and Asia as well as emerging and frontier markets worldwide. Drawing on his background as a bankruptcy attorney, he has worked on Third Avenue's most high profile distressed investments, including Kmart, USG, and Covanta Energy. In each case, Third Avenue either controlled or had elements of control in the reorganization of the company. Mr. Barse currently serves on the board of Covanta Holdings Corporation, a market leader in energy from waste technology.

Prior to joining Third Avenue in 1991, Mr. Barse had a distinguished career in bankruptcy and corporate law. At the creditors' rights firm of Zalkin, Rodin & Goodman LLP he primarily represented commercial banks in the workouts of non-performing loans and the financing of companies in Chapter 11 through debtor-in-possession loans. Later at Robinson, Silverman, Pearce, Aronsohn & Berman LLP, his work helped to develop the secondary market for distressed debt.

Mr. Barse is frequently sought after by the financial media, including CNBC, The Wall Street Journal, Fox Business News, Forbes, Fortune, Business Week and Bloomberg. Mr. Barse can speak about market conditions, corporate finance, corporate governance, business ethics and bankruptcy law.

Mr. Barse holds a J.D. from Brooklyn Law School and a B.A. from George Washington University. He is a member of the Brooklyn Law School Board of Trustees and sits on the Board of Directors of the City Parks Foundation.

Curtis Jensen
Chief Investment Officer and Portfolio Manager

 

Mr. Jensen has been Third Avenue’s Chief Investment Officer since 2003, sharing the role with Martin J. Whitman through January 2010. As CIO he leads Third Avenue’s investment team and is a senior member of its Risk Committee. Mr. Jensen manages the Third Avenue Small-Cap Value Fund, several sub-advised portfolios, the Small-Cap Value UCITS and is co-manager of the Third Avenue Variable Series Trust.  He joined Third Avenue in 1995.

Previously, Mr. Jensen held various corporate finance positions with Manufacturer’s Hanover Trust Company and the investment bank Enright & Company. He briefly left finance to help a friend launch Ciao Bella Gelato, now a nationally known manufacturer and distributor of frozen desserts that was recently purchased by a private equity firm. Mr. Jensen holds an M.B.A. from the Yale School of Management (where he studied under Marty Whitman) and a B.A. in Economics from Williams College.

Mr. Jensen serves on the nominating committee for the board of directors of Investor AB, Sweden’s largest industrial holding company with investments across Europe, the U.S. and Asia.