Industry: 1996
KAR: 2008
Research Experience: 2003
Craig Thrasher, CFA
Portfolio Manager and Senior Research Analyst
Start Date
Sector Coverage
International small cap, emerging markets small cap portfolios
Strategies Managed
Education
- MBA, University of Chicago, Graduate School of Business,
- B.S., Business and Public Administration, concentration in Finance, University of Arizona
Prior Work Experience
Equity Analyst – Kirr, Marbach & Company
What Do You Enjoy Most About Your Job?
What I enjoy most about investing is that it involves solving a wide range of very complex problems. When you do your work on an investment, you conduct a lot of research and analysis and then you form a hypothesis about the investment you are either going to make or not make. When you do this over a number of companies over a number of years you get to test your investment hypotheses over time. Through this process, you get to learn a lot and I find that to be very fascinating and rewarding.
What Do You Enjoy Most About Working at KAR?
One of the best things about working at KAR is that the firm’s investment philosophy is the same as my own personal investment philosophy. There are a lot of different ways to approach investing, but I believe that if you are going to excel you really need to believe in what you are doing. I spend a lot of time studying and thinking about investing and I really do believe that the most important aspect of any investment decision is the quality of the business. There aren’t a lot of other firms out there that place as much emphasis on business quality as we do here at KAR and that makes it very satisfying for me to come to work every day.
What Are You Involved in Outside of Work?
Outside of work, I really enjoy traveling. I have traveled to over 40 countries outside of the U.S. and I enjoy visiting new places, observing different cultures and seeing how people live throughout the world.
Another thing that I find fulfilling outside of work is participating in the Big Brothers Big Sisters program. I have been a Big Brother for over seven years and my little brother and I have been able to do things together that I am not sure he would have had a chance to do if it were not for the program. Some of the things we have done together include taking him to see snow for the first time and teaching him to ride a bike and to swim. It has been very rewarding to be a part of these activities with him.
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