by barbara fagan
[bizprofile]
CHAPTER & VERSE THE
OF INVESTING
I
n retrospect, all the chapters of Barnes Hauptfuhrer’s career dovetail in the perfect-bound “book” of his professional experience, but Hauptfuhrer is the first to say that was not by any plan on his part. Hauptfuhrer is the CEO and portfolio manager of the unique, Charlotte-based investment firm, Chapter IV Investors, LLC. The firm’s name has special significance; Hauptfuhrer marks its 2006 founding as the start of the fourth chapter of his professional career. Going back to his college years, Hauptfuhrer admits, “I had no idea what I wanted to do.” What he did know was that he loved sports, something he came by easily since his mother was a skilled athlete and his father had been the first pick of the Boston Celtics in the very first NBA draft. When offered opportunities to play college basketball at Duke University and Princeton University, Hauptfuhrer had a difficult choice: “My mother was raised on the Duke campus—both her parents taught there—so I was inclined to go to Duke. But at the time Duke’s basketball program was somewhat uncertain, so I ultimately decided against it.” At 6 foot 8 inches, Hauptfuhrer became a Princeton Tigers’ forward. “It was a phenomenal period,” Hauptfuhrer says. “The Tigers were a Top 12 team my junior and senior years.” He graduated from Princeton in 1976 with a bachelor’s in politics and economics but career plans were put on hold when the professional sports world called. Hauptfuhrer was drafted by the Houston Rockets. “When I went to Houston it quickly became obvious that I didn’t have the talent to be in the NBA. It had always been obvious to me,” Hauptfuhrer says with a chuckle. “But it soon became clear to the Rockets and I was cut pretty quickly. Then I had to become serious about a career.” Hauptfuhrer’s father was a lawyer with the Philadelphia firm Dechert, Price & Rhoads and enjoyed the business aspects of the practice, so Hauptfuhrer decided on a joint J.D./M.B.A. degree, graduating from the University of Virginia in 1981. “Those years at UVA gave me a chance to try summer jobs, two at law firms and one on Wall Street,” Hauptfuhrer says. “I liked investment banking and in 1981, if you ➤ wanted to be in investment banking, you had to go to New York.”
c o n s t r u c t i ve c a t a ly s t fo r c re a t i ve c o n s c i o u s n e s s
Chapter IV Returns More Than Book Value
m a rc h 2 0 1 2
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