About Us
Founded in 2009 and led by Chris Crawford, Scott Utzinger, and Jonathan Saunders, Boston-based Crawford pursues an investment strategy focused on superior risk-adjusted returns and preservation of capital, driven by both our long and short portfolios.
Our Shared Philosophy
A Set of Maxims Codify Crawford’s Approach
A number of important and longstanding tenets define our philosophy.
We adhere to these pillars every day – allowing us to act with the independence, patience and methodical dedication to fundamental first principles that characterize our approach.
- Think and act independently to generate eclectic, uncorrelated returns
- Focus on fundamentals and the long-term narrative, not short-term trading
- Appraise securities based on an absolute (not relative) basis and demand a large discount to intrinsic value
- Recognize that superior long-term track records are lumpy, not smooth
- View risk as permanent capital loss, not variation in returns
- Hunters, not farmers: unbiased searching/screening sets our research agenda
- Don’t stick to narrow areas of familiarity
- Invest in superior, promising businesses, adopt a partnership mentality
- Maintain a methodical, contrarian temperament
- Apply a multi-disciplinary approach: borrow tools from different areas of investing
- Regard each short and long as an alpha opportunity
- Avoid over reliance on macroeconomic forecasts
- Always be competitive, but humble
Thoughtful Investment Objectives
Crawford’s long-term objectives are well aligned with those of our investors. Our goals drive our differentiated strategy and investment universe. We focus on the long term to help add value over a full market cycle. Our specific objectives encompass three key aspects sought by clients in investment performance.
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Compelling Absolute Returns |
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Excellence Relative to Our Peers |
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Protection of Capital from Sudden, Severe, and Permanent Loss |
About the Artwork
Many of the images seen on this website come from vintage Fortune magazine covers circa the 1930s. Artistic credit goes to Walter Buehr, F.V. Carpenter, Antonio Petruccelli and the genius of Henry Luce.
These striking Depression-era images, which can be found throughout our offices, reflect Crawford’s core principles of investing conservatively and providing a high level of personalized service that was the hallmark of a simpler time. We believe that these timeless images remain as beautiful, evocative, and commercially relevant as they were when they graced the magazine’s covers during the first part of the last century — a formative time in America’s capital markets.
We invite you to visit Crawford’s offices in Boston’s Financial District to see these original covers on display.