Ralph Wanger

The former chief portfolio manager for the Acorn Fund who founded Wanger Asset Management. Ralph Wanger also gained acclaim for his witty investment newsletters to shareholders for his established small-cap invesment fund. Wanger was a firm believer that the only way to really beat the market over time was to find a long-term macroeconomic trend that would give a well managed company some sort of edge against its competitors.

Ralph Wanger obtained both his bachelor's and master's degrees from MIT, finishing in 1955. Five years later he entered the investment arena, finally becoming the manager of the Acorn fund in 1977. He retired from the fund in 2003, having posted an impressive annual return in the fund of just over 16% per year - outperforming the S&P 500 by a whopping 4%.