Founded in 1975 by Mason Hawkins, the firm runs one investment style: a deep-value, low-turnover, concentrated approach. Southeastern launched its first mutual fund, Longleaf Partners, in 1987 and has added only a handful of variations to that strategy in the years since. The firm is still guided by Hawkins as chairman, vice chairman Staley Cates (who joined the firm in 1986), and Ross Glotzbach, who joined in 2004 and became CEO on Jan. 1, 2019. While pricing hasn’t historically been a strong point, Southeastern employees may only own equities through the firm's portfolios, keeping interests aligned with clients'.
Even so, the firm has struggled for years where it most needs to succeed: investment decision-making on behalf of fundholders. Poor choices—including maintaining hefty stakes in distressed companies across its strategy lineup—suggest a lack of sufficient risk-management oversight and have tarnished the funds’ once-stellar records. This pervasive, long-term underperformance has contributed to substantial outflows. As of September 2022, Southeastern had $6.9 billion under management—a precipitous decline from the more than $30 billion it had under management in mid-2014.