Jennison Associates Co-Founder Spiros ‘Sig’ Segalas Has Died

Spiros “Sig” Segalas, a legendary investor who co-founded Jennison Associates, died on Monday, Jan. 2, 2023, according to the firm.

Segalas, who was 89, and six others founded Jennison in 1969, and he managed growth portfolios for more than five decades. Known for his bottom-up investment style that focused on the shares of companies with dominant market shares and consistent earnings growth, Segalas was instrumental in establishing Jennison’s reputation as a best-in-class manager of U.S. large-cap growth stocks.

He built one of the industry’s longest growth-equity track records at the Jennison Large Cap Growth Equity strategy, including the Harbor Capital Appreciation and PGIM Jennison Growth funds, separate accounts, and offshore vehicles. The separate account composite’s 11.8% annualized gross-of-fees return from Segalas’ August 1969 start through November 2022 beat the S&P 500 by 1.4 percentage points. Segalas’ impressive record predates the inception of the Russell 1000 Growth Index by nearly 18 years. That said, the strategy’s 11.7% annualized gross-of-fees return also beat the growth benchmark by 1.1 percentage points from that index’s January 1987 creation through November 2022.

Segalas served as a comanager on the strategy until his death, though the firm has been well-prepared for his succession for many years. Its capable growth-equity team, led by Kathleen McCarragher and Blair Boyer, continues to ply a collegial approach. Segalas’ death does not affect the strategy’s Morningstar Analyst Ratings.