Mason Morfit and Rob Hale – Quiet Activism at ValueAct (EP.462)

Capital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment Industry

Ted Seides – Allocator and Asset Management Expert

Investing, Capitalallocation, Business

4.8 • 806 Ratings

🗓️ 29 September 2025

⏱️ 72 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Mason Morfit and Rob Hale are the co-CEOs of ValueAct Capital, which manages $11 billion in public equities focused on the US and Japan. Since its founding in 2000, ValueAct has charted a distinctive path in activist investing, eschewing confrontation and publicity in favor of quiet, meaningful partnerships with management teams.

But they agreed to join me to reflect as they celebrate the firm's 25th anniversary this year. Mason helped launch the firm and has driven many of its successful investments, including the turnaround of Microsoft in 2013. Rob joined fifteen years ago and leads the firm's investing in Japan. He joined the Board of Olympus in 2019 and helped usher in a new era of engagement between global investors and Japanese companies.

Our conversation covers their paths to ValueAct, the firm's history and evolution, and the challenges that great companies face. We cover their philosophy of working with management teams, investment process, governance, long-term value creation, lessons from mistakes, application of their approach to Japan, and the adoption of their principles internally at ValueAct.

From our sponsor, Morningstar

Embrace the global language of investment data

Learn More
Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn
Subscribe to the mailing list
Access Transcript with Premium Membership

Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant (⁠https://thepodcastconsultant.com ⁠)

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	We don't deserve the credit because there's not just the CEO and the board.
0:04.2	Usually when we're investing in a company, there are a lot of people inside the company
0:09.8	who see the exact same opportunity that we see.
0:12.7	It's almost never the case that we have some idea that nobody in the company has ever thought
0:18.0	of.
0:19.0	There's usually a troop of people who are celebrating when we get
0:23.0	the CEO to pay special attention to the idea that they already had. Those people aren't going to
0:27.5	get the credit either. The reality is that maybe nobody deserves the credit because it's a collective
0:33.2	exercise. We tell our story to our own investors. We don't do much in public. After 25 years,
0:39.8	it's an opportunity to tell our story a little bit. I'm Ted Sides, and this is Capital Allocators.
0:54.3	My guests on today's show are Mason Morfitt and Rob Hale,
0:59.0	the co-CEOs of Value Act Capital,
1:02.2	which manages $11 billion in public equities
1:05.1	focused on the U.S. and Japan.
1:08.0	Since its founding in 2000,
1:10.0	Value Act has charted a distinctive path in activist investing,
1:14.3	eschewing confrontation and publicity in favor of quiet, meaningful partnerships with management teams.
1:21.1	But they agreed to join me to reflect as they celebrate the firm's 25th anniversary this year.
1:32.3	Mason helped launch the firm and has driven many of its successful investments, including the turnaround of Microsoft in 2013.
1:35.3	Rob joined 15 years ago and leads the firm's investing in Japan.
1:40.3	He joined the board of Olympus in 2019 and helped usher in a new era of engagement between
1:46.2	global investors and Japanese companies.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Ted Seides – Allocator and Asset Management Expert, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Ted Seides – Allocator and Asset Management Expert and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.