Philosophy

The Giraffe Group was founded in June of 2003 on the belief that among the world’s investment management community, there is a small cadre of relatively unknown practitioners who are indeed “head and shoulders above the rest,” similar to the giraffe’s stature in the wild. The Giraffe’s treetop viewpoint gives him the advantage of a global perspective, allowing him to be free of the random noise of the forest floor, yet in sufficiently close touch with the forest itself to observe the ever-changing realities of his environment. These managers are, at their core, opportunistic and benchmark averse. They march to an absolute return drummer, consciously avoiding the rhythm of potential mediocrity inherent in relative return investment management.

Furthermore, although they wish to expand their clientele, they want to do so at a slow and steady pace, shunning short-focused prospective clients in favor of those who truly understand the longer-term, cyclical nature of investment management performance, and have the patience to give these superb managers the opportunity to demonstrate their long term superiority. Increasing firm size through asset gathering is an anathema. Rather, conservative and enforced limits on growth ensures their ability to be nimble and, therefore, alpha generators. These founding tenets apply to all markets and all mandates. This is a philosophy that passionately embraces the notion that individual genius will forever trump organizational bureaucracy in the pursuit of above-market performance at acceptable levels of risk while promoting client loyalty.

Mission

Giraffe’s primary business is that of a contract marketer for these institutional-grade money managers.  We will solicit investors eager to learn about these smaller, opportunistic firms, and who recognize the value of non-traditional portfolio diversification.

John L. Kornet, Jr. - Biography

Since 1969, John has been involved with the investment management and consulting businesses.

• Bethlehem Steel Corporation: cash manager and pension fund fixed income portfolio manager.
  
• Massachusetts Financial Services: institutional fixed income portfolio manager.
  
• Meidinger Asset Planning Services: regional practice leader of full service pension consulting practice.
  
• Merrill Lynch & Co.: National Director of Consulting.
  
• Global Perspectives, LLC: founder of regional pension consulting practice; assisted in the design and development of Merrill's Consults® wrap-fee program
  
• Brockhouse Cooper International: President of the Boston subsidiary of a Montreal-based pension consultant
  
• The Giraffe Group, LLC: founded in June 2003

Dartmouth College (1967, B.A. in Music)
Amos Tuck School of Business (1969, M.B.A. in Finance)