Value Investing with Legends · Columbia Business School

Jan Hummel - The Rare Advantage of Real-World Experience

·55 min·5 clips

Jan Hummel bought one share at 16 that became the top performer in Stockholm for 44 years.

This episode features host Tano Santos, a Columbia Business School professor, interviewing Jan Hummel, founder of Paradigm Capital and a practitioner of modern value investing. Hummel's background includes a unique blend of academic finance at Stanford and Harvard Business School, where he studied under Bruce Greenwald, and extensive real-world experience in European private equity and turnarounds. He grew up in rural Sweden, bought his first stock at age sixteen, and that single share became the best performer on the Stockholm exchange over 44 years. Hummel details his career path from Merrill Lynch investment banking in the 1980s to a decade of executing about 15 private equity turnarounds, primarily in Germany and Sweden. He launched the Paradigm Capital Value Fund in 2007 with anchor investor Mario Gabelli and guidance from Bruce Greenwald, starting with $25 million just before the global financial crisis. The fund invests in a concentrated portfolio of 15-18 high-quality companies across nine European countries, focusing on market leaders with high returns on capital. Hummel explains their three-tiered position sizing: exploratory (3-5%), high-conviction (8-12%), and suggestivist positions where they engage with boards on capital allocation, which can exceed 15% of assets. A key insight is Hummel's view that real-world operational experience from his turnaround years provides a rare advantage in assessing business quality and management capability. He argues that long-term stock returns are driven by inflation expectations and company-specific growth, not short-term macroeconomic shocks, which he sees as buying opportunities. The fund employs a multi-tool hedging strategy using currency forwards, index futures, and selective shorting to manage portfolio risk and maintain liquidity for market downturns. Hummel describes a flexible exit strategy, scaling out of steady-growth companies near intrinsic value but holding longer for successful "roll-up" consolidators where the value runway expands. He emphasizes understanding unit economics through deep research, including analyzing private company filings, before engaging management. The tone is educational and conversational, blending academic finance concepts with practical investor wisdom from decades of European market experience. This episode would appeal to value investing students and practitioners interested in concentrated portfolios, European markets, and the integration of strategic analysis with valuation. Listeners seeking a purely quantitative or U.S.-focused market discussion might find it less directly applicable.

As heard by us

A disciplined look at value investing through one investor's market experience.

Jan Hummel makes a clear case for modern value investing as a patient discipline built on resilient franchises and concentration. The strongest stretch links career choices to portfolio construction: private equity looked brutally competitive, listed companies offered better…

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

Press play if you want value investing explained through real decisions, not slogans.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from Value Investing with Legends