Hedge Fund - Passport Capital

Passport Capital is a San Francisco-based global investment firm. It was founded by John Burbank in 2000. It uses a strategy that is centered the major themes gleamed through macroeconomic analysis and fundamental research conducted on a company-by-company basis. Passport Capital specializes in the following areas: Agriculture, Basic Materials, Consumer, Energy, Financial Services, Healthcare, Capital Markets, Internet / Technology, India and Middle East & North Africa.

John Burbank is Passport Capital's founding member and CIO. He is famous for having predicted the subprime crisis. However, it ultimately backfired. John Burbank's flagship fund returned an impressive 219% in 2007, owing largely in part to bets made against the housing market in 2005, but after such large returns coming as a result of such a bearish outlook, John Burbank took it a step further. He became very skeptical about US equities so he looked to emerging markets and commodities. Within a few months, his funds lost over 50%.

In 2009, John Burbank trailed the S&P 500, but only just barely. Then, in 2010, Passport Capital returned 18.3%, handily outpacing the market.

John Burbank founded Passport Capital after spending four years in various investment research positions with hedge funds in the Bay Area. John Burbank worked in management and as a private investor in a variety of start-up companies for four years prior to that. He received his MBA from Stanford in 1992, but finance wasn't always his primary focus. In 1987, he earned his BA in English Lit from Duke University.