Fort Technology

Fort Technology

Fort Technology Inc was established in 1998 as the family office for Richard Strong, the founder and longtime chairman of Strong Capital Management. The firm consolidated his investment activities after the 2004 regulatory settlement that barred him from the securities industry and required him to sell his mutual-fund company to Wells Fargo. The proceeds from that sale, combined with pre-existing personal assets, formed the permanent capital base the office oversees from Milwaukee. The office allocates across public equities, fixed-income instruments, private equity, and real estate. Before the 2004 settlement, Strong Capital Management famously held concentrated positions in technology and growth equities, and the family office's direct investing posture has historically carried echoes of that DNA — concentrated, conviction-driven equity positions picked by the principal himself. Real estate holdings have included commercial properties in Wisconsin and Colorado, though deal-level detail has been sparse since the entity shifted to a fully private posture in the mid-2000s. The structure has remained deliberately lean, centered on Richard Strong's personal investment activity rather than a multi-generation institutional build-out. Unlike family offices that expand into multi-family or fund-manager models, Fort Technology has never sought outside capital or deployed a conventional GP-LP fundraising strategy. No philanthropic foundation is maintained under the Fort Technology banner; the Strong family's charitable giving has historically flowed through the Strong Foundation and direct donations. Fort Technology is defined by a pre-settlement founder liquidity event — the forced wind-down of a once-formidable asset-management franchise — rather than the generational transfer or corporate-exit wealth that shapes most single-family offices. The office's ongoing existence reflects personal portfolio management structured around a principal whose operating license was permanently withdrawn, making it a rare example of a family office that functions as the sole remaining legal vehicle for its founder's investment activity.