GoodHaven Capital Management

Larry Pitkowsky and Keith Trauner share the title of Managing Partner and act as the sole portfolio managers for the GoodHaven Fund. They have controlled all investment decisions since the firm's launch in 2011. Both previously worked alongside Bruce Berkowitz at Fairholme Capital Management, where they co-managed a concentrated value portfolio through the 2008 financial crisis and its aftermath. The firm has not added additional named portfolio managers since inception.

Pitkowsky and Trauner rely on fundamental, bottom-up research with an emphasis on owner-operator management teams and hard-asset backing. Their sourcing network was built over decades, first during their tenure at Fairholme and previously at mutual fund groups earlier in their careers. The firm typically holds positions for 5 to 10 years, so turnover is low and new ideas are rarely added. The concentrated nature of the portfolio — often 20 to 35 positions — reflects a willingness to say no far more often than yes.

GoodHaven operates as a single, no-load, publicly available mutual fund. It is not a hedge fund and does not charge performance fees. The structure gives the managers permanent capital from a diverse shareholder base but subjects them to daily liquidity requirements. Pitkowsky and Trauner have stated that the mutual fund wrapper, while imperfect, aligns with their desire to treat outside shareholders as partners without lock-up restrictions.

The fund maintains a concentrated allocation to financial services, including insurance holding companies, asset managers, and special situations in the preferred-equity market. In addition, it holds industrial, real-asset, and consumer companies where management owns meaningful stock. Confirmed historical positions include Jefferies Financial Group, Spectrum Brands, and EXOR N.V. The managers avoid companies with excessive leverage or promotional management teams and have historically shunned high-growth, high-burn technology businesses.

No. GoodHaven has deliberately avoided product proliferation since its founding. The firm manages a single mutual fund and has not launched an ETF, interval fund, private credit vehicle, or institutional SMA. Pitkowsky and Trauner have stated in shareholder letters that this focus prevents distraction and keeps their own capital aligned with the single pool they oversee.

Pitkowsky and Trauner were senior portfolio managers at Fairholme Capital Management under Bruce Berkowitz during a period when the Fairholme Fund became one of the most prominent concentrated value funds in the United States. They absorbed a culture of high-conviction, concentrated investing that they replicated at GoodHaven. However, their departure in 2011 and subsequent launch of GoodHaven reflected a philosophical commitment to a simpler, single-product structure and a desire to avoid the governance complexity and redemption pressures that eventually affected Fairholme.

Pitkowsky and Trauner are among the largest shareholders in the GoodHaven Fund. Their compensation is tied entirely to the fund's performance and expense ratio, not to asset-gathering or marketing incentives. The firm has publicly emphasized that the managers' material personal investment in the fund means they eat their own cooking, a phrase used in multiple shareholder letters to describe the alignment between management and outside investors.