The history of Thorpe Abbotts Capital
The history of Thorpe Abbotts Capital
Jeff Henriksen founded Thorpe Abbotts Capital in Oxford, England
in 2017. He named the firm Thorpe Abbotts as an homage to his grandfather, Vernon Henriksen, who was stationed at an airbase in Thorpe Abbotts, England, during the Second World War. Vernon served
in the US 100th Bomb Group and flew 35 combat missions over occupied Europe as a navigator on B-17s.
Jeff had just completed his MBA from the University of Oxford Saïd Business School and was teaching valuation at the Oxford Saïd Finance Lab when he started working on the ideas behind what would become Thorpe Abbotts. During his time at Oxford, Jeff gained insights into how mispricing occurs when financial theory meets the empirical world. For Jeff, teaching valuation illuminated the mistakes investors often make when forecasting future cash flows to value a business. Understanding the behavioral underpinnings of those mistakes—how behavioral bias drives a wedge between market prices and fundamental value—became the driving force behind the behavioral-focused approach that would later define the firm’s investment strategy. Teaching at Oxford also allowed Jeff to tap a diverse set of intellectual resources from the university to augment his research. The result was an idea to use a variety of quantitative methods to identify the behavioral mistakes of other investors. This approach would go on to become the core search process in Thorpe Abbotts’ investment process. Jeff now runs the firm from his home in Charlottesville, Virginia.
“An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.”
Benjamin Franklin