Thomas Forester - Background

Background

Forester grew up in Illinois, where he helped his father manage an investment portfolio through the turbulent 1970s. He started his career as a money manager in 1992 assisting in the management of a US$50 million fund for Sir John Templeton. He later worked for Wells Fargo & Co. in Minneapolis, Minnesota and Scudder Investments in New York City. In 1998, he experienced a losing investment in sub-prime lenders. Forester moved to Libertyville, Illinois, a northern suburb of Chicago, in 1998 when he purchased a home in the town. In 1999, he started his own large cap value fund with $100,000 of his own money. Although he was in cash during the dot-com bubble, which proved to be profitable for a while, he trailed the S&P 500 by 28% in 2003. He also trailed the market from 2005–2007.

His wife, Kaye, with whom he is raising two children, had been encouraging him to close his business prior to 2008. In October 2007, they agreed that he would close the business if he was not beating the S&P 500 by 10% by March. Although he only led the market by 9.5% his wife agreed to allow him to keep the business going. After his fund took first place for year-to-date returns in the summer, he put 30% in cash. Although, he is not repeating his success in 2009, his fund is receiving large cash contributions.

Forester has been involved in civic duties in Libertyville and national political efforts. As of 2004, he was a trustee of the Cook Memorial Library District. In 2004, he attempted to run on a Republican slate of delegates for United States President George W. Bush. However, due to an insufficient number of signatures on the slate's petition, they were removed from the ballot. He was unsuccessful in his election to the Cook Memorial Library District Board in during the 2005 municipal elections.