A star Thornburg [profile] ex-PM is retiring after 23 years with the firm.

William Valentine Fries

Bill Fries, 79, retired from Thornburg Investment Management on January 1, MFWire. Fries most recently served as a managing director and senior advisor to the firm. At the end of 2009 he stepped back from PMing the Thornburg Value Fund (now $873.2 million in AUM), and in 2016 he stepped back from PMing the Thornburg International Value Fund (now $3.4 billion in AUM).

"Bill was instrumental in building Thornburg's equity business into the diverse range of successful, long-term investment solutions we offer today," states Jason Brady, president and CEO of Thornburg. "His 40-year career in markets is enviable, and his trademark focus and humility are inspirational. Bill is the kind of investor we all aspire to be, and we are honored that he spent the last 24 years with us."

Fries, an alumnus of Temple University and of Penn State, spent more than three decades in the investment management business. He joined Thornburg on May 1, 1995 as the Santa Fe-based mutual fund firm's first equity PM. On October 2 of that year, Thornburg launched the Thornburg Value Fund, with Fries at the helm. On May 28, 1998, Fries became the PM of the brand new Thornburg International Value Fund (for which he won Morningstar's international stock fund manager of the year award for 2003).

Prior to joining Thornburg, he was a PM at USAA (where in 1987 he was the launch PM of its Income Stock Fund), an employee benefit plan advisor, and worked at a bank. 

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