Meet the Manager Paul Greene, Portfolio Manager, US Large-Cap Core Growth Equity Strategy

Paul earned a B.S., magna cum laude, in mechanical engineering from the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology and an M.B.A. from Stanford University.

18 years of investment experience

18  years with T. Rowe Price

Baltimore office location

 

2021–Present

Portfolio manager, US Large-Cap Core Growth Equity Strategy

2020–2021

Associate portfolio manager, US Large-Cap Core Growth Equity Strategy

2013–2020

Portfolio manager, Communications and Technology Equity Strategy

2006–2013

Joined T. Rowe Price and worked as a media and telecom analyst

Tell us about your background, and discuss how experiences in your prior T. Rowe Price role led to your current portfolio management responsibilities.

My interest in math and science led me to study mechanical engineering in college, but the best parts of my early work experience in the field were conversations with my boss, who talked constantly about his investment portfolio. I also caught the bug: Learning about and investing in companies quickly evolved into a passion that ultimately led me to business school, where I dedicated myself to pursuing my dream career.

After earning my M.B.A. from Stanford University 18 years ago, I began working at T. Rowe Price as an analyst focused on media and telecommunication stocks. I joined a talented team of experienced investment professionals, from whom I learned the value of identifying and sticking with the special companies—public and private—that had the potential to be long‑term compounders and the constant due diligence needed to help make sure that a long‑term investment thesis remains on track. I had mentors who taught me the importance of conviction and nuanced thought, backed by hard work and thorough analysis. These lessons—combined with the patience and rational, details‑based decision‑making that I learned as an engineer—have become the hallmarks of my own approach to investing.

In 2010, I began to work closely with Larry Puglia when I joined the US Large-Cap Core Growth Equity Strategy’s Investment Advisory Committee, in part, because of my deep knowledge of many of the companies that figured prominently in the portfolio. More important, Larry and I shared similar investing styles, characterized by patience, low turnover, and an emphasis on identifying high‑quality companies that we believe can compound in value over an extended period.

My experiences as an analyst and as a member of Larry’s Investment Advisory Committee gave me a solid foundation when I became portfolio manager of the Communications and Technology Equity Strategy in 2013. This role widened my lens on the technology sector and allowed me to sharpen my investment process while learning about my strengths and weaknesses in the best (and hardest) way possible—running a portfolio.

When the opportunity to manage the US Large-Cap Core Growth Equity Strategy arose with Larry’s retirement, he and I thought my background and investment approach were a natural fit.

Discuss your approach and how you aim to generate value on behalf of clients.

We generate value on behalf of our clients by relying on discipline and patience in the pursuit of compounding growth. Furthermore, we believe fundamental research is essential to identify companies that possess core building blocks for achieving and sustaining long-term growth.

Disciplined investment approach

We have adhered to our original investment disciplines since inception while constantly refining our approach. We follow a clearly defined investment process emphasizing fundamental research and active, bottom-up stock selection. Although results can be disappointing at times, consistent application of our approach produced strong long-term performance across diverse environments.

Fundamental research

We believe that fundamental research is the key driver of value-added active management. It is our view that there is no substitute for knowing our portfolio companies extremely well, and this makes our analyst platform an essential resource in uncovering quality franchises with structural competitive advantages that are run by management teams with a long-term perspective and track record of execution.

Patience is a virtue: Boredom kills compounding

Our emphasis on identifying and sticking with possible durable growers—backed by our deep understanding of their underlying businesses and the industries in which they operate—can help to give us the conviction to ride out near-term volatility stemming from macroeconomic concerns and short-term earnings hiccups or setbacks that appear temporary.

Describe how the portfolio is positioned as well as your outlook.

From a positioning standpoint, we refrain from trying to forecast macroeconomic events—which we do not claim to have an edge in predicting—and instead, are focused on uncovering idiosyncratic growth narratives that we think can play out regardless of the environment at large.

We are cognizant of increased concentration in the market where just a handful of names are responsible for a growing share of the benchmark’s total return. Given these elevated levels of concentration, it is all the more critical to get our positioning correct, particularly among the largest companies driving this concentration. This is where the expertise of our portfolio managers and research analysts comes into play: finding high-quality large-cap companies with strong balance sheets, excellent management teams, and idiosyncratic growth stories that can sustain double-digit earnings and cash flow growth regardless of the broader environment.

Furthermore, while we are not willing to compromise on the quality or the potential durability of our portfolio companies’ growth stories, we remain committed to identifying compelling opportunities outside of the names and industries that are being impacted by heightened concentration. While traditional growth sectors—such as information technology and communication services—remain areas of focus, we continue to find compelling opportunities in industries like pharmaceuticals, financial services, and managed care.

We feel good about the risk/reward profiles of the portfolio’s largest positions, thanks to what we regard as their strong growth potential and valuations that strike us as undemanding on both a relative and an absolute basis.

Tell us about your personal interests and how they might (or might not) intersect with your professional work.

I love what I do and dedicate a lot of time and mental resources to investing. But finding a balance is important. I relish spending time with my family and any activity that gets me out in nature—hiking, hunting, and off‑roading. I also do a fair amount of maintenance work around my farm; projects that require a chainsaw are always a highlight.