David Albaneze is the CEO and chief investment officer at St. Johns Investment Management Company in the Riverplace Tower. He began with the firm as its president in 1992.
HOW LONG HAS THE COMPANY BEEN IN THIS BUILDING?
“Since 1984. St Johns is a portfolio manager. We find high-worth investors, small businesses, pension plans and turn over their assets to manage. We do so with discretion. As chief investment officer, I develop the investment strategy that we follow. Of course, I have a team here that helps develop that strategy. We then generate specific investment ideas with individual companies we want to invest in. We put it in our clients’ portfolios and report to our clients on a regular basis.”
WHAT IS YOUR STRATEGY?
“Our strategy has been the same since our inception in 1984: to do a very good job for clients. The market has gone through a difficult period the last few years, but if someone’s been invested in the market for a long time, they also had a very good investment environment in the ’90s. If you measure from beginning to end, peak to trough, they’ve done well. It reinforces being a long-term investor. We have consistently applied a disciplined investment approach over a long period. We don’t believe you can time the market. We do a top-down analysis of what the economy is doing and how that is going to affect major industry sectors. Then we’ll modestly over- or under- weight those sectors to reflect our economic outlook. That’s where we add value on the investment side.”
TALK ABOUT
YOUR CUSTOMERS
“Most are high net-worth individuals that are pretty sophisticated [about finances]. We get most of our business from referrals from existing clients.”
WHERE DID HE
GAIN EXPERIENCE?
Albaneze was the president and chief investment officer for Commonwealth, which merged into St. Johns. Before Commonwealth, he worked for Smith, Barney, Harris and Upham in both New York and Florida.
RAGS TO RICHES
As a child, Albaneze lived on East Beaver Street, a rough neighborhood at that time. As a teenager, he attended Boston Latin School, where learning the Latin language was mandatory. “I’ve been wearing a tie since the 7th grade.”
To earn bread money, he washed dishes at Harvard University. Through hard work and good grades, he earned a psychology degree from the University of Massachusetts. By the time he was hired on at St. Johns, he had already graced the cover of Money magazine.
“I ended up getting involved in business. I started in sales then picked up the financial end of things. I took a program at the New York Institute of Finance and then earned my CFA, chartered financial analyst, designation.”
DOES YOUR DEGREE HELP WITH INVESTING?
“My combined background [of psychology and business] makes me pretty good for what I do. The hottest emerging issue is behavioral finance. This is analyzing an investor’s proclivities and tolerance for risk. A lot of people thought they were risk-takers until the market did what it normally does, go through a bull cycle and a bear cycle. It turns out their risk tolerance was not properly assessed. Rather than ride it out, they sold out of their investments.”
ACCOLADES
Albaneze is a member of the Financial Analysts Federation, the Jacksonville Financial Analysts Society, the Association of Investment Management Research and the treasurer of the Jacksonville Public Library Foundation board.
“My passion there is literacy and bringing knowledge to people.”
HOME LIFE
Deerwood is home to Albaneze, his wife, Robin, and their son, Jeffery. When he’s not with the family, his spare time is spent sailing, golfing or playing tennis.
LAST BOOK YOU READ
“Guns, Germs and Steel. It’s a book about population enclaves and how they developed—sort of the fate of human societies.”
FAVORITE ICE CREAM
Chocolate and strawberry together.
OTHER FUN THINGS
“I love going to exotic places and sailing my own boat without a captain.”
WHAT’S YOUR PET PEEVE?
“On a personal level, people’s driving habits. Professionally, the number of unqualified people providing very important financial advice, especially to folks that don’t have a significant amount of money to begin with and can’t afford to make mistakes.”
WHO DO YOU
ADMIRE MOST?
“Horatio Alger with his rags-to-riches stories. I grew up very, very poor and have lived the American dream.”
— by Monica Chamness