Forager Capital Management – Long/short value and special situations, focused on sub-$500 million market cap U.S. names; Founder background: Robert MacArthur; Fidelity research associate; Amherst College UG

Forest Hill Capital – Long-biased value hedge fund focused on small-caps. Its investment style follows the typical “long GoodCo, short BadCo” approach; Founder Mark Lee previously headed the private client group at Morgan Keegan, a Memphis-based investment firm later acquired by Raymond James; Forest Hill Capital’s research team includes two senior analysts, both CFA charterholders (Lee himself is not). Lee holds a B.A. from the University of Mississippi

The Circumference Group – Crossover investment firm with a long-biased value strategy focused on public companies in B2B business services and technology—areas where the founder has entrepreneurial experience. The firm targets a 6- to 36-month investment horizon; Founder Jeff Fox was previously CEO of a cloud software company and, before that, CEO of a business services company. He holds a B.A. from Duke University; The public investing team is supported by two additional investment professionals

Velan Capital – Long/short biotech; concentrated; engages in shareholder activism; part of Avego, a crossover healthcare investment firm; Founder background: Adam Morgan; Senior analyst at Broadfin Capital and Iguana Healthcare, analyst at event-driven hedge fund Pura Vida, sell-side analyst at Cowen; University of Minnesota UG and MBA

Blue Grotto Capital – Long/short hedge fund with a “long GoodCo, short BadCo” strategy and a three-year time horizon on the long side; The firm was founded by Ben Gordon, a GMT Capital alum who, at GMT, ran $2 billion in gross assets as a generalist with a relative bias toward TMT (technology, media, and telecommunications); Ben holds a bachelor’s degree from Ohio University and is a CFA charterholder

GMT Capital – Long/short hedge fund that manages the Bay Resource Partners Funds, with a three-year investment horizon; Founder Tom Claugus earned his B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Ohio State University before earning his MBA from Harvard Business School as a Baker Scholar; Before founding GMT Capital, he spent 17 years at Rohm and Haas, a global specialty chemicals company, working in Mexico, Europe, and the U.S.

Masters Capital – Long-biased hedge fund that is agnostic between investing in cyclical and growth businesses; The firm was founded by Michael Masters, a former four-year All-American and captain of the University of Tennessee swim team; Masters Capital has a team of seven investment professionals, each covering specific sectors

Boone Capital Management – Long-biased hedge fund that specializes in healthcare stocks; Founder Daniel Walter Boone previously worked as a PM at GMT Capital; He holds a Dartmouth UG, Stanford MBA and an Oxford graduate degree

Harbor Capital – TMT long/short hedge fund; The firm relocated to Asheville from New York; Founder Harold Berry holds a bachelor’s degree from Davidson College; His professional background is not currently available

Corigliano Investment Advisors – Long/short hedge fund focused on energy and energy transition investments; The firm is led by Mark Corigliano, who previously worked at Duke’s investment management company, where he co-led the public team and led the private investment team; In 2009, Mark founded Belltower Advisors LLC, a $250 million long/short equity firm specializing in the energy, mining, and materials sectors; He began his investment career managing a $200 million natural resources portfolio at DUMAC and also has experience as an engineer with Schlumberger; Mark holds a B.S. from Cornell University, an MBA from UNC Chapel Hill, and is a CFA charterholder

Caption Partners – Long/short trading firm focused on U.S. stocks with 2–4 month holding periods; The strategy seeks variant views and profits through equity and option trades; Founder backgrounds: William Copper; Associate at Ares, Analyst at Cogent Partners; Duke UG; Jason Strasser; Analyst at Trafelet & Company, Equity derivatives trader at Morgan Stanley; Duke UG

Global Frontier Investments – Long/short hedge fund focused on non-U.S. equities; While there’s no clear sector bias, the current portfolio heavily skews toward financials; The fund is led by Portfolio Manager W. Grant Dollens; Prior to founding Global Frontier Investments, Grant worked at Scale Management, DB Alex Brown, and Ayer Capital Management; He holds an undergraduate degree from Duke University and an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management

Breach Inlet Capital Management – Long/short small-cap value hedge fund that seeks to outperform the Russell 2000 Value Index; The fund primarily targets “small-cap transformations,” defined as companies with a market capitalization of less than $5 billion that are undergoing transformative changes with the potential to create significant value; These transformations often go unrecognized or underappreciated by the broader market, as they can be difficult to quantitatively screen for; However, Breach Inlet Capital Management believes these transformation catalysts offer clear paths to growing intrinsic value, often over a period of more than a year; In addition to small-cap transformations, the firm may opportunistically invest in special situations; The fund generally avoids the energy, healthcare, and technology sectors due to either a lack of expertise or greater unpredictability; Breach Inlet Capital Management manages its net exposure to range between 30% and 80%; The firm is led by Chris Colvin, who previously served as a Portfolio Manager at Freeman Group (a family office) and as a Senior Analyst at Highland Capital Management; Chris holds a BS from Wake Forest University