In 1978, we arrived at a major turning point. Until then, the institutions that invested in our funds -- our clients -- were mostly a handful of financial institutions like insurance companies. Everything changed when we landed an innovative and important partnership with the state of Oregon.
Our co-founder Jerry Kohlberg had a friend who introduced us to Roger Meier, who was chairman of the state of Oregon's pension system. In our first meeting, Meier was impressed by our briefing on the firm's investment performance, noting how our returns were substantially higher than theirs.
