Bruce A. Karsh T'77

Bruce Karsh is president and co-founder of Oaktree Capital Management, LLC, an institutional money management firm formed in 1995 with over $78 billion of assets under management.  In addition to his management responsibilities, Mr. Karsh oversees all of Oaktree's closed-end private investment partnership strategies, and serves as portfolio manager for Oaktree's distressed debt funds.

Before co-founding Oaktree, Mr. Karsh was a managing director of TCW and its affiliate, TCW Asset Management Company, as well as portfolio manager of the company's Special Credits Funds.  Prior to joining TCW, he worked as assistant to the chairman of Sun Life Insurance Company of America and of SunAmerica, Inc., its parent.  He was also an attorney with the law firm of O'Melveny & Myers.

In 1977, Mr. Karsh graduated summa cum laude from Duke University, where he received a bachelor's degree with distinction in economics and was elected Phi Beta Kappa.  He went on to earn a J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law, where he served as the notes editor of the Virginia Law Review and was a member of the Order of the Coif (highest academic honors).  Following law school, he served as an appellate court clerk to the Honorable Anthony M. Kennedy, presently Justice of the United States Supreme Court.

He currently serves as a director on the boards of Charter Communications, Inc. and The Painted Turtle, a non-profit organization that operates a camp in Los Angeles for children with life-threatening diseases.

Mr. Karsh joined the DUMAC, LLC Board of Directors in 2002.  He was appointed to serve as Chairman of the Board beginning in July 2005.  Elected to the Duke University Board of Trustees in 2003, Mr. Karsh is a member of the Executive Committee and serves on the Business and Finance Committee.

Mr. Karsh and his wife, Martha, live in Beverly Hills, California, and have three children.

 

July 2012