Fairview Capital Partners is a Black-owned billion-dollar investment company celebrating 30 years of service. JoAnn Price and Laurence Morse co-founded Fairview and turned the firm into a $10.8 billion private equity and venture capital fund.
Founded in September 1994, Price and Morse grew capital for the company through co-investments, venture capitalists, and diverse and emerging managers, Pensions & Investments (P&I) points out.
Price approached Morse, asking him to partner with her vision, and the rest is history. When they began, they approached public pension funds.
“We had to be comfortable with getting mostly nos or, ‘that sounds good, but we don’t think you can succeed in something like this,’” said Price. Added Morse, “We simply knew that in time, we would succeed, the only question was could we stay alive long enough to realize that success.”
Three decades later, the company has 25 people on staff and has survived through economic crises, a pandemic, and the racial reckoning that followed the deaths of Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, and Breonna Taylor in 2020. It was a time when Morse said the firm was an “open door to everyone.”
“We have always been comfortable in speaking clearly about who we are, what we do, and how we have done that successfully,” Price added. “And that is very important for firms like ours to do.”
According to a study by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, people from historically underrepresented communities manage only 1.4% of the more than $82 trillion asset management industry, despite diverse-owned firms’ investment performance matching those of their less-diverse peers.
According to P & I, over the years, Fairview has hit various milestones, including receiving commitments from pension funds, including the $3.7 billion City of Dallas Employees’ Retirement Fund, the $33 billion Los Angeles Fire & Police Pensions, and the $267.7 billion New York State Common Retirement Fund.
Beyond retirement funds, Fairview has received support from philanthropists and endowments from organizations like the Ford Foundation.
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