Meet Marta Yago

Transcript

Curiosity shapes how I live --- and how I invest. It shows up in unexpected places: I'm a barefoot runner, I ski with my family, and I'm into natural movement and functional training. I'm always experimenting, always learning, always making small adjustments that add up over time.

Hi, I'm Marta Yago, associate portfolio manager of the Global Value Equity Strategy.

At Columbia Business School, the Value Investing Program really sharpened my instinct to dig below the surface. Since then, I’ve always wanted to truly understand a business --- how it makes money, how durable those cash flows are, and what a sensible valuation looks like.

When it comes to putting that into practice, investing, for me, starts with a rigorous valuation framework and independent research.  That foundation matters. But it's not about certainty --- it's about judgment.

When I look at new ideas, I think in terms of risk-adjusted outcomes.  I weigh different scenarios and ask: What has to go right? What could go wrong? And does the potential upside more than compensate us for the risks? Within that framework, I'm particularly interested in situations where residual returns are improving, and the asymmetry of outcomes is in our favour.

That way of thinking about risk isn’t limited to markets. Skiing with my teenage sons has shaped that mindset too. They're into freeride, so I'm often pushed onto terrain I wouldn't have chosen myself. It's about taking calculated risks --- assessing conditions carefully, staying disciplined, and gradually improving. That feels very similar to how I build and refine my investment framework. 

Barefoot running and natural movement reflect another belief I hold strongly, which complements that focus on calculated risk: the power of incremental gains. You don't get stronger overnight. In training, you build strength gradually, through small, consistent improvements over time. In investing, those small steps are pieces of knowledge and insight that accumulate, so I see it as a long-term compounding process.

To keep improving over time, I like challenging default assumptions, both in training and in markets. That means doing the extra research, thinking independently, and looking for opportunities where the risk–return profile may be better than it first appears. 

For me, value investing is about curiosity, disciplined research, and thoughtful, risk-adjusted decision-making --- applied consistently over time, in the same spirit that guides how I train, ski, and move through everyday life.