John Heins joined the University of Alabama in 2016 as a Professor of Value Investing and was named the Director of the Fitzpatrick Center upon its creation in 2020. He is a well-known and highly regarded member of the value investing community, serving since its inception as the Editor and Publisher of Value Investor Insight, the industry-leading newsletter he co-founded in 2005.
Prior to founding Value Investor Media, John served as the President & Chief Executive Officer of Gruner + Jahr USA Publishing, a consumer magazine publisher, as the Senior Vice President for Personal Finance at AOL, and as a reporter for Forbes magazine. He holds an M.B.A. from Stanford University and a B.S. in Economics (with an Accounting major) from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School.
John also serves as Faculty Advisor for the Culverhouse Investment Management Group, Faculty Advisor for the University of Alabama’s Investment Banking Academy, and as Chairman of the Capstone Student Investment Conference. He received an Outstanding Commitment to Teaching Award in 2020 from the University of Alabama National Alumni Association and was named by the University of Alabama Division of Student Life as the John L. Blackburn Advisor of the Year in 2019.
Mark Meulenberg joined the Fitzpatrick Center for Value Investing as its Associate Director in August of 2023. He is an accomplished value investor with over 25 years of experience and currently serves as the
Chief Investment Officer and Managing Partner of Masonry Capital Management, which he founded as a
subsidiary of Virginia National Bankshares in 2018.
Prior to launching Masonry Capital, Mark was the Chief Investment Officer of its predecessor firm, VNB
Wealth Management, and has held a variety of senior research, trading and portfolio management roles at
Brown Brothers Harriman & Co., U.S. Trust Company and Sanford Bernstein & Co. Inc. His firm’s Masonry Partners Fund was named 2022’s “Best Long Biased Hedge Fund by Hedgeweek, and that same year he was named one of “Tomorrow’s Titans” by The Hedge Fund Journal.
Mark holds a B.S. in Applied Economics and Business Management from Cornell University and is a
Chartered Financial Analyst. In addition to teaching all courses in the value investing curriculum, Mark is an
advisor to both the University’s Culverhouse Investment Management Group and its Investment Banking
Academy and plays an active role in all Fitzpatrick Center initiatives.
The value-investing program at the University of Alabama and now the Fitzpatrick Center for Value Investing would not exist without the dedication, leadership, and generosity of C.T. Fitzpatrick and his wife, Kelley.
A Montgomery, Alabama native, Mr. Fitzpatrick returned to his home state in 2007, founding the investment firm Vulcan Value Partners in Birmingham after spending nearly 20 years at legendary value-investing firm Southeastern Asset Management in Memphis. Vulcan has thrived under his leadership and as of June 30, 2022 was responsible for managing $11 billion in assets for its global client base. Since inception, two of Vulcan’s five strategies – Focus and Focus Plus – are ranked in the top 1% of managers in their respective categories.
Among his many professional, civic, and charitable activities, Mr. Fitzpatrick is a board member of the University of Alabama Health Services Foundation, serves on the President’s Cabinet for the University of Alabama Board of Visitors, is a member of the American Enterprise Institute’s (AEI) National Council, and is a member of the Society of International Business Fellows (SIBF). He also founded Bridge Builders Alabama, whose mission is to develop high school students as future leaders who will lay aside individual, social, economic, and cultural differences and work for the benefit of all.
Mr. Fitzpatrick earned a B.S. in Corporate Finance and a Minor in English from the University of Alabama and also holds an M.B.A. in Finance from the Owen Graduate School of Management at Vanderbilt University.