Dianne McKeever

Ides Capital Management is a New York-based investment advisor focused on small and mid-capitalization public companies that are deeply undervalued and provide a margin of safety. Ides seeks to constructively engage with management teams and corporate boards to implement positive changes to drive long-term value to the benefit of all stockholders and to improve corporate governance practices, including a strong focus on boardroom diversification.

After graduating from college in 2001 (with dual degrees in chemistry and chemical engineering at New York University and the Stevens Institute of Technology), Dianne got a job at New York hedge fund Barington Capital Group. By age 25, she had become the youngest person to make partner. “She’s analytical and very smart,” recalls James Mitarotonda, Barington’s chairman and CEO.

At the time, Barington was becoming a pioneer in the current generation of investor activism, and it was there that McKeever got to know Starboard Value activist Jeff Smith, whose hedge fund was then part of Ramius Capital. Smith partnered with McKeever in many of Barington’s campaigns.

But McKeever yearned to make a bigger impact. So she went to law school—not to be a lawyer, but to study up on corporate governance. She launched Ides in the summer of 2015, renting a desk at a swanky coworking space a block from Central Park. She’s now looking for new office space, and she has set her sights on several more small-company targets.