Aaron Hugh Braun

Aaron Hugh Braun is an experienced and successful classic long/short manager, who has actively been involved in the alternative investment arena since 1989.  His portfolio management experience began in 1995, nearly 23 years ago, and his expertise evolved over time. This senior-level investor/manager specializes in contrarian and non-consensus strategies for investing. Aaron has distinguished himself as being a strong advocate for the pursuit of fundamentally-driven short selling, which enabled his funds to generate positive returns in all down market years since inception, including 2000-2002 and 2007-2008.

His professional investment management activities span for over 28 years, including the 23 years of managing Willow Creek Capital Management activities. He founded the privately owned hedge fund sponsor in 1994 and is still actively involved in all marketing and client service activities. As the CEO of Willow Creek Capital Management, Aaron Hugh Braun determines the overall firm policy and strategic direction, while managing the execution of the firm's business plan on a daily basis. At all times since inception, he has been the sole shareholder and all related entities.

Aaron Hugh Braun started investing as a student in the mid-1970’s. After graduating from the University of California at Berkeley in 1982, he worked in Silicon Valley for a few years (1982-84) before embarking on got his goal of forming Willow Creek Capital Management. Before founding Willow Creek Capital Management, he worked at Robertson, Colman & Stephens (1984-87), and at Hambrecht & Quist Equity Management (1989 -1992). In the period between 1992 and 1995, Aaron provided independent fundamental research to a number of hedge funds.

At Willow Creek Capital Management, Aaron Hugh Braun initiated two classic “Jones-model” funds, an offshore fund, a concentrated “long-only” fund, and a unique short-biased fund. The company enjoyed the reputation as a premier manager and grew from $2 million at inception to a peak level of over $1.3 billion. Clients ranged from high net worth individuals to some of the largest and most respected U.S. and international investors/financial companies.

In addition to his responsibilities as the CIO/senior portfolio manager and CMO, Aaron Hugh Braun was responsible for managing the firm’s employees including analysts, junior portfolio managers, traders and support staff.

Aaron Hugh Braun who is the founder of Willow Creek Capital Management is a native of California. He is 58 years old, has been married for 33 years and has four children. His main outside interests are spending time with his wife and family, maintaining good physical fitness and cooking. He has been involved in various philanthropic activities, mainly in the areas of health and education, including serving as a Trustee on the Boards of two local schools.