Third Avenue Co-Investment Chief, Martin Whitman announced his withdrawal from everyday decision making, preferring instead, and the post of a Co-Manager of the twenty year old Fund. Whitman had launched the Third Avenue Value Fund in 1990.

The $5.7 billion fund has been doing quite handsomely all these years with an average annual return of 7.4%. In 2009, it rose 44% to land in top quartile of its world stock category.

The new sole Investment Chief is going to be Curtis Jensen, a former student of Mr. Whitman at the Yale School of Management who joined the company in 1995. He has been managing the Third Avenue Small-Cap Value Fund since 1997, which has shown a 7.8% growth over the last decade. Jensen has been the Co-Investment Chief at Third Avenue since 2003.

While Third Avenue Management LLC was unavailable for comments, the Wall Street Journal has quoted Curtis Jensen’s statement assuring all stakeholders that, “There will be no changes in how the firm's portfolios are managed. We intend to continue our long-term practice of following the philosophy that Marty created”.