Alex Roepers

Alex Roepers graduated from Nijenrode business school in the Netherlands in 1980 and earned an MBA from Harvard Business School in 1984. Little is publicly known about his birth year, childhood or family.

Before launching his fund, Roepers worked at two large industrial conglomerates — as director of corporate development at Dover Corporation and at the Thyssen-Bornemisza Group — experience that shaped his industrial-specialist approach. He founded Atlantic Investment Management in 1988, started the Cambrian strategy (six or so mid- and low-tech industrial companies) in 1992 and launched the offshore AJR International fund in 1993.

The firm later added Cambrian funds focused on Japan and Europe and opened a Tokyo office. As of 2021 it managed about $1.9 billion with 29 employees.

Atlantic runs a highly concentrated portfolio: the main fund usually holds only 6–7 stocks and sometimes owns up to 7% of a company. Its hunting ground is packaging, aerospace, pumps and valves, industrial materials, specialty chemicals, IT services and food companies with $1–20 billion market caps, strong balance sheets and low debt.

Roepers is an activist, but known as the "gentleman activist": rather than public fights he practices "constructive shareholder activism," making suggestions to management behind closed doors.

The firm remains active in 2026, still files 13F reports and is led by Roepers. We found no reliable public sources on the results of individual investments, so the best/worst sections are left empty.