Chief investment officer of St. Louis-based Wedgewood Partners — architect of a concentrated portfolio of about 20 large growth companies.
Life story
David Rolfe holds a BSBA in Finance from the University of Missouri–St. Louis and is a CFA charterholder. Little is publicly known about his birth year, family or childhood.
How they got started
Before Wedgewood, Rolfe was a portfolio manager at Boatmen's Trust. In 1992 he joined Wedgewood Partners, founded in 1988, and has since served as its chief investment officer and a principal.
The firm calls him the "architect" of its investment strategy: he leads research, portfolio construction and management. He has given regular interviews to The Wall Street Transcript since the 1990s.
Investment style
Wedgewood's motto is "invest as business owners". It looks for companies with a dominant, hard-to-replace product or service, steadily growing revenue, earnings and dividends, high profitability without excessive debt, and shareholder-oriented management — and tries to buy them at "reasonable, if not cheap" valuations.
Its single strategy holds roughly 20 large-cap growth stocks, so "everything in the portfolio matters". The firm targets double-digit earnings growth over 3–5 years and favours patience over quarterly results.
Best decisions
Long-term consistency
Rolfe has applied the same concentrated growth philosophy for more than 30 years; according to the firm, it has outperformed index investing and most active managers since inception (the firm's own claim).
Biggest mistakes
Limited information
No reliable public sources were found on specific failed investments by Rolfe or Wedgewood. In a concentrated portfolio, one or two mistakes can noticeably affect overall results.
Today
Rolfe continues as chief investment officer of Wedgewood Partners. The firm remains privately held and employee-owned, with a long-tenured team.
What to learn from following the portfolio
- In a ~20-stock portfolio every new position signals strong conviction — watch new additions and long-held names.
- Wedgewood's quality criteria (low debt, high profitability, strong cash flow) are a useful filter in themselves: such companies more often pass the debt tests of halal screening too.
- 13Fs are up to 45 days late and show only long US equity positions; copying is not a strategy.
- From a halal perspective: growth companies in technology and consumer sectors are more likely to be halal, but payment networks or financials can also appear — check each position's halal status in the Portfolio tab.
An introduction based on public sources — not investment advice. Spotted an error? Let us know.