Skip to main content
MENU
Subscribe
  • Subscribe
  • Account
  • LOGIN
  • Topics
    • Alternatives
    • Consultants
    • Coronavirus
    • Courts
    • Defined Contribution
    • ESG
    • ETFs
    • Hedge Funds
    • Industry Voices
    • Investing
    • Money Management
    • Opinion
    • Partner Content
    • Pension Funds
    • Private Equity
    • Real Estate
    • Russia-Ukraine War
    • SECURE Act 2.0
    • Special Reports
    • White Papers
  • Rankings & Awards
    • 1,000 Largest Retirement Plans
    • Top-Performing Managers
    • Largest Money Managers
    • DC Money Managers
    • DC Record Keepers
    • Largest Hedge Fund Managers
    • World's Largest Retirement Funds
    • Best Places to Work in Money Management
    • Excellence & Innovation Awards
    • WPS Innovation Awards
    • Eddy Awards
  • ETFs
    • Latest ETF News
    • Fund Screener
    • Education Center
    • Equities
    • Fixed Income
    • Commodities
    • Actively Managed
    • Alternatives
    • ESG Rated
  • ESG
    • Latest ESG News
    • The Institutional Investor’s Guide to ESG Investing
    • ESG Sustainability - Gaining Momentum
    • Climate Change: The Inescapable Opportunity
    • Impact Investing
    • 2022 ESG Investing Conference
    • ESG Rated ETFs
  • Defined Contribution
    • Latest DC News
    • DC Money Manager Rankings
    • DC Record Keeper Rankings
    • Innovations in DC
    • Trends in DC: Focus on Retirement Income
    • 2022 Defined Contribution East Conference
    • 2022 DC Investment Lineup Conference
  • Searches & Hires
    • Latest Searches & Hires News
    • Searches & Hires Database
    • RFPs
  • Performance Data
    • P&I Research Center
    • Earnings Tracker
    • Endowment Returns Tracker
    • Corporate Pension Contribution Tracker
    • Pension Fund Returns Tracker
    • Pension Risk Transfer Database
    • Future of Investments Research Series
    • Charts & Infographics
    • Polls
  • Careers
  • Events
    • View All Conferences
    • View All Webinars
    • 2022 Retirement Income Conference
    • 2022 Managing Pension Risk & Liabilities
    • 2022 WorldPensionSummit
Breadcrumb
  1. Home
  2. MONEY MANAGEMENT
December 08, 2014 12:00 AM

Tortoise Capital Advisors LLC

Based: Leawood, Kan. | Ranks 5th among companies with 50-99 employees

Robert Steyer
  • Tweet
  • Share
  • Share
  • Email
  • More
    Reprints Print

    For a firm whose assets under management have climbed more than thirteenfold since the end of 2008, the name Tortoise Capital Advisors LLC might not seem like the best description.

    But there's a story behind the name and, more importantly, a pattern of practice encouraging creativity within the office and in the community.

    Internal education is advanced through the Tortoise Lab and Corkboard, a pair of internal discussion forums. “This is an open culture,” said H. Kevin Birzer, senior managing director and one of five co-founders. “If someone has a good idea we let them run with it.”

    One example is the website — www.uncoverenergy.com — created by a Tortoise employee that describes in charts, graphs, photos and prose the history, science and economics of fossil fuels.

    The support of “good ideas” extends to the life outside the office. One employee is a board member of a non-profit organization that provides diapers to poor people. Mr. Birzer said many Tortoise employees have contributed, the company's foundation has donated money and the company has allowed employees to take days off to pack and store diapers.

    For another non-profit organization that Mr. Birzer chairs, employees have contributed money and time to planting trees in urban neighborhoods as well as cleaning up lots.

    Company executives host Tortoise Teach-Ins, in which high school and college students learn about the company and its specialty — energy investing — from primarily young Tortoise employees.

    “It's fun to see staff in their 20s talking to the high school and college kids,” Mr. Birzer said.

    The Tortoise Teach-In demonstrates a corporate attitude described by one employee in the Best Places to Work in Money Management survey, as “positive, energetic and fills one with a sense of purpose and accomplishment.”

    The company “cares about each of its employees when it comes to career development, health and happiness, and family well-being,” said another employee.

    And let's not forget Chip, the Aldabra tortoise that the firm adopted at the Kansas City Zoo — part of the zoo's effort to encourage donations for the care and feeding of its animals.

    So, what about that name? Tortoise Capital was founded in early 2002, just after the dot-com bubble had burst. Concentrating on what was then a little-known field of energy infrastructure master limited partnerships, the firm's founders chose the name because — like the fable of “The Tortoise and the Hare” — their research showed that slow, steady MLP investments could outperform the Standard & Poor's 500 index over time.

    Related Articles
    Best places to work: winners of 2014
    Standard Life Investments USA
    INTECH Investment Management
    Los Angeles Capital Management & Equity Research Inc.
    Ingredients for a great place to work
    INTECH Investment Management
    Los Angeles Capital Management & Equity Research Inc.
    Baird Asset Management
    Recommended for You
    Matthew Beesley
    Jupiter Fund Management appoints new CEO
    Natalie Brown
    Mesirow names Natalie Brown as new CEO
    Saudi Arabia_i.jpg
    Franklin Templeton explores opening office in Saudi Arabia
    SPDRĀ® ETF’s New Approach to Bond Liquidity
    Sponsored Content: SPDRĀ® ETF’s New Approach to Bond Liquidity

    Reader Poll

    June 6, 2022
    SEE MORE POLLS >
    Sponsored
    White Papers
    Nearing the finish line: Ideas on end-state investing for corporate DB plans
    The Meaning of "Portfolio Intelligence"
    Credit Indices: Closing the Fixed Income Evolutionary Gap
    Forever in Style: Benchmarking with the MorningstarĀ® Broad Style Indexesā„ 
    Crossroads: Politics, Inflation, & Bonds
    Is there a mid-cap gap in your DC plan?
    View More
    Sponsored Content
    Partner Content
    The Industrialization of ESG Investment
    For institutional investors, ETFs can make meeting liquidity needs easier
    Gold: the most effective commodity investment
    2021 Investment Outlook | Investing Beyond the Pandemic: A Reset for Portfolios
    Ten ways retirement plan professionals add value to plan sponsors
    Gold: an efficient hedge
    View More
    E-MAIL NEWSLETTERS

    Sign up and get the best of News delivered straight to your email inbox, free of charge. Choose your news – we will deliver.

    Subscribe Today
    June 20, 2022 page one

    Get access to the news, research and analysis of events affecting the retirement and institutional money management businesses from a worldwide network of reporters and editors.

    Subscribe
    Connect With Us
    • RSS
    • Twitter
    • Facebook
    • LinkedIn

    Our Mission

    To consistently deliver news, research and analysis to the executives who manage the flow of funds in the institutional investment market.

    About Us

    Main Office
    685 Third Avenue
    Tenth Floor
    New York, NY 10017-4036

    Chicago Office
    130 E. Randolph St.
    Suite 3200
    Chicago, IL 60601

    Contact Us

    Careers at Crain

    About Pensions & Investments

     

    Advertising
    • Media Kit
    • P&I Content Solutions
    • P&I Careers | Post a Job
    • Reprints & Permissions
    Resources
    • Subscribe
    • Newsletters
    • FAQ
    • P&I Research Center
    • Site map
    • Staff Directory
    Legal
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Privacy Request
    Pensions & Investments
    Copyright Ā© 1996-2022. Crain Communications, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
    • Topics
      • Alternatives
      • Consultants
      • Coronavirus
      • Courts
      • Defined Contribution
      • ESG
      • ETFs
      • Hedge Funds
      • Industry Voices
      • Investing
      • Money Management
      • Opinion
      • Partner Content
      • Pension Funds
      • Private Equity
      • Real Estate
      • Russia-Ukraine War
      • SECURE Act 2.0
      • Special Reports
      • White Papers
    • Rankings & Awards
      • 1,000 Largest Retirement Plans
      • Top-Performing Managers
      • Largest Money Managers
      • DC Money Managers
      • DC Record Keepers
      • Largest Hedge Fund Managers
      • World's Largest Retirement Funds
      • Best Places to Work in Money Management
      • Excellence & Innovation Awards
      • WPS Innovation Awards
      • Eddy Awards
    • ETFs
      • Latest ETF News
      • Fund Screener
      • Education Center
      • Equities
      • Fixed Income
      • Commodities
      • Actively Managed
      • Alternatives
      • ESG Rated
    • ESG
      • Latest ESG News
      • The Institutional Investor’s Guide to ESG Investing
      • ESG Sustainability - Gaining Momentum
      • Climate Change: The Inescapable Opportunity
      • Impact Investing
      • 2022 ESG Investing Conference
      • ESG Rated ETFs
    • Defined Contribution
      • Latest DC News
      • DC Money Manager Rankings
      • DC Record Keeper Rankings
      • Innovations in DC
      • Trends in DC: Focus on Retirement Income
      • 2022 Defined Contribution East Conference
      • 2022 DC Investment Lineup Conference
    • Searches & Hires
      • Latest Searches & Hires News
      • Searches & Hires Database
      • RFPs
    • Performance Data
      • P&I Research Center
      • Earnings Tracker
      • Endowment Returns Tracker
      • Corporate Pension Contribution Tracker
      • Pension Fund Returns Tracker
      • Pension Risk Transfer Database
      • Future of Investments Research Series
      • Charts & Infographics
      • Polls
    • Careers
    • Events
      • View All Conferences
      • View All Webinars
      • 2022 Retirement Income Conference
      • 2022 Managing Pension Risk & Liabilities
      • 2022 WorldPensionSummit