| Scott Fearon, Crown Capital Management |
In 2011, Scott Fearon had reservations when he heard that J.C. Penney Co. had hired Ron Johnson as its new CEO, particularly when he learned that Johnson would not be moving anywhere near the company’s headquarters in Plano, Texas. Instead, Johnson intended to run the company from his home base in California. After less than 18 months, during which J.C. Penney’s sales took a nosedive, Johnson was out of a job.
This example falls neatly into the sixth of Fearon’s six common mistakes, as outlined in his book, Dead Companies Walking: How a Hedge Fund Manager Finds Opportunity in Unexpected Places (Palgrave Macmillan): business leaders who are removed, physically and/or emotionally, from their company. This story is one of the many cautionary tales Fearon recounts in his book, which examines why some businesses and investments work and some fail, based on his own experience as an investor.
With 24 years of running a hedge fund under his belt, Fearon thought it was time to share what he’d learned. Fearon, 55, the founder of $110 million Crown Capital Management, located in Marin County, California, says he wrote the book with two audiences in mind: people who buy and sell stocks, and those who are trying to start or build a business. However, no one could describe Fearon as removed: Apart from keeping Crown small and personal, he’s also thrown himself into the fray of educating special-needs students.
In 2000, Fearon and his wife, Jennifer, joined three other families (connected by a psychologist they were all seeing) to start a school for kids with developmental challenges and autism called Oak Hill School. Fearon’s book is dedicated to “everyone who loves, educates, worries about, and cares for intellectually and physically disabled children and adults.”
Fearon’s son is autistic and also has cystic fibrosis. He wasn’t doing well in the local public school system’s special-education program, and Fearon and his wife were hard put to find alternatives. “We just kind of felt there had to be a better way,” he says. “But there are no magic bullets in special education. These kids learn in fits and starts if they learn at all, and it can be at times very frustrating.”
The school, in San Anselmo, California, now has 37 students, whose ages range from seven to 17. Students generally come to the school via school districts (who reimburse Oak Hill the tuition fee), referrals from psychologists or word of mouth. The school’s campus, which includes a garden and chickens, is in a quiet location, chosen, in part, because those with autism are very sensitive to noise.
Funded by the founding families, all of which continue to support it, the school runs on an annual budget of $2 million. There are also fundraisers, and the majority of students are paid for by school districts. Fearon is donating the proceeds from his book to the school.
Oak Hill is different from other special-needs programs, says Fearon, in that it’s “a one-stop shop” that provides multiple therapies, including occupational, physical, speech and language therapies, and sensory interventions, as well as individualized attention. There are a teacher and two aides for each class of six students.
“If you have a disabled child, you’ve probably been running around Dodge getting first your speech therapy, then occupational therapy, then your psychological services, and God forbid if you need medical intervention,” Fearon says. “We’re trying to deliver a unique set of services all in one spot.”
Oak Hill board chair Conrad Branson says Fearon has helped create a school where new ideas are being developed to help autistic kids everywhere. “Scott knows an incredible amount about autism and really is able to push the board in different directions,” he says. “He helps the board think outside the box on how to be more than a school, and help parents, friends and the community to learn about autism and deal with it.”
The school has recently partnered with the University of California, San Francisco, Autism and Neurodevelopment Program to study Oak Hill School’s students and develop an online database, which would be used to create in-school programs for autistic students.
In the future, the school hopes to have more than 50 students enrolled, thereby decreasing the cost for each student and creating a replicable model for other parents and school districts around the country that don’t have access to Oak Hill’s level of financial support.
“We’ve always had two simple dreams,” says Fearon. “We want to provide all the services, and we want to be a resource where parents who are going through this difficult situation can find a lot of things that help them.”
