How well do you know who’s managing your money?
Credentials can help—but they can’t show you how someone thinks when the stakes are high, or how they’ve earned the trust of their team and their investors.
This post offers a closer look at Matt Parker, CFA, CPA—co-portfolio manager of the Intrepid Income Fund—whose path from public accounting to portfolio management reflects both discipline and adaptability. It also sheds light on the mindset and moments that have shaped his approach to investing, including how Matt briefly entertained a career as a firefighter—and why he’s more comfortable in the heat of a tough investment decision.
You didn’t initially set your sites on working on Wall Street—so what lit the spark for investing?
You hear stories of people who were given $100 when they were a kid and started tracking stocks from that moment on. That wasn’t me.
I didn’t catch the bug until interning with Intrepid during college. During my first week, Mark Travis (Intrepid’s founder), gave me a copy of Benjamin Graham’s The Intelligent Investor. Something clicked—especially the idea of buying businesses below their intrinsic value. That simple but powerful concept just stuck.
This happened to be right after the Great Financial Crisis. Capital markets were front and center, and I remember wanting to understand how the stock market could drop nearly 60% in 18 months. A few asset managers had anticipated it—and Intrepid was one of them. I was fascinated to know how they did that. That’s when the passion for investing really took root for me.
And I’ll be honest—I had no idea what I was doing at first. On my first day as an intern, I remember an analyst handed me this thick stack of papers and said, “This is a 10-K. Read it. Come back with questions.” It was trial by fire, but also the perfect environment to learn.
How did working as an accountant prepare you for investing?
I graduated from the University of North Carolina in 2010 at the tail end of the GFC and finance jobs were scarce. As I looked at people I knew and respected in senior roles—CFOs, CEOs—a surprisingly common thread in their backgrounds was public accounting. They told me it was a foundational skill set that could translate into almost any business role.
So I went back to school for a year to study accounting and then joined Ernst & Young in Atlanta, where I spent three years in the audit practice. It was a great training ground. I learned a lot about how companies operate behind the scenes—financial reporting, internal processes, the mechanics of a business. That experience has been incredibly useful in analyzing companies today.
What unexpected moment brought you back to Jacksonville—and into a seat at Intrepid?
In my third year at EY, I went home to Jacksonville for The Players Championship golf tournament—kind of the city’s Super Bowl—and happened to bump into Mark. At the time, I was just starting to look into opportunities outside of accounting. He asked if I was tired of accounting yet, and I said, “Funny you mention that.” He told me they were launching an international strategy and looking for an analyst. I threw my hat into the ring and got the job.
I transitioned from Intrepid’s international strategy to the small-cap strategy a couple of years later and eventually promoted to co-portfolio manager of the Intrepid Income Fund.
What surprised you most when you made the leap from a large global firm to a small investment shop?
The structure at a large firm is great early on—there are formal training programs, assigned mentors and coaches, and the ability to move across departments or even cities. But it comes with a lot of bureaucracy. It could take days just getting an expense report processed. Decision-making can be slow and political.
There’s more agility and entrepreneurial spirit at smaller firms. If you find a way to help the business, you’re empowered to pursue it without having to go through multiple layers of approvals. I’ve found that, culturally, it’s easier to create alignment in a team of 15 to 20 people. Everyone knows the direction we’re rowing, and it’s easier to tie incentives to actual outcomes.
That also shows up in career development. You typically progress step by step at larger firms—junior analyst, senior analyst, manager, and so on. At Intrepid, once someone earns the opportunity, they’re expected to step up. You’re in the arena earlier than you might be at a large firm.
What was it like the first time you had to own an investment call?
It felt like my hair was on fire. I was trying to get up to speed as fast as I could and more afraid of making a mistake than excited about hitting a home run. But that’s one of the things that’s so great about Intrepid. It’s a team that understands mistakes are part of the process. Mark says it all the time: “nobody bats a thousand in this business.” The key is resilience. You have to learn from your mistakes, adapt your process, and keep moving forward.
You’ve done your fair share of boots-on-the-ground research. What’s one experience that really changed your perspective?
It was a trip to Australia back when I was working on Intrepid’s international strategy. We were following up on some controversial news about a restaurant operator held in the portfolio. We decided that the only way to truly get to the bottom of things was to go visit. So Hunter Hayes (CIO and co-lead portfolio manager of the Intrepid Income Fund) and I flew over and spent a week talking with employees at franchisees across Melbourne, Sydney, the Gold Coast, and Brisbane.
We gained an informational edge—but it told us to sell. Fortunately, we got out before the stock fell further. That kind of diligence is what we’re committed to at Intrepid.
That trip was the first time Hunter and I worked closely with each other—pretty cool to think we’re still a team almost eight years later. And Sydney? It’s one of the coolest cities I’ve ever been to.
How does being based in Jacksonville—not Wall Street—shape the culture at Intrepid?
I think the distance from New York is a real advantage. Some of those firms up there can get caught in a kind of groupthink—it’s easy to lose sight of independent thinking when you’re surrounded by so much of the same. We’re a long way from that, literally and culturally. That separation helps us stay grounded and focused on our own process instead of getting swept up in whatever’s trending on Wall Street.
That independence shows up in how we work, too. We’re serious about the work we do, but we also understand life doesn’t stop when markets open. Being near the beach is a good reminder of that.
The setting also shapes how we spend our time outside of work. Over the years, we’ve had people on the team who surf in the morning before heading into the office. I never got into surfing myself, but I love being outdoors—boating, fishing, golfing. These days, with two boys under five, I spend a lot of time with family, but I still make time for the things that make Florida living so great.
What’s something your colleagues might be surprised to learn about you?
I briefly considered becoming an aerial firefighter. I remember researching it and thinking, “Yeah, maybe this is the adventure I’m meant for —transporting smokejumpers and dropping water and fire retardant on forest fires.” But if I’m being honest with myself, if I ever got up in one of those planes, I’d probably take one look down and think, “What am I doing? I belong behind a desk.”