John Kleinheinz is the founder of Kleinheinz Capital Partners. John Kleinheinz started his career as an investment banker with Nomura Securities after graduating from Stanford University in 1984. He worked in the Corporate Finance and Mergers & Acquisitions departments, in Japan. In 1990, John Kleinheinz went to work at San Antonio Capital, a hedge fund started by Dana McGinnis in 1990. He did well there, becoming the second principal in 1993. John Kleinheinz left in 1996 to start his own fund.

Kleinheinz Capital Partners launched in February that year and he floated it with his own money. By the end of the year, John Kleinheinz's fund was up 130% and he had $25 million in capital. From 1996 to 2010, Kleinheinz Capital Partners had amazing returns, a compound annual growth rate of 26.6 percent to be exact.

John Kleinheinz describes his investment strategy as contrarian - in other words, he doesn't necessarily go with the crowd. He also calls it opportunistic and value-oriented. John Kleinheinz uses a global long/short strategy, saying that, to him, this strategy gives the maximum returns for the amount of risk he is willing to take on. He will take on macro positions, like those involving currencies and commodities, if the opportunity is there. Otherwise, John Kleinheinz prefers to invest in companies with large market caps, that have pricing power or natural monopolies. He also likes companies that offer franchises and those in sectors that have fundamentals improving across the board.