The activist investor who once took down Olive Garden’s parent says boardrooms shouldn’t fear his arrival.
“We make investments in companies that aren’t performing all that well,” Starboard Value CEO Jeff Smith said at Yahoo Finance’s Invest 2025. “The biggest impact we’re having is we’re lighting a fire under a management team to do more faster than they would have otherwise done.”
Smith said that instinct to make things “run better” is deeply ingrained.
“I’ve learned this about myself, that I need things to be more efficient,” he said. “It doesn’t matter where I am or what I’m looking at, I have to analyze the best way, the most efficient plan forward.”
That mindset, he added, once helped him win a bet with his now-wife during a walk across Manhattan — finding a route home without hitting a single red light.
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Smith has long been regarded as one of Wall Street’s most forceful and disciplined activist investors.
His name first made national headlines in 2014, when Starboard ousted the entire board of Darden Restaurants (DRI) after unveiling a 294-page presentation that dissected everything from underperforming real estate to how much salt (or lack thereof) Olive Garden used in its pasta water.
That victory cemented Smith’s reputation as a meticulous operator — and a strategist willing to fight for what he deems shareholder value. A protégé of activist investor Peter Cohen, Smith has built Starboard into a $9 billion firm known for deep operational analysis and no-nonsense turnaround plans.
Not every CEO is hostile to activists, Smith noted. That reaction depends on performance and personality.
“But [if] you’ve missed your numbers for every year for the last four years, and the stock price is trading at a five year low, and then an activist shows up, you probably are going to be rightfully insecure,” he said.
The best leaders see activists as catalysts rather than threats, he argued.
“If the CEO welcomes us in and wants to have this open dialogue about high level strategy and what can happen with the business and what can be done better, it’s usually going to go in one direction,” Smith said. “If instead you have a CEO that’s putting up the walls … it might go a different direction. Einstein’s definition of insanity is true … you need to make some changes if things aren’t going so well.”
In 2025, Starboard has taken new or expanded positions in Tripadvisor (TRIP), construction firm Fluor (FLR), chipmaker Qorvo (QRVO), and engineering materials producer Rogers (ROG). The firm has also reportedly targeted Keurig Dr Pepper (KDP).
