Charles H. Brandes is one of the more closely followed value investors working today, as well being a disciple of the Benjamin Graham school of value investing. Brandes Investment Partners, which was started in 1974, currently has over $52.9 billion under management and is based in San Diego, California. In the Forbes 400 Richest Americans publication for 2007, Brandes ranked 165. He has been a CFA charterholder for more than 25 years. Brandes met Ben Graham in San Diego while he was training to be a stockbroker. He was able to learn firsthand the techniques Graham used to determine undervalued investment securities.

As of 2007, Brandes' U.S. Value Equity fund has beaten the S&P 500 index for the past five, 10 and 15 years. According to the book Investment Leadership, Brandes' Global equity fund had an average return of 19.21% over the prior 20 years. Brandes Investments strictly follows Graham and Dodd principles as outlined in the books Security Analysis and The Intelligent Investor. Also recently, the firm made investments in the troubled mortgage and financial sectors, paying bargain prices for investments in Countrywide Financial, Washington Mutual, Wachovia Corp. and Bank of America. Brandes is among the largest institutional shareholder of Royal Bank of Scotland and General Motors. Thomson Financial's well-regarded Nelson's World's Best Money Managers rankings consistently lists Brandes Investment Partners among the Top 10 International Equity Fund Managers in the world.