Key Takeaways:

• Sam started at VanEck in 2000, where a small hands-on team created a collaborative learning environment.
• He returned 25 years later to a larger firm that feels familiar and is still highly collaborative.
• Market cycles are repeating, with tech dominance again creating opportunities in resource equities.
• We believe resource equities are in a secular bull market, supported by demand, discipline and constrained supply.
• VanEck remains a proven home for resource investors, with established depth, experience and support.

Inside My Early Days at VanEck

I first started at VanEck during the peak of the dot-com era or more precisely, the very end of it, around March of 2000. At the time, there were just over 30 of us at the firm. Despite a long history in gold and natural resources, our hedge fund managed approximately $3 million, and the long-only business was probably under $100 million.

My background was largely in macro markets and commodities, with less experience in equities. Despite the temptation to try to monetize clicks and mint millions buying up domain names, coming to VanEck felt like an opportunity to broaden my skill set while keeping much of what I had already learned.

It was a really fun environment, with everyone doing everything. I remember binding pitch books with Derek van Eck, the then head of the investment side of the business and co-CEO with his brother Jan, before going on marketing trips. My seat was on the trading desk, across from Charlie Cameron and Greg Krenzer. Jan had a small office halfway between our desk and founder John van Eck’s corner office.

Returning to VanEck: Different Cycle, Same Setup

More than 25 years later, I returned to VanEck, starting here again on October 1, 2025, perched about three feet from my old desk, and once again across from Charlie Cameron and Greg Krenzer. I was “away” for seven years at Macquarie, managing natural resource funds with Geoff King, who had also sat next to me at VanEck for seven years.

The return was easy and familiar. The office is still fun, collaboration remains high, and there is the same sense of hopefulness around natural resource equities that I felt coming out of the dot-com bubble.

There are some changes though. There are more people, there’s now a digital assets team, gold has gone from $1,300/ounce to $4,300 and the firm’s AUM is substantially higher. As in March of 2000, tech is once again king. Then it was the dot-com companies. Today, it’s the Magnificent 7 and AI. Similarly, benchmarks are highly concentrated, and valuations are relatively high. There’s lots of talk about a bubble again. Back then, this backdrop marked a compelling opportunity for resource investors.