He is the co-founder and co-chairman of Oaktree Capital Management, the largest investor in distressed securities worldwide.

They detail his investment strategies and insight into the economy and are posted publicly on the Oaktree website.

[2][3] According to Warren Buffett, "When I see memos from Howard Marks in my mail, they're the first thing I open and read.

[4] Marks believes that it is hard to gain an investment advantage through research since so many smart people are doing it already; the ways to get an advantage are through better inferring the consequences implied by current company data, managing the psychology of investing, and assessing the present stage of the business / market cycle.

[6] Funds led by Marks have produced long term returns net of fees of 19% per year.

[9] He attended the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania[10] for undergraduate studies where he was a member of Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity.

[13] From 1978 to 1985, he served as a Vice President, as well as a senior portfolio manager overseeing convertible and high-yield debt.

[11] He is a member of the New York Society of Security Analysts and chairs the Investment Committees of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where he is a trustee, and the Royal Drawing School (London).

In March 2023, Nancy and Howard Marks made a $5 million gift to University of California, Los Angeles to endow a faculty chair held by the Vice Chair of Women’s Health Research in the department of obstetrics and gynecology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.

[29] Marks is a member of the Democratic Party and has been critical of the economic policy of Donald Trump.