Monday, October 4, 2010

Brandon Nelson, CFA (Founder & CIO), Timpani Capital Management Visited the AIM Program

On Monday, October 4, Brandon Nelson of Timpani Capital Management visited the students in the AIM program. Mr. Nelson, a former Wells Capital Management portfolio manager, launched Timpani in April 2008 with the backing of Frontier Partners. The small-cap growth firm began running money for clients in Q2 2008.


Nelson was joined at Timpani in 2008 by Ryan Isherwood, an analyst on Nelson's small-cap growth team at Wells. Mike Klenn (AIM '10) joined the firm this past summer.

Mr. Nelson has been Chief Investment Officer of Timpani since its inception. He received his B.B.A. in Business Administration and his M.S. in Finance from the University of Wisconsin and has earned the right to use the CFA designation. Ryan Isherwood graduated from UW-Madison in 1999 with his B.B.A. in Business Administration and his M.B.A. from Notre Dame in 2005. Ryan also is a CFA charterholder.

During his visit to the AIM program, Brandon talked about the investment philosophy and process at Timpani. He said that they believe that "earnings drive stock price performance." By combining fundamental research with an analysis of market sentiment, he believes that Timpani can identify and exploit the 'perception gap' that exists between a company’s business strength and the market’s expectation of that strength. He said that this perception gap exists because the market is slow to react to incremental, relevant changes in a company’s fundamentals.

Dr. Krause, AIM program director said, "It was a pleasure having Brandon visit us. As an independent investment management firm with a single focus on small cap growth equities, it was interesting to hear him talk about their investment process. Timpani - like the AIM Fund - is dedicated to fundamental, bottom-up stock selection. The discussion of the perception gap wa useful and the students had many questions about Timpani's investment process."

Timpani's Small Cap Growth Equity product is benchmarked to the Russell 2000 Growth Index. Krause concluded, "Brandon, Ryan, and Mike are passionate about equity investing. It is refreshing to be in the company of such dedicated professionals. I know the students appreciate their efforts to help mentor them."