Two Special Guest Visited the AIM Program this Week: Bill Priebe and Tom Digenan

Mr. Bill Priebe

This week students in the AIM program were privileged to host two veteran money mangers: Mr. Bill Priebe and  Mr. Tom Digenn. Both gentlemen have visited the program in past years and the current students were honored by their presence.

William A. Priebe, CFA, co-founded Geneva Capital Management in January 1987 with Amy S. Croen. The firm was later acquired by Henderson Global Investors in October 2014. Mr. Priebe is currently a Portfolio Manager at Henderson Geneva Capital Management. 

He is a member of its Investment Strategy Group that conducts high quality fundamental research and is responsible for the management and oversight of the Henderson Geneva growth equity products. Before founding Geneva, Mr. Priebe worked for First Wisconsin Trust Company. Mr. Priebe graduated from Northern Illinois University where he also earned his Master’s in Finance. He later earned an MBA from the University of Chicago.

Mr. Priebe discussed the philosophy, strategy, and process behind his fund (the Henderson Geneva US Mid Cap Growth). He provided valuable micro and macro insights – and engaged the AIM students in investment-related discussions during and after class.

Mr. Tom Digenan

Also visiting AIM this week was Thomas J. Digenan, CFA, CPA Head of US Intrinsic Value Equity, Managing Director, UBS. 

Tom Digenan is the head of UBS’ US Intrinsic Value Equity team. In this role, he is responsible for US equities portfolio construction and research. Prior to this role, Tom had been a Strategist with the team since 2001, whereby he participated in the analysis and development of US equities portfolios, focusing on alpha generation and ensuring client investment objectives were met.

Prior to his role with the US Intrinsic Value Equity team, Tom was president of the firm’s mutual funds and relationship funds organization. Prior to joining the UBS predecessor organization Brinson Partners in 1993, Tom was a senior manager in the tax department of KPMG Peat Marwick, where he worked exclusively in the investment services industry. Tom is a member of the CFA Institute and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, and he is on the board of CFA Society Chicago. 

He is also a member of the Dean’s Council of Excellence for the Marquette University Business School. Tom is also an adjunct investment instructor in the Marquette University Graduate School of Business. 

Mr. Digenan discussed the philosophy, strategy, and process behind his fund: UBS U.S. Large Cap Equity Fund (BPEQX). He provided valuable micro and macro insights – and engaged the AIM students in investment-related discussions during and after class. Tom joined the students when they pitched their stocks.

Are you a Marquette Finance Alumni (or Friend of the AIM program) and going to be in NYC next week?

There is a Marquette University event hosted by Shari Noonan, Bus Ad ’96, Managing Director, COO Global Equity Trading, Deutsche Bank in NYC next week.

Please join Marquette alumni in the financial community to welcome Dr. Krause and students of the Financial Management Association on their annual visit to Wall Street.

Thursday, Oct. 22

5:30 to 7:30 p.m.

Deutsche Bank

60 Wall St., 47th Floor, New York

Respond to Alysia Dvorachek by Monday, Oct. 19, at (414) 288-7697 or alysia.dvorachek@mu.edu. Direct any questions or special needs to Alysia.

 

Marquette AIM Students Pitched Stocks at Cortina Asset Management

Ryan Woo, Dylan Harkness, Dan Riley, and Mark Lakowske

On Friday, October 16, the AIM students traveled to Cortina Asset Management to pitch stocks. This marks the seventh time that AIM students have visited Cortina to present stocks to the investment team.

Cortina is an independent money manager that is majority owned by its employees. The firm was formed in 2004 and specializes in small cap portfolio management for public and private institutions, as well as high net worth individuals.  With offices in Milwaukee and New York, Cortina is a long-only separate account manager with more than 100 years of combined investment staff experience.

Over the years the students in the AIM program have had an opportunity to pitch stocks at Cortina – and Tom Eck, John Potter, Steve Lilly, Brian Bies, Ryan Davies and others within the firm have provided valuable insights to the students.

The AIM students presenting on Friday at Cortina included:

·       Ryan Woo (LeMaitre Vascular [LMAT] Health Care)

·       Mark Lakowske (Calavo Growers [CVGW] Consumer Staples)

·       Daniel Riley (Malibu Boats, Inc.  [MBUU] Consumer Discretionary)

·       Dylan Harkness (BankUnited [BKU] Financial Services)

·       Patrick Schulz (Golor LNG Limited [GLNG] International Energy)

Their AIM equity write-ups can be accessed at: http://business.marquette.edu/centers-and-programs/aimp-student-equity-write-ups. Copies of all student presentations since the inception of the AIM program can be viewed at this web site.

 

Two AIM alumnus returned to campus today and talked about their roles in equity trading at Fiduciary Management and Uniplan Advisors

Dr. Krause, Jimmy Werner and Ryan Rusch

Ryan Rusch and Jimmy Werner returned to Marquette’s campus today to present to the AIM students about their roles in equity operations and trading. Both work for area investment firms and they provided the students with useful information about the impact trading plays in determining total portfolio returns.

Ryan Rusch (Marquette AIM 2010) works for Fiduciary Management Inc. (FMI) in Portfolio Administration as a Trading Associate. He has five years of investment experience with FMI, which was founded in 1980 and is an employee owned independent money management firm based in Milwaukee. Ryan worked in 2010-11 for Cortina Asset Management.

FMI’s equity investing strategies apply a value discipline, with a focused approach firmly rooted in fundamental research. As of 9/30/2015, FMI manages approximately $21 billion in assets for domestic and international institutions, individual investors, and Registered Investment Advisors through separately managed accounts and the FMI Family of Funds.: 5 Years  –  Joined FMI: 2011

Jimmy Werner (Marquette AIM 2011) also visited the AIM program on Wednesday, October 14. He is the Manager of Trading and Operations for Uniplan Advisors. Since joining the Uniplan team in 2011, he is responsible for managing the trading department.

Uniplan was founded in 1984 and currently has three portfolio products: a REIT; a Micro-Cap; and a High Income Total Return fund.  Rick Imperiale serves as the Chief Investment Officer for all of Uniplan’s strategies. Rick relies on Jimmy Werner and his team of specialists at Uniplan to help with the day-to-day management of the strategies. Each strategy has at least one co-portfolio manager that works with research analysts, traders, and quantitative analysts. In total, there are 9 investment professionals at Uniplan with more than 200 years of total investment experience.

Hey Marquette AIM alumni - I know we can also do this someday

 

As the AIM program continues to turn out high-powered alumni in the investment and banking industries, maybe we'll have a story similar to the one below in the not too distant future.

 

 

Notre Dame Alumni Give $20 Million for Investment Institute

A New York City couple has donated $20 million to endow a center for investment and managing at the University of Notre Dame's Mendoza College of Business, the South Bend Tribune reports. James Parsons, a financier, and physician Carrie Quinn both graduated from the South Bend, Ind., campus in 1996.

The Notre Dame Institute for Global Investing aims to advance research on investment management, expand opportunities for business students, and facilitate partnerships among the Mendoza school, the Notre Dame investment office, and university alumni. Mr. Parsons is the founder of Junto Capital Management and Dr. Quinn is a private-practice pediatrician and a clinical professor at Mount Sinai Hospital.

Some links to free online financial market and investment-related magazines

Many of the students who recently applied to the AIM program asked about how they can access current financial industry news.

Here’s a list (with links) to some online investment industry magazines. I encourage students to stay connected and to follow financial markets closely. These publications offer free access to current finance and investment news:

• Kiplinger Online
• Barron’s Online
• Investor’s Business Daily
• Forbes Online
• Treasury & Risk

Marquette students can take the Bloomberg Aptitude Test on campus next Saturday

The Bloomberg Aptitude Test (BAT) is an aptitude test owned, published, and developed by Bloomberg Institute - an educational division of Bloomberg LP. It is used by employers in the business world to evaluate employment candidates. The exam tests individuals on their ability to think critically on financial topics and the results are used to measure their level of readiness for a career in business related fields. 

The exam is administered in 58 countries on university campuses and reaches out to employers on a global scale. It was first introduced as the Bloomberg Assessment Test, then changed into the Bloomberg Aptitude Test in 2013 as to reflect its ability in measuring innate financial potential and career skills rather than technical know-how and learned knowledge.

If anyone at Marquette University is interested in taking the Bloomberg Aptitude Test, there are four more spots open for the test session being held on Saturday, October 17th from 11-1 pm. If you are interested in a career in financial services you should consider taking this test, because it helps students measure their strengths, through the comprehensive score report, connect to employers, and lastly it is a strong resume builder for students if they score well. This test only costs two hours of a student’s time, as it is free to take the test on Marquette's campus and requires no preparation in advance.

Nick Christman is Marquette’s Bloomberg BAT rep. His contact information is nicholas.christman@marquette.edu, Please feel free to reach out to him if you have any questions. 

AIM Students Pitch Stocks at Timpani Capital Management on October 9th

On Friday, October 9th, students in the AIM Class of 2016 traveled to Timpani Capital Management to pitch stocks. The student equity write-ups can be found at:
http://tinyurl.com/3bl5v83.

Timpani Capital Management is an investment manager focused on small cap growth investing. Their senior management and investment professionals (including Brandon Nelson, Ryan Isherwood, and Mike Klenn) work as a team to identify investment prospects and manage client portfolios.

Brandon Nelson of Timpani Capital Management

Timpani Capital uses a consistent investment philosophy and process that has been used since the inception of the firm. They are an employee-owned, Milwaukee-based boutique that started with $1 million of assets under management on April 1, 2008, only a few months before a global economic meltdown, and today, manages over $300 million in assets.


The AIM program has made frequent 'road trips' to Timpani over the past seven years - and Brandon, Ryan and Mike visit the AIM students on campus annually. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel recently wrote a extensive article about Timpani at: http://tinyurl.com/pw6ecd3.

Rick Imperiale of Uniplan Investment Counsel was the guest speaker in the AIM program on October 7th

Rick Imperiale, Dylan Harkness and Dr. David Krause

 

Rick Imperiale, the President & Chief Investment Officer of Uniplan, visited the AIM classroom today and talked about his firm’s approach to micro-cap investing. He presented ideas for stock screening and approaching the process of conducting primary research on micro cap stocks.

 

He founded Uniplan in 1984 and has been the lead portfolio manager for the Uniplan REIT Strategy since its launch in 1988. He started investing in REITs in 1984 and with more than 30 years in financial services, Rick is one of the most experienced investors in alternative asset strategies. In 1999 he founded the Uniplan Micro Cap fund – which invests primarily in companies with market capitalizations under $500 million. It has a ‘value with catalyst’ focus concentrating on stocks with low relative P/E ratios; low relative price-to-free cash flows; and low leverage relative to peers.

 

After graduating from Marquette University, Rick got his start in financial services as a Credit Analyst at First Wisconsin Bank in 1980. The credit scoring models he built for evaluating companies still serve as the basis for some of the quantitative models Uniplan uses today. In 1982, Rick moved to Ziegler, an investment bank, where he served as a Corporate Analyst. Initially, his focus was on financial models that would help project how changes to specific variables would be likely to influence a company’s income statement and balance sheet.

 

Rick was asked to join a new project at the investment bank involving the creation and management of a hedged municipal bond fund. While he was managing the fund, Rick developed his formative ideas for measuring relative values of securities based on spreads. The REIT Strategy was the first of three alternative asset strategies that Rick has successfully managed at Uniplan. Over the course of his career, he has been a pioneer in the analysis of alternative asset classes and authored two books on the topic, including Real Estate Investment Trusts: New Strategies for Portfolio Management. He is also the author of Author of The Micro Cap Investor: Strategies for Making Big Returns in Small Companies. He leads a team of 9 investment professionals with more than 150 years of total investment experience.

Scott Roberts, President & CEO of Ziegler Capital Management, Presented in Dr. Krause's Fixed Income Class Today

Scott Roberts in Dr. Krause's Fixed Income Classroom

Marquette alumnus, Scott Roberts, serves as President & CEO of Ziegler Capital Management. On Monday, October 5, 2015, he again presented to the students in Dr. Krause's Fixed Income class.

The students appreciated Mr. Roberts 25+ years of investment experience. Prior to joining Ziegler, he was President and Chief Investment Officer of Deerfield Capital Management and was responsible for all investment management, marketing, and operational activities of the firm. Scott oversaw the growth of assets under management at Deerfield from less than $400 million in 2000 to over $15 billion at the end of 2007.

Prior to joining Deerfield Capital, he was the Chief Investment Officer at several Zurich Insurance Company subsidiaries including Scudder Kemper Investments, Zurich Investment Management and CentreRe. Prior to Zurich, Mr. Roberts was the Director of Fixed Income for Loomis Sayles in Milwaukee and a Senior Vice President and Portfolio Manager for Putnam Investments in Boston.

Scott Roberts

Scott is currently on the Board of Directors of Marquette University, Marquette University High School and Catholic Charities of Chicago. He has served on the Board of Directors of several of the firms with which he has worked, including Centre Cat, Centre Investment Services, Zurich Investment Management, Liberty Hampshire and Deerfield Capital. Mr. Roberts received an M.B.A. in Finance and Investments from the Applied Security Analysis Program at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, and a B.S. in Accounting and Finance from Marquette University.

Dr. Krause said, "It is always a pleasure to have Scott Roberts in the classroom. He is a rare breed - he is an outstanding investment manager and he is a talented businessperson. It is not common to find someone who knows as much as he does about the financial markets - as well as how to run a $10 billion business. He is a special Marquette University alumnus."

AIM Students Pitch Stocks Before 30 Investment Professionals at Wells Capital Management

John Grant, Mike Reardon, Dan Krakovec, Travis Mantel and Connor Muth

On Friday, October 2, five AIM students (in the picture above) presented their equity recommendations to the investment professionals at Wells Capital Management in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin. Following each presentation, the students faced challenging questions from the Wells Cap employees.

All of the AIM write-ups can be found at: http://business.marquette.edu/centers-and-programs/aimp-student-equity-write-ups.

AIM Equity Fund Performance as of September 30, 2015

The students in the AIM Class of 2016 have been managing the Small Cap Equity and the International Equity funds since April 1, 2015. Their performance (as well as the YTD and 1 year returns) are provided in the table below (click to enlarge the table).

The Small Cap fund experienced a challenging period during Q3; however, the active return remains positive over the AIM Class of 2016 holding period, YTD and over the past year. The International Equity fund has been challenged over the past year; however, the AIM Class of 2016 is hopeful they can make up the negative active return. The overweight on emerging market and the Canadian energy sector accounted for much of the weaker than benchmark returns.