Wells Capital Management was on Marquette's campus this week

Jillian Morrissey (Marquette 2013 AIM alumnus) is an equity analyst at Wells Capital Management in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin. She is a member of the PMV Equity Team covering restaurants, textiles, apparels & luxury goods and internet & catalog retail in the Consumer Discretionary, Food Products in Consumer Staples and Internet Software & Services in Information Technology. Jillian visited with Dr. Krause following interviews she conducted on campus.

Jillian Morrissey

Wells Capital Management is a multi-boutique asset management firm that provides funds and investment services to institutional clients. They seek to provide a diverse work environment with an emphasis on independent investment teams that are allowed to focus on generating alpha without the distractions of operating a business.

Ms. Morrissey and Dr. Krause had an opportunity to discuss the financial markets and her experiences at Wells. He commented that he has encouraged his students to interview for positions within Wells Capital because they have “an engaged work environment and have some of the smartest people in the world of investments and economic analysis.”

Bloomberg's Cody Clarkson addressed the FMA students

On Monday, September 28th, Cody Clarkson the Bloomberg representative for Wisconsin presented to the students in the Financial Management Association at Marquette University. In addition to overviewing the history and features of the Bloomberg system, he discussed internship and career entry level opportunities within the massive global financial firm - which is headquartered in New York City.

Cody also talked about Bloomberg Market Concepts (BMC), which is an 8 hour self-paced e-learning course that provides a visual introduction to the financial markets. BMC consists of 4 modules – Economics, Currencies, Fixed Income and Equities – woven together from Bloomberg data, news, analytics and television. The course is available either through the Bloomberg Institute website or on the Bloomberg Terminal at BMC.

The Bloomberg Aptitude Test (BAT) was also discussed. This is a global standardized online exam that assesses a student’s abilities as a critical thinker across a variety of competencies. It then enables test takers to showcase their strengths relative to thousands of other test takers to 25K+ recruiters at elite global investment and financial institutions. The BAT is offered to students from over 3,500 universities worldwide through physical, on-campus sessions or online sessions.

Dr. Charles L. Evans, President & CEO of Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago visited Marquette University today

Charles L. Evans is president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, one of 12 regional reserve banks across the country that composes our nation's central bank. In that capacity, he serves on the Federal Open Market Committee, the Federal Reserve System's monetary policymaking body. 

Dr. Evans during his speech, which was attended by over 300 faculty, students and alumni, indicated that he did not see a need for tightening (raising the Fed Funds rate) given the low level of expected inflation. While he continued to be optimistic about overall economic growth in the US, he did not see inflation as a significant future threat to the overall economy. During the Q&A he was consistent in his support of current Fed policy.

As head of the Chicago Fed, Evans oversees the work of about 1,400 employees who conduct economic research, supervise financial institutions, and provide payment services to commercial banks and the U.S. government. 

Previously, Evans was director of research and senior vice president, supervising the bank's research on monetary policy, banking, financial markets and regional economic conditions. He taught at the University of Chicago, University of Michigan and University of South Carolina and received a bachelor's degree in economics from the University of Virginia and a doctorate in economics from Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh.

5 Students Pitched Stocks on Friday before a group of over 80 students

On Friday, September 25, 2015, five Marquette University AIM students pitched stocks to a group of over 80 current and prospective AIM students in the Class of 2017. The session was so well attended that it needed to be held in Room 105 of the College of Business Administration.

To access these - all of the past AIM equity presentations - go to the AIM website at: http://business.marquette.edu/centers-and-programs/aimp-student-equity-write-ups

Starting in October, the Friday afternoon AIM presentations will be held on the road with the first set of AIM student pitches being held at Wells Capital Management. The next set of student equity presentations in the AIM Room will not be held until December 2015 .

Christi Kubiak and Kristin Holzhauer of Northwestern Mutual Investment Management visited Dr. Krause's class on Friday

On Friday, September 25, 2015, we had two guests visit campus from the investments function of the Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company. Christi Kubiak (CFA), Director, and Kristin Holzhauer (Marquette AIM 2011, CFA), Associate, in the Northwestern Mutual Investment Management Co. talked with students about fixed income investing. This marks the tenth year that personnel from Northwestern Mutual have visited Dr. Krause’s classes at Marquette University.

Formerly known as Mason Street Advisors, the Northwestern Mutual Investment Management team manages: Public Fixed Income, Public Equities, Convertibles and Derivatives for the NM’s General Account. Chrisit and Kristin work with public investments and their group manages portfolios with the goal of outperforming market benchmarks over a full market cycle and industry peers over the long-term. The team has over 50 investment professionals who manage more than $100 billion in assets with each portfolio guided by investment professionals who have specific, but linked, roles in distinguishing security opportunities.

Christi and Kristin talked with the students about their investment process and their approach to bottom’s up credit research. They employ a combination of approaches including: Relative Value, Fair Value, and Internal Ratings – to complement their strong Fundamental Credit Analysis. 

Chris Swain, Vice President of NM’s Public Investments, Fixed Income Group, is also a Marquette graduate and is the MBA instructor for Marquette’s fixed income course in the spring semesters. Amie Hahn and Quinn Noel, other Marquette alumni, were unable to participate this year; however, they have made frequent visits to Dr. Krause’s classes in past years. We appreciate all of the support of that Northwestern Mutual has provided Marquette and the AIM program over the past ten years.

Joe Frohna of 1492 Capital Management presented to the AIM students on Friday, September 25th

Joe Frohna, 1492 Capital Management’s founding principal and portfolio manager of the Growth Strategies and Core Alpha Strategy funds, was a guest speaker in the AIM program on Friday.

An experienced manager of public and private funds for institutional and individual investors since 1997; he has created a Milwaukee-based investment firm that focuses on finding small cap companies with superior growth characteristics. As he told the students, 1492 deploys a thematic approach in an attempt to leverage their fundamental research to identify key companies that will be participating in a particular high growth area of the economy.

Mr. Frohna also talked to the students about micro-cap equity investing.  He discussed his approach to screening and identifying attractive opportunities. In 1997 he became the portfolio manager of the nationally recognized First American Small Cap Growth Opportunities Fund (formerly the Firstar Small Cap Growth and Firstar Microcap Fund). His experiences and thoughts about how to evaluate stocks in the micro-cap space were appreciated by the AIM students.

Jim Kitzinger of KLCM visited the AIM class this week

On Wednesday, September 23^rd, Jim Kitzinger (CFA, CPA) visited the AIM class to talk about his firm’s investment strategy and process. He is a Principal and  Portfolio Manager at KLCM, an independent, registered investment advisory firm located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Mr. Kitzinger has over 30 years of investment experience.

He discussed KLCM’s equity investment philosophy and process by saying that they are bottom up stock pickers and focus on out of favor and neglected companies. They believe that cash flow is critical for shareholders and valuation – and to protect the downside. They seek firms that possess a catalyst to drive earnings and to realize value.

Consistent with the approach taken by students in the AIM program, KLCM’s process is driven by intensive research; an understanding of company and industry drivers; clear and achievable management objectives; and seek favorable risk/reward supported by valuation disciplines. They run concentrated portfolios of 25 to 30 stocks and will add to and trim positions to take advantage of market volatility and to manage risk.

The students asked questions and had an opportunity to talk with Mr. Kitzinger in more detail after class. We appreciate the efforts of local portfolio managers to visit our classroom – these meetings keep the ‘applied’ in the AIM program.

AIM Equity Presentations on Friday, September 18th Available on AIM Website

Last Friday (9/18/15) in the AIM Room there were five equity presentations:

 

 

To access these - all of the past AIM equity presentations - go to the AIM website at: http://business.marquette.edu/centers-and-programs/aimp-student-equity-write-ups

The session was well attended by AIM students and Marquette faculty. Starting in October the AIM students will be going on the road to pitch stocks at area investment firms.