Tag Archives: CFA Charter

A Letter from Our President

· · Leave a comment
Chris May, CFA

Thank you, is all I can say. As we close out the 2020 fiscal year (Sept 1 – Aug 31), I do not need to rehash all of what has transpired over the past 12 months (and continues to plague us daily). However, I do need to say thank you to so many people. While most of you do not think about CFA Society Minnesota (CFAMN) on a daily basis, or even a weekly basis, the staff and volunteers at CFAMN do and continue to make this organization thrive. Like most organizations, we had to unexpectedly shift the way we operate in March 2020. While we are still working on the best way to deliver content and meaningful connections, we have made some serious progress in these endeavors.

Recently, Intellisight was switched to an entirely virtual conference, on top of transitioning to a new platform vendor. At the beginning of the shutdown, the annual Putting Investors First event was both moved to a virtual format and the discussion was changed to reflect what was happening in the world.  We also had near-record attendance at the socially distanced golf outing. The staff worked hard to deliver these events, and many others, while battling the Zoom fatigue that we all have come to know so well.

I’d like to thank several individuals and groups, beginning with the staff:

Mark Salter – joined as our Executive Director in 2012 and has led the CFAMN team successfully since. We are lucky to have him guiding the organization while remaining calm and positive despite the challenges faced.

Diane Senjem – As she entered her ninth month of pregnancy, she was still hard at work preparing events and leading volunteer committees. Her ability to work ahead, gave everyone some breathing room when she went on maternity leave in April. She is now back, and we are grateful for that!

Megan Millett – The newest member of the team and likely the least well known as a result. Megan joined in a part-time capacity in 2019 and then stepped up in a big way (Intellisight 2020) as she moved to full-time earlier this year. She has delivered under pressure with grace and humor despite being the new kid on the block.

Additionally, I’d like to thank all of our volunteers. Whether you have helped at an event, contributed to the blog, served on a committee, or on the board, your contributions are critical to our success. While I won’t name all those that have contributed meaningfully, I did want to thank two individuals.

Sam Somuri, CFA, CFP, CAIA and Mark Traster, CFA both completed their terms as board members after serving eight and seven years, respectively. Thinking back to where our organization was at the time when they joined, we have made incredible strides and they were significant contributors to that success. Thank you both – although neither of you are off the hook yet entirely J

Another component of our success is the support that we receive from our sponsors. While this may not have been the year that any of us were expecting, we appreciate that you have stuck it out with us while we are doing our best to continue to deliver a positive experience for our members. Without you, we would have to cut back on many of the things that our members enjoy most. Thank you for your partnership.

To conclude, I want to thank our members. This has been a wild year and we appreciate the incredible patience that we have received from you all. We know that in many ways we weren’t able to deliver some of what you expected from us this year. We continue to try out ways to provide engaging content and offer opportunities to develop meaningful peer relationships. The latter has been particularly tricky thus far. However, on a positive note there has been a significant acceleration of our plans to offer more digital content (a special thanks to CFA Institute for providing us access to Zoom). This was the swift kick that we needed to get over a few hurdles. Thank you for bearing with us while we continue to refine this. Check out our archived webinars here.

In a year when everyday things were so hard, it feels good to think back on the positive aspects and to fully appreciate them. Be sure to check out our 2019 Annual Report to catch up on other activities. In a world of polarization and division, inclusiveness and gratitude are in short supply. Please join me in spreading the latter by thanking someone mentioned above.

Again, thank you all. We are looking forward to an even better year ahead.

Sincerely,

Chris May, CFA
Society President

PS – If you have not yet completed our short membership survey, please do. I get it, no one loves filling out surveys, but it helps inform our plans and we would greatly appreciate your feedback. Thanks!

A Letter from Our President

· · Leave a comment

The eve of a New Year is a great time to spend with family and reflect. It is also that time of year when my wife asks about my 2020 resolutions. But, instead of making a list of future broken promises, I would rather reflect on the year gone by. When it comes to CFA Society Minnesota, I often reflect on the same question: what is the value of CFAMN to me?

If you don’t know me, you may picture the CFA Society President as a very buttoned-up, 100% professional Kool-Aid drinker who is completely sold on everything we do related to CFAMN. If you do know me, you probably laughed at that image, and instead know that I am a fellow, engaged Society member just like each of you, who has happened to get more and more involved with the organization over the years. So even as president, I need to be able to answer that CFAMN is and continues to be valuable to me (of course, if I find the answer is less-than-ideal, I am in a particularly good position to help do something about it). 

There are three main things that I get out of my membership. 

  1. Education – I had no accounting classes when I sat for the CFA exams. It was in large part CFAMN prep programs that got me through the exams. Since that time, I have attended many events and learned a ton. This year alone I improved my personal organizational habits (Managing Me event) and got a jump start on my goal to learn programming (Python event). However, education is not just the education from any single event, but also what I have learned from the people I have met since I attended my first CFAMN social at Lyon’s Pub more than ten years ago. 
  2. Volunteering/Board Service – I have greatly enjoyed the time that I have spent as a volunteer for the Society and have found that the value I get from CFAMN has grown exponentially as I have become more involved. Whether it was helping set up at an Annual Dinner, developing the mentorship program, or helping to set the strategy for the organization, I love doing my small part to help advance our mission and get the opportunity to work with so many others who are doing the same thing. 
  3. Flexibility to shape the organization as a member – Volunteers do a tremendous amount to shape the society into an organization to which we can be proud to belong; Society members have the ability to have significant influence well. Members often introduce us to interesting speakers and are active in providing thoughts about what is or is not beneficial to them. Without that valuable feedback, volunteers could not be nearly as responsive or effective in shaping the organization into a truly meaningful society.  

However, the true value of CFAMN membership for me, and many others, is often less tangible – relationships. Not networking. Real relationship-building and CFAMN provides a forum for this to occur. The Society is comprised of a wide range of people, but we are connected in a way that many groups are not. Where else can you interact with a group of people that really get you in a way that most friends or neighbors cannot?
There is something that unites us, as a group of people that have faced the same challenges in preparing for and taking the exams and ultimately earning our CFA Charter designations. I imagine it is much the same way that a group of actuaries would feel, if actuaries had feelings. Kidding. I know an actuary and he is awesome. CFAMN acts as the clearinghouse, not for transactions, but for discussions – a place where relationships can begin. 

In the future I’d like to share more about how others have benefited from the people they have met through CFAMN. For today, I’ll share a story from a friend. 

“I met a person 4 years ago at a CFAMN event. Afterward, I sent them a short note and asked them a somewhat inconsequential question. They responded with a two-page email going into great detail to answer my question… Not only was I touched by the amount of care the person took to be helpful, I still have that e-mail, I still reference it. This person has had a material impact on my life because of one small thing they did.” Regarding the value of his membership he continued, “This may not do anything for most people, but I’m sure for most involved members, they have their own version of this story.”

If you have a story like this, or anything else that you would like to share about your experience as a society member, please let us know. Also, I will reiterate the call out from my last letter – please reach out if you are interested in meeting with me, or if you prefer, introduce yourself at an event. As an introvert, I am not always the best at going out of my way to meet new folks, but I would really like to meet you. Please feel free to say hello. Or maybe meeting new people should be my 2020 resolution?

All the best to you and Happy New Year!

Chris May, CFA
President, CFA Society Minnesota

November Executive Director Message – What’s Your Opinion?

· · Leave a comment

If you read last week’s newsletter, you know that CFA Institute has been working with Societies over the past year to develop a career-focused competency framework designed to guide members in acquiring necessary skills throughout their careers. The new framework generated quite a bit of buzz when was released last month at regional Society Leadership Conferences.

The Institute is actively seeking input about the new competency framework from you and your fellow industry professionals. To shed more light on what this all means, we interviewed Josh Howard, CFA, who served as CFAMN’s President in 2015-2017 and who was elected earlier this year to serve as the President’s Council Representative for our 12 Midwestern CFA Societies. Josh also is a member of the CPD (Continuing Professional Development) Design Council, the joint Society-Institute working group helping to create the new framework.

Mark Salter, CAE, ABC
Executive Director

Q. There was a lot of excitement in the room when CFA Institute unveiled the new competency framework for professional learning at last month’s Society Leadership Conference. Why the excitement? Why is this important?

Josh: The competency framework was designed to provide direction to members seeking to maintain competence in a current role or transition to a new role, and to provide an organizing framework for the Institute and Societies to offer relevant content to members. It includes soft skills, technical skills and ethics, which are mapped to specific job roles. The competency framework is the first step in developing a robust professional learning experience, and it will guide the development of the professional learning platform and content.

Many Society leaders were excited about the competency framework after the unveiling because they recognized it can help Societies organize their educational events and better track topic areas they are missing or could emphasize more. It will be useful in mentoring programs, job seeker seminars and event planning, and hopefully will add to member retention at the Society level.

The competency framework has been released to all members, and the CFA Institute is looking for feedback. To learn more about the competency framework and to provide feedback, please visit this link.

Q. Some people believe that CPD (aka Professional Learning) should never be mandatory – that it should be left up to the individual practitioner. What are the pros and cons of this position?

Josh: The main retort I hear to making professional learning mandatory is that members already do it, and a concern that the requirements and content won’t align with the education we need to stay relevant, which will turn a professional learning program into a time-wasting, box-checking exercise.

The argument for a mandatory professional learning program is that having it will demonstrate to clients, prospects, employers and regulators that CFA charterholders are part of a professional body that has ongoing learning requirements throughout their career. Having a requirement to engage in professional learning throughout a career will align CFA charterholders with most other professional designations and will help our global members meet their regulatory learning requirements. I have even heard stories from other countries that the lack of a mandatory professional learning program means CFA charterholders in those countries are not exempt from certain regulatory requirements, whereas members of other professional organizations with mandatory professional learning are granted an exemption.

Q. Why did you volunteer to work on the CPD (Continuing Professional Development) Design Council? What did you hope to contribute or accomplish?

Josh: I volunteered because I care about adult learning. I have a Master’s degree in Education and throughout my career I have been interested in how adults learn. I wanted to help ensure that the professional learning product from the CFA Institute was designed with adult learners in mind, offering relevant content where, when and how an adult learner wanted to access it. I am just completing my first year on the design council and have had a great experience working with other Society leaders and Institute employees who care passionately about designing a great professional learning experience that adds member value, regardless of when and if it becomes mandatory.

University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire Financial Management Association Visit

· · Leave a comment

Written by Members of the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire Financial Management Association 

The University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire Financial Management Association (FMA) takes time out of their regular class schedule to go on an annual trip to visit finance professionals in the Twin Cities. This trip gives FMA members an opportunity to see a wide variety of careers within the finance industry. This year FMA partnered with CFA Society Minnesota (CFAMN) to line-up firms for the students to visit in Minneapolis and St. Paul. CFAMN put together an outstanding day filled with real-life experiences. Students attended five incredible presentations from: Wells Fargo/Wells Capital Management, Nuveen Asset Management, Royal Bank of Canada, Mairs & Power and Northwest Area Foundation. We can’t thank CFAMN enough for giving our members this experience!

Nuveen Asset Management brought the group up to their executive conference room. Below is a list of the professionals FMA had the opportunity to learn from:

Andrew Rem, CFA – Vice President, Portfolio Manager, Senior Research Analyst
Sarah Wade – Senior Vice President, Co-Portfolio Manager
Laura Starr, CFA – Senior Vice President, Senior Research Analyst
Derek Sadowsky, CFA – Vice President, Portfolio Manager
Julie Lenarz – Assistant Vice President, Operational Manager, NAM Legal and Risk
Benjamin Duininck, CFA – Vice President, Senior Research Analyst

Hearing from each one of these individuals provided our group with key insights not readily available within the classroom setting. Some of these insights included:

  • How a research analyst’s day is never the same. Some days you are diving into spreadsheets and creating models or other days you are flying around the country visiting corporate executives.
  • The role of psychology in finance and understanding the emotions of the market.
  • The retail industry and how to think about companies when researching them.
  • The importance of tools such as FactSet and Bloomberg and selling within this industry.
  • How risk management and compliance are crucial in daily activities of the industry.
  • How much larger the fixed income market is than the public equity market, which was a shock to a lot of people.

We were able to hear from professionals that are in positions we hope to be in someday. It was exciting to hear about how their day-to-day activities correlate with topics we are learning in school and gave our group a lot to look forward to!

At the Royal Bank of Canada, we had a phenomenal opportunity to have breakout sessions and discussions with different parts of the firm. We heard from these professionals:

Marcia Morgan – Vice President, Business Technology
Christy Bipes – Senior Manager, Marketing and Communications
Josh Schettle, CFA – Sr. Investment Risk Analyst
Carol Kuha, CFA – Chief Operating Officer
Tiffany Mlsna – Analyst, Portfolio Administration
Kelly Foley – Junior Credit Analyst
Mindy Frye – Associate Portfolio Manager – Impact Investing
Nick Walstrom – Director, Product Management
Craig Bishop – Vice President, Lead Strategist U.S. Fixed Income Strategies Group
Sam Renikoff – Fixed Income Portfolio Associate
Bob Dickey – Technical Analyst
Peter Kolar, CFA – Wealth Management Consultant

The breakout sessions were an extremely valuable opportunity with departments including business technology services, portfolio management, fixed income, investment risk and performance department. During this session, we broke into small groups of four to six, and had the opportunity to meet with multiple professionals from these departments for 10 minutes. Many people enjoyed the opportunity, mainly because we had the chance to get to personally know everyone in each of the departments, walk through their day-to-day lives and ask them questions. They provided career advice, what RBC has to offer and possible careers with the firm.

The next session we had was a discussion with the wealth management group. We talked with a technical analyst, a research analyst and a financial advisor consultant. Many students took advantage of the opportunity as a way to see aspects of research and advising, which  led to a very positive, interactive and educational session. We talked about aspects such as understanding risk, what technical analysis is and what it is like to be an advisor. Overall, the students really enjoyed the opportunity to go to RBC. The firm was very engaging and interesting, and we would thoroughly enjoy visiting them again.

Our speakers at Wells Fargo/Wells Capital Management gave us an overview of several different jobs within the company.

Matt Grimes, CFA – Managing Director
Jeanine Sundt – Investor Relations Manager
Jake Seltz, CFA – Portfolio Manager, LT Large Cap Growth Equity
Kashi Yoshikawa, CFA – Senior VP, Regional Investment Manager

They talked about the company’s mission, principles, and goals for their clients. We learned about short duration fixed income, investor relations, large cap growth equities, building portfolios for clients, and maintaining client relationships. They also provided us information on the CFA Charter and the importance of having that designation in the industry.

Mairs & Power provided a unique opportunity to see a firm that doesn’t operate as the traditional investment firm. Seeing the unique hands-on and interactive investment strategy that they have incorporated for the past several decades offered insight that many students would not have had the opportunity to ever experience if it was not for the visit. This opportunity showed us that there are creative ways to create profitable investments year over year, and I know many of the members of our organization walked out with a more creative insight on investing. At Mairs & Power, we had the opportunity to meet with:

Ron Kaliebe, CFA, CIC – Senior Vice President and Director of Fixed Income
Allen Steinkopf, CFA – Co-Manager of the Mairs & Power Small Cap Fund
Kelly Trevenna – Equity Trader/Assistant Portfolio Manager
Heidi Lynch – Fixed Income Trader

Each member walked us through what they do daily and provided insight into the firm. The Q & A session was filled with great questions that provided a lot of knowledge to all our members. We are thankful for the opportunity to experience such an amazing company such as Mairs & Power.

At Northwest Area Foundation, we learned about what an investment director does on a day-to-day basis. Our speaker, Amy Jensen, CFA – Investment Director, is responsible for investing the foundation’s assets to make sure they can provide grant-making in the future. We also talked about the importance of behavioral finance and how to build an institutional investment portfolio. After the presentation, we were able to compare two potential investments and decided which one would be better for the company. Amy also touched on what the CFA Charter has done for her and what it is like to be a woman in the finance industry.

Changing Perceptions Interview with Diana Schutter, CFA – Retired

· · Leave a comment

Tell me a little about yourself.

After graduating from high school, I enrolled in a State college with a plan of studying music and theater. The following year, my education took a different course when I accepted an entry level position in the investment department at a public pension fund. I needed full time employment and this position offered tuition reimbursement for college courses in business and accounting. At the time, I didn’t know anything about investments and was uncertain if this was the right decision, but my boss was very encouraging and told me a business education could be very rewarding. Over the next eight years I attended the evening program at the Carlson School of Management, earning undergraduate and graduate degrees from Carlson School of Management. During that period I was promoted to assistant investment manager and that set the stage for what turned out to be a successful, forty-year career in investment management and investment consulting.

What sparked your interest in the investment industry and CFA Program?

I earned the CFA Charter in 1994. At that time I was the in-house investment manager for a legal publishing company, where I also held positions as Chair of the Investment Advisory Committee and Trustee for the company’s defined benefit plan. I was responsible for how the employee benefit funds and corporate assets were invested. Later, the company was bought out and my job was eliminated. A woman that I knew had just been recruited to develop and lead the investment advisory practice in an accounting firm. She asked if I would join her practice because some of the executives at my former company were interested in having an independent advisor. That’s how my career changed from investment management to investment consulting.

What was your experience with the CFA Charter?

I was previously a member of the of the Twin Cities Society of Financial Analysts and there were no requirements as long as you worked in the industry. Later, new members were required to pass the CFA Level 1 Exam. When I went into consulting and had to build a business, the CFA was very beneficial. At the time our consulting firm was started in the late 90’s, most institutional investors did not know what the CFA Charter was. However, following the tech bust when there was a big fallout in the capital markets, the CFA gained more recognition among institutional investors and became more respected and then again after the 2009 financial crisis. Therefore, in the field of investment consulting, the CFA credential was very beneficial to my career success.

Did you have a mentor or champion who was instrumental in your career?

The person who hired me for my first job. He was very encouraging and showed me that you can’t have a closed mind when thinking about potential career changes. He opened my eyes to numerous opportunities.  In my experience, his encouragement and willingness to hire and promote a female in the mid-1970’s was unusual.

What professional opportunities and challenges have you experienced?

My biggest challenge was that the ethics in this business is on average not good. With 23 years of experience where my role was to invest funds of the employer, I wasn’t trying to sell my services to clients and everything I did, I thought was the very best for my employer. When you are in the advisory business, there are so many things that constrain what you can offer a client for advice. Whether it is technology and resources you have, or that you decided to affiliate with another party, it influences your advice and you may not always be giving the best solution. That was the hardest thing for me. For my new business, I had three partners and we wanted to go into consulting in our own firm so that we wouldn’t be confined to that culture where it wasn’t always in the client’s best interests. Our dedication to that cause hurt us in terms of how much we could grow, but we did well enough.

What is your experience with starting your own business?

Our consulting firm was founded as part of a “spin out” of twelve clients from the accounting firm where my business partner and I worked to develop an investment advisory practice for two years. In 1998 our firm was started with two principals (including myself) and one associate. We invested $60,000 of our own money for working capital. Over the next 14 years our firm grew to 9 employees and 55 clients with aggregate assets of 3 billion.

What is the biggest risk you’ve taken in your career?

The biggest risk was starting my own firm and each year thereafter the potential risks increased as new clients were added, new employees hired and assets under advisement grew larger. As a registered investment advisory firm we were cast in a fiduciary position with respect to investment advice, which increases the costs for insurance protection.

What got you here; how have you been successful in investment management?

As explained earlier, I believe the combination of my work experience with internal funds management and education were contributing factors. The reason my second employer (where I worked for 12 years) hired me was my experience in internal-funds management. Today, most investment consultants who advise institutional investors don’t have that hands-on experience of performing securities analysis or initiating trades. Those work opportunities I think made me a better consultant.

18% of CFA Institute’s members are female, and 14% of CFA Society Minnesota members are female. Do you have any thoughts on why more women aren’t pursuing a career in investment management?

The numbers have changed, it’s surprising that the number entering the field is not proportional to the number rising through the positions and responsibilities. A career in the investment industry is taxing especially if you are a woman with a family and have other obligations. Some companies are trying to change their culture to allow for the flexibility needed for us to be able to succeed. There is also a huge amount of sexism, but CFA Institute and companies are working to improve that.

Do you have any advice for young professionals interested in a career similar to yours?

If you’re looking at positions within the investment management field, some of the larger foundations that have a staff managing their investments is a good place to start because then you are truly investing for the specific objectives of that client and not influenced like you would be if you are investing and representing a management firm. You can start in larger foundations to get a good understanding and background then branch out.

 

Student Interviewer

Lise Arakaza is an international student from Rwanda in her final year at Gustavus Adolphus College. She’s a Financial Economics major and Gender Women Studies minor with hopes of working in banking or an investment advisory firm.